Iranians in Iraq
فرس العراق / إيرانيو العراق (Arabic)
Ajam of Bahrain
Iraqi Persians (Persian: ایرانیان عراق, Arabic: إيرانيو العراق) also known as Iranians in Iraq (Persian: ایرانیان در عراق, Arabic: الإيرانيون في العراق) or the 'Ajam of Iraq, are Iraqi citizens of Iranian or Tajik descent and background. Iranians have had a long presence in Iraq, since the Fall of Babylon.
History
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Saddam Hussein exiled between 350,000[3][4] to 650,000 Iraqi citizens of Iranian ancestry.[1] Most of them went to Iran. Most could prove an Iranian ancestry in Iran's court received Iranian citizenship (400,000) and some of them returned to Iraq immediately after his fall.[1] The population of Iraqis of Iranian descent is currently 486,000[citation needed] (not including Iranian residents in Iraq).
Culture
Most Persian Iraqis belong to Twelver Shīʿa Islam, the same religion that most Iraqis and Iranis belong to.
See also
- Iranian diaspora
- Moaved
- Medes
- Achaemenid Assyria
- Asuristan
- Parthian Empire
- Baghdad Province (Safavid Empire)
- Feyli (tribe)