Iranian Arabs
Iranian Arabs are the citizens of Iran who are ethnically Arab. In 2008, their population stood at about 1.6 million people. They are primarily concentrated in the Khuzestan province.
Overview
The presence of Arabs in Iran dates back to the 7th-8th centuries AD, where under the Sasanian Empire, Mesopotamian Arabs were an important segment of the empire's population along and west of the lower Euphrates river in southern Iraq and between the Tigris and Euphrates in northern Iraq. This stretch included Arvand Rud, which meets at the current Iran–Iraq border, down to its mouth, where it discharges into the Persian Gulf. The Arabs of the Sasanian empire included nomads, semi-nomads, peasants, and townsmen. Some Arabs followed polytheistic religions, and a few adopted Judaism, but most appear to be Christians.The historian and Iranologist Elton L. Daniel explains that for centuries, Iranian rulers maintained contacts with Arabs outside their borders, dealt with Arab subjects and client states such as those of the Lakhmids and Himyarites, and settled Arab tribesmen in various parts of the Iranian Plateau. The Arab expedition to Iran began before the Muslim conquests and continued with joint exertions of the civilized Arabs and desert Arabs.
According to the Minorities at Risk Project 2001, about 40 percent 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 influence urban areas, impacting Arab socialization and politicization.
Multiple human rights groups, including Minority Rights Group International and Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, have listed the population of Arab citizens in Khuzestan between 4-7 million.
History
of the Sasanian Empire, after a punitive expedition across the Persian Gulf early in his reign, transplanted several clans of the Taghleb to Dārzīn near Bam, several clans of the Abd al-Qays and Tamīm to Haǰar 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.Although after the Arab conquest of the Sasanian Persian empire 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 by the Iraqi Hussein regime during the Iran–Iraq War to generate Arab nationalism in the area, but without any palpable success.
Genetics
According to various genetic studies, Iranian Arabs are genetically similar to other Iranian citizens and their genetic affinity "might be the result of their common ancestry". Hajjej et al. found that Khuzestani Arabs have close relatedness with Gabesians. Haplogroup J1-M267 reaches 33.4% in samples from Khuzestan, slightly higher than in other parts of Iran. It also reaches a frequency of 31.6% in Khuzestani Arabs. Sampling NRY diversity, it was determined that the Y-DNA haplogroups F and J2 such as haplogroup J1 are carried at high frequency among the Iranian Arabs, accounting for more than half of Iranian Arab haplogroups. The high ratio of haplogroup F genetically relates Iranian Arabs to Eastern Mediterraneans and the people of the Barbary Coast. An elevated frequency of haplogroup J-M172 is typical of Near Eastern people and reflective of the genetic legacy of early agriculturalists in the Neolithic Near East c. 8000–4000 BCE. Haplogroup R1a1, and R1, typical of Indo-Iranian groups, occurred in more than 11 percent of the sample and haplogroup G was present in more than 5 percent.Regional groups
Khuzestan
Most Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan province are bilingual speakers of Arabic and Persian. The Arabic spoken in the province is Khuzestani Arabic, a mixture of Gulf Arabic and South Mesopotamian Arabic.Hamid Ahmadi noted that the Arabs of Khuzestan province are direct descendants of the ancient population of the area, having adopted the Arabic language and identity with the spread of Islam. However, there are numerous immigrant Arab tribes of Khuzestan with origins from the Arabian Peninsula, such as the Banu Ka'b at Dawraq, the later Fallāhīya and present-day Shadegan, the Musha'sha' at Hoveyzeh, Banu Tamim, and more from southern Iraq.
The Bani Turuf tribe is settled in the Dasht e Azadegan around the town of Hūzagān. It consists of seven tribes: the Sovārī, Mazraā, Shorfa, Banī Sāleh, Marvān, Qāṭeʿ, and Sayyed Nemat. North of the lands of the ʿAnāfeja of the Āl Katīr, in the area called Mīānāb, between the Kārūn and Karkheh Rivers, dwell several Arab tribes, of which the best known are the Kaab, the ʿAbd al khānī, the Mazraa, the Al Bū Rāwīya, and the Sādāt. These tribes gradually immigrated into Iran during and after the early years of the Qajar period.