Iranian Arabs refers to the citizens or residents of Iran who are ethnically of Arab descent., Iranian Arabs form around 2% of Iran's population who are roughly 1.6 million people; and mostly are in Khuzestan province.
Overview
The Arab presence in Iran did not begin with the Arab conquest of Persia. For centuries, Iranian rulers had maintained contacts with Arabs outside their borders, dealt with Arab subjects and client states, 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 expedition to Iran began before the Muslim conquests and continued as a result of the joint exertions of the civilized Arabs as well as the desert Arabs. According to the Minorities at Risk Project 2001, about 40% 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 affect Arab socialisation and politicisation. 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.
History
of the Sassanid 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 Sassanid 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 languagekhuzi, 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 regime during the Iran–Iraq War to generate Arab nationalism in the area but without any palpable success.
Genetics
Sampling NRY diversity, it was found that the Y-DNAhaplogroups F and J2 are carried at very high frequency among the Iranian Arabs—those two markers alone accounting for over half of Iranian Arab haplogroups. This high ratio of haplogroup F, in particular, relates them, in a genetic sense, to peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean and of the Barbary Coast, while an elevated frequency of haplogroup J-M172 is typical of Near Eastern peoples and reflective of the genetic legacy of early agriculturalists in, and their diffusion from, the Neolithic Near East c. 8000–4000 BCE. Haplogroup R1a1, and R1, typical of Indo-Iranian groups, is also important, occurring in over 11% of the sample; haplogroup G is present in over 5%.
Regional groups
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 can be easily understood by other Arabic-speakers; and often by Iraqis. From the immigrant Arab tribes of Khuzestan, the Banu Kaab at Dawraq and the Mawlāʾī at Hoveyzeh can be mentioned. The well-known Bani Turuf tribe is settled in the Dasht e Azadegan around the town of Hūzagān, and consists of seven tribes, the Sovārī, Marzaā, 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.
Strong blood relation which is one of the peculiarities of Arab society, results in cooperation between Arabs in hardships as well as the intensification of internecines between tribes. Iranian Arabs are well known for hospitality too.
Iranian Arab Women's costumes
Women's scarves have various types including Aba that is a black Chador with long sleeves from which hands are only exposed from wrist. Another is called Asabe or a turban like scarf, and the quality of the used cloth denotes the social rank of the woman. Pooshie is a mask-like silk cloth that covers the face. Dresses are of different types too. Nefnef is a long loose dress and Thoub is a gauzy loose dress that is worn on the Nefnef. Ne'al and Kabkab or Karkab are two kinds of footwear.
Fars
nomads live in eastern Fars Province. Arabs that live in eastern Fars Province and Hormozgan mostly belong to the tribes of Banu Tamim, Banu Kaab and Banu Hammed.
Most Khorasani-Arabs belong to the tribes of Sheybani, Zangooyi, Mishmast, Khozaima and Azdi. Khorasan Arabs numbering around 50,000 are mostly Persian speakers. Only a very few speak Arabic as their mother tongue. Khorasani-Arabs in the cities Birjand, Mashhad and Nishapur are a small ethnic group but most are Persianized.
Demographics
Elton Daniel in The History of Iran, states that the Arabs of Iran "are concentrated in the province of Khuzistan and number about half a million". The Historical Dictionary of Iran puts the number at 1 million. Iranian Arabs form 1-2% of Iran's population.
