Iranian Arabs
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 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (April 2007) |
| Total population |
|---|
| 1,976,256 approximatley 2.5 percent of the Iranian population |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Khuzestan Province |
| Languages |
| Religion |
|
Mostly Shia Islam, with a minority of Sunni Islam |
| Related ethnic groups |
Iranian Arabs (Persian: عربان ايرانی) 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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[edit] Overview
The CIA World Factbook estimates that approximately 3% of Iran's 65,875,224 citizens are Arabic-speakers, of whom the majority live in Khuzestan, with 3% speaking Arabic as their native or primary language.[1]
A 1998 report by UNCHR reported half a million Arabs residing in Khuzestan Province, most of whom are Shi'a. Sunni Muslim Arabs live along the Persian Gulf coastline. [2]
According to Jane's Information Group, "Most Iranian Arabs seek their constitutionally guaranteed rights and do not have a separatist agenda ... While it may be true that some Arab activists are separatists, most see themselves as Iranians first and declare their commitment to the state's territorial integrity." [3]
The first Arabs in Iran came in the Islamic conquest of Persia in 633, and many of them settled Persia in 656.
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. [2]
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]
[edit] History
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 [5]
[edit] Regional groups
[edit] Khuzestan
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 has significant Persian influence and may be harder to understood by other Arabic-speakers. [6]
Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, which differ to a degree from 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
[edit] Hormozgan
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 most fishermans from neighboring Oman, but still the Arabs of the province are estimated to be 4 - 8 % of the population of Hormozgan.
[edit] Bushehr
In Bushehr Province, there are about 20,000 Arabs that immigrated to Iran because of the unpleasant environment of Saudi Arabia. Many of them arrived in Bushehr Province in 1946. The majority of these Arabs live in Kangan and Bandar-i Tahiri.
[edit] Fars
Khamseh nomads live in eastern Fars Province.
[edit] Khorasan
Most Khorasani-Arabs belong to the tribes of Sheybani, Zangooyi, Mishmast, Khozaima and Azdi. Khorasani-Arabs are Persian speakers and only a few speak Arabic as their mother tongue.
[edit] Semnan
The Arabic language clans in Semnan Arabi and Garmsar: Arab Sarhangi , Arab Derazi , Arab Ameri , Kati and Arab Masomi .
[edit] Demographics
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" (pg. 14). The Historical Dictionary of Iran puts the number at 1 million. (J. Lorentz, 1995, p172)
According to the Encyclopedia 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." [1]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Khuzestan: The First Front in the War on Iran? by Zoltan Grossman
- Iran's Challenges from Within: An Overview of Ethno-Sectarian Unrest by Chris Zambelis
[edit] References
- ^ CIA World Factbook
- ^ a b Iran Overview from British Home Office
- ^ Anger among Iran's Arabs
- ^ رادیو زمانه | خبر اول | ایران | عربی دومین زبان دانشگاه پیام نور شد
- ^ FRYE, Richard Nelson (May 2, 2006). "PEOPLES OF IRAN". Encyclopaedia Iranica. http://www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc?Article=http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v13f3/v13f3004a.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-14.
- ^ Mesopotamian dialects
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