| Notable Iranian Arabs:Jābir ibn Hayyān • Abu Nuwas • Musa Sadr • Asadollah Alam • Mohammad Khazaee • Ali Akbar Salehi • Shahriar Shafiq • Mohsen Araki • |
| Total population |
|---|
| 1,557,000[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Fars, Semnan, Khorasan |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
|
Iraqis · Bahranis · Lebanese · Syrians · Mandaeans · Lurs · Bakhtiaris · Qashqais · Persians, other Iranians |
Iranian Arabs (Arabic: عرب إيران `Arab Īrān, Persian: عربان ايرانی Arabān Irānī) are the Arabic-speaking peoples of Iran. Most Iranian Arabs live in the coastal regions of southern Iran by the Persian Gulf. Iranian Arab communities are also found in Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
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The Arab presence in Iran did not begin with the Islamic conquest of Persia in 633 AD. For centuries, Iranian rulers had maintained contacts with Arabs outside their borders, dealt with Arab subjects and client states in Iraq, and settled Arab tribesmen in various parts of the Iranian plateau. It follows that the "Arab" conquests and settlements were by no means the exclusive work of Arabs from the Hejaz and the tribesmen of inner Arabia. The Arab infiltration into Iran began before the Muslim conquests and continued as a result of the joint exertions of the civilized Arabs (ahl al-madar) as well is the desert Arabs (ahl al-wabar).[2]
According to the Minorities at Risk Project 2001, about 40 per cent of Arabs are unskilled workers living in urban areas. The Arabs in the rural areas are primarily farmers and fishermen. The Arabs living along the Persian Gulf coastal plains are mostly pastoral nomads. Tribal loyalties are strong among rural Arabs, but also have an influence in urban areas. These have an impact on Arab socialisation and politicisation.[3]
Payame Noor University, which has 229 campuses throughout the country, in 2008 declared that Arabic will be the "second language" of the university, and that all its services will be offered in Arabic, concurrent with Persian.[4]
Shapur II the Great (309-79 A.D.), after a punitive expedition across the Persian Gulf early in his reign, transplanted several clans of the Taghleb to Dārzīn (Daharzīn) near Bam, several clans of the Abd al-Qays and Tamīm to Haǰar (the Kūh-e Hazār region) southeast of Kermān, several clans of the Bakr ben Wāʾel to Kermān, and several clans of the Hanzala to Tavvaz, near present-day Dālakī in Fārs.[5]
Although after the Arab invasion of Persia in the 7th century, many Arab tribes settled in different parts of Iran, it is the Arab tribes of Khuzestan that have retained their identity in language, culture, and Shia Islam to the present day. But ethno-linguistic characteristics of the region must be studied against the long and turbulent history of the province, with its own local language khuzi, which may have been of Elamite origin and which gradually disappeared in the early medieval period. The immigration of Arab tribes from outside the province was also a long-term process. There was a great influx of Arab-speaking immigrants into the province from the 16th to the 19th century, including the migration of the Banu Kaab and Banu Lam. There were attempts in vain by the Iraqi regime during the Iran-Iraq war (1980–88) to generate Arab nationalism in the area but without any palpable success[6]
Most Iranian Arabs in Khūzestān Province are bilingual, speaking Arabic as their mother tongue, and Persian as a second language. The variety of Arabic spoken in the province is Khuzestani Arabic, which is a Mesopotamian dialect shared by Arabs across the border in Iraq. It may be easy to understand by other Arabic-speakers.
Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, which differ to a degree from the Khuzestani Arabic dialect, are taught across Iran to students in secondary schools, regardless of their ethnic or linguistic background. In fact the constitution of the Islamic republic requires this particular subject to be taught after primary school.
They are majority Shi'a, with Sunni minority and small numbers of Christians and Jews.
See also: Khūzestān Province, History of Khūzestān Province, and Politics of Khūzestān Province
In Hormozgan Province the Iranian Arab population speak various local dialects of Gulf Arabic that like the Mesopotamian dialects has significant Persian influence. The Arabs in the province are mostly Sunni Muslims.
In Bushehr Province, there are about 20,000 Arabs that immigrated to Iran because of the persecution against Shiite Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Many of them arrived in Bushehr Province in 1946. The majority of these Arabs live in Kangan and Bandar-i Tahiri.
Khamseh nomads live in eastern Fars Province.
Most Khorasani-Arabs belong to the tribes of Sheybani, Zangooyi, Mishmast, Khozaima and Azdi. Khorasan Arabs are Persian speakers and only a few speak Arabic as their mother tongue. Khorasani-Arabs in the cities Birjand, Mashhad and Nishapur are a big ethnic group.[7]
The Arabic language clans in Semnan Arabi and Garmsar: Arab Sarhangi , Arab Derazi , Arab Ameri , Kati and Arab Masomi.
Elton Daniel in The History of Iran (Greenwood Press, 2001), states that the Arabs of Iran "are concentrated in the province of Khuzistan and number about half a million".[8] The Historical Dictionary of Iran puts the number at 1 million.[9]
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "More than half the population are Arabs who live in the plains; the rest are Bakhtyaris and other Lurs (peoples of West Persia), with many Persians in the cities. Some of the Bakhtyaris and Lurs are still nomads."[10]
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