Marafi Behbahani (Arabic: معرفي بهبهاني | Persian: معرفى بهبهانى), also written as Ma'arafi, Marafie, or Ma'arafie. He was Mohammad-Rafie (Marafie) Mohammad-Zaman Behbahani, the founder of the currently known Marafi/Marafie Family of Kuwait. He was born in the Iranian city of Behbahan . He migrated from Behbahan to Kuwait due to many reasons; the one reason that many agreed on is he migrated due to trading.[1] It is widely believed that he was one of the first Iranian Kuwaitis to arrive to the current Kuwait.
He and his sons were traders who have imported the first telephone, first refrigerator, and many household items into Kuwait. This is because, back then they owned one of the largest trading fleets of dhows (Wooden Ships) in the region.
The name, Marafi, was derived from a combination of two names, Mohammad (Arabic: محمد) and Rafie (Arabic: رفيع). Since the combined-name is widely used in Persia(Iran), when pronouncing the two names so quickly together, one would unintentionally pronounce the name as "Ma-Rafie"; this is due to the effect of the Iranian accent and dialect over the name.[2]