Arab, Iranian

Iranian Arabs of Khuzestan, who call themselves Ahwazi, are Iran's largest Arabic-speaking community. Arab tribes have lived in the lowlands at the head of the Persian Gulf since before Islam, but most present tribes arrived from Mesopotamia and Arabia between the 16th and 19th centuries: the Musha'sha'iyyah of Hoveyzeh, the Banu Kaab of Dowraq (Shadegan), the Bani Torof, Banu Lam, Bawi, Kenaneh, Zaghem (Shammar), Khazraj and Sadat. The Safavids called the region Arabestan. Sheikh Khazal of Mohammerah (Khorramshahr) ruled it semi-autonomously until Reza Shah ended his rule in 1925 and restored the name Khuzestan. Tribal identity often outweighs sectarian identity, and many tribes have kin across the border in Iraq. Khuzestani Arabic is a South Mesopotamian dialect with Gulf Arabic and Persian features; nearly all speakers are bilingual and urban youth are shifting to Persian. Gulf Arabic speakers of the Hormozgan and Bushehr coast, the Khamseh Arabs of Fars and the Khorasani Arabs are separate groups.

Rural Arabs grow dates, wheat and rice along the Karun, Karkheh and Jarrahi rivers, keep water buffalo in the Hoor al-Azim and Shadegan wetlands, and fish. Buffalo milk supplies the city breakfast foods sarshir (clotted cream eaten with date syrup or honey and flatbread) and ferni. Hospitality and strong blood ties are core values, and guest halls (madhif or diwan) host tribal elders and settle disputes through tribal reconciliation (fasl). Women's traditional dress includes the black aba, the asabe head-wrap whose cloth signals social rank, the pooshie face veil, the nefnef and the gauzy thoub; men wear the dishdasha with keffiyeh and agal. Hosa war-chants and the sung verse forms abudhiya and mawwal are shared with southern Iraq. Marriage is often within the tribe, frequently between cousins.

Most Khuzestani Arabs are Twelver Shia and share the devotional life of southern Iraq: Muharram mourning processions, Ashura passion rites, and mass pilgrimage on foot to Karbala for Arbaeen through the Shalamcheh and Chazabeh border crossings. Najaf-based clergy carry weight alongside Iranian clerics. Folk practice includes vows (nadhr) at imamzadeh shrines, protective amulets and saints' days. From the 2000s a minority converted to Sunni Islam, partly as a protest against the Persian-Shia state, and security forces raided Sunni Qur'an and Arabic classes in Ahvaz; the trend later receded. Religion and Arab identity politics are closely watched by the state.

A New Testament exists in Mesopotamian Arabic, and the full Bible is available in Standard Arabic, which educated Arabs read. Global Recordings Network has 'Good News' audio-visual lessons in Arabic, Mesopotamian: Khuzestan, and the JESUS film exists in a Khuzestani dialect. Arabic Christian satellite and online media from the Gulf and Iraq reach the region. Christian adherents are about 0.3%.

Persian and English sources list the largest Arab tribes of Khuzestan as the Bani Torof (seven sub-tribes, Dasht-e Azadegan), Banu Kaab (Shadegan; c. 55,000 in the early 20th century), Banu Lam (c. 45,000), Bawi (c. 20,000), Ebadeh, Shajarat, Kenaneh, Khazraj, Zaghem (a Shammar branch), Abd al-Khani, the Musha'sha' of Hoveyzeh and the Sadat. Tribal sheikhs still arbitrate feuds and marriages, and tribal loyalty shapes local politics more than religion.