Feyli Kurds

Feyli Kurds (Kurdish: فه‌یلی/فەێلی^[9][10]) are a collection of Kurdish tribes in the borderlands between Iraq and Iran. Historically, the lands of the Feyli Kurds were ruled by the Vali dynasty. Feyli Kurds are distinct from Feyli Lurs, and they speak the Feyli dialect of Southern Kurdish, which is also known as "Ilami" and is distinct from the Feyli dialect of northern Luri.^[6][3]

Today, the 1,500,000 Feyli Kurds live mainly in Baghdad, Maysan, Diyala, Wasit, Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq, and provinces of Lorestan, Ilam, Kermanshah in Iran.^[11][12]

Etymology

The term "Feyli" was another name of the Vali dynasty, and was applied to all tribes that were under their authority. While the Vali dynasty was Lur, it ruled over Kurdish, Lur, and Lak tribes.^[13][14][15] Academics generally agreed that the term "Feyli" referred to the Vali dynasty and was applied to the tribes under their rule, although there were disagreements over what "Feyli" actually meant.^[16] Some suggested that the term "Feyli" was an Arabized form of "Pahla" or "Pahlavi".^[17] Others suggested it came from the Arabic word "Fi'ili" (فعلي), meaning "authentic", and that it was first applied to the Lurs of Lur-e-Kuchak to distinguish them from the less "authentic" Lurs of Lur-e-Bozorg.^[18]

Feyli Kurds were often mislabeled as Feyli Lurs in historical documents. Because Posht-e-Kuh was historically considered part of Lur-e-Kuchak and was under Lur governance for over 700 years under the Khorshidis and Valis, many historical writers at that time assumed that Posht-e-Kuh was mostly Lur like the rest of Luristan. However, writers who personally went to Posht-e-Kuh, or had sufficient knowledge, did mention the Feyli Kurds.^[19] From the Safavid to the Qajar eras, all tribes living under the Vali dynasty were often referred to as Feyli Lurs in official settings, which also included the Kurdish tribes.^[20]

By the early 21st century, the Feyli Kurds comprised the Kurds of Ilam province in Iran, and the Shia Kurds in Iraq.^[21] While the term "Feyli" was sometimes used to generalize all Southern Kurdish or Northern Luri dialects, academics later avoided the term due to its inherent ambiguity. Fattah claimed that none of the Kurdish or Luri communities which were labelled as "Feyli" actually identified with the term, except for some Kurds in Baghdad.^[22]

History

Feyli Kurds are native to the historical region known as Mahsabadhan, which during the Parthian era was considered a subregion of Pahla, and during the Sasanian era was considered a subregion of Azarbaijan. After the Islamic conquest of Iran, Mahsabadhan was considered part of Jibal. When the term Luristan came into use, it included historical Mahsabadhan, which became known as Posht-e-Kuh and made up the western part of historical Lur-e-Kuchak.^[23][24] Posht-e-Kuh had a Kurdish majority, with some Lur and Lak minorities. Lurs were the majority of Pish-e-Kuh which had a Lak minority.^[25][26] In 1655-1656, Evliya Çelebi travelled from Baghdad to Shahrizur and Erbil, passing through territories under the vali of Luristan, which he stated was independent from both the Safavids and Ottomans. He wrote about the presence of the "Kurds of Luristan" (Ekrad-i Luristan) in the region, as well as several mixed towns inhabited by both Luristani Kurds and Sunni Kurds. Martin van Bruinessen stated that it was likely that the "Luristani Kurds" mentioned by Evliya Çelebi were the Feyli Kurds.^[27]

When the Russian-Ottoman-Persian boundary commission surveyed the borders from 1848 to 1852, Mehmed Hurşîd Paşa, a member of the commission, wrote a travelogue in which he wrote that along the southern parts of the Ottoman-Iranian borders, there were two large tribal groups, the Arab Bani Lam and the Fayli. He wrote that the Fayli were "Persian subjects" (İran'a tâbi'i), and listed the tribes of Pusht-i Kūh and Pīsh-i Kūh, which he estimated to be 50,000, also adding that the Fayli tribes were "entirely Kurds" (kāffesi Ekrād) and spoke Persian. He added that they were mostly Shia with Yarsani minorities and that they had many scholars and poets who wrote in Persian "and their own language, Gurani."^[28] Hurşîd listed the Feyli tribes, which were the Kirda, Rizawand, Mahaki, Charkhiston, Dinarwand, and Shadkhun tribes in Posht-e-Kuh, the Kakawand, Bitiyawand, Muminawand, Bitirnawand, and Jawari tribes in Pish-e-Kuh, the Silsilah tribe in Dilfan, the Amala tribe of non-nomadic farmers and peasants, the Hulaylani tribes (Osmanwand, Jalalwand, Dajiyawand, Balawand, and Suramiri), the Bajalan tribes (Daliyawand and Sagwand), and the Beyranvand tribes (Aliyyawand and Dushiyyawand). Hurşîd wrote that Khanaqin city and Kermanshah province were Kurdish but not Feyli, and that the center of the Feyli Kurds was Dih-i-Bala.^[29]

At the beginning of the 19th century, many Feyli Kurds migrated westwards from Posht-e-Kuh (Ilam province) across the border to eastern Iraq, where there was already a Feyli Kurdish community, and some went to Baghdad.^[30][1] In 1928, the Iranian government ordered its consulate in Baghdad to provide Feyli Kurds with incentives to return to Iran.^[31] The Iranian consulate of Mandali in 1925 estimated that over 20,000 Feyli Kurds from Iran migrated to Iraq that year, with 10,000 in the Kurdish villages of eastern Iraq, 4,000 in Baghdad, and the rest in southern Iraq as well as Kirkuk. There were more Feyli Kurds in Iraq than in Iran. At the beginning of the 1920s, out of the 185,000-200,000 population of Baghdad, around 20,000 were Feyli Kurds.^[32] The connection of the Feyli Kurds to the trade routes between Iran and Iraq made them play an important role in Baghdad's commerce. Furthermore, the Exodus of Iranian Jews to Israel in 1948, which included Jewish merchants, allowed Feyli Kurdish merchants to take over the trade industry.^[1] In the 1970s, many Feyli Kurds were leaders in the Kurdish national movement in Iraq and the wealthy Feyli Kurdish businessmen greatly contributed to the financing of the movement.^[33]

Hossein-Ali Razmara, an officer in the geography unit of the Iranian Army, and older brother of Ali Razmara, visited Posht-e-Kuh in 1941 and wrote that most tribes were Kurdish and had an ancient presence there.^[34] In 1916, Muhammad Amin Zaki Beg went on an official trip to Posht-e-Kuh where he met the Vali. He wrote that he had no issues speaking Kurdish with the locals, who identified themselves as Kurds. He also wrote that even the Vali of Posht-e-Kuh knew Kurdish.^[35]

In 1953, British historian Stephen Hemsley Longrigg wrote about the political history of Iraq and wrote that "these hardy natives of the southern Zagros, and subjects of their hereditary Wali, were familiar in Baghdad and Basra as porters of heavy loads, which occupation they monopolized. They were resident also as traders and craftsmen in the middle-Tigris and Gharraf regions, known there as Fayliya Kurds; and they dominated the border towns of Mandali and Badra and the villages near by. Of all this the last half-century has changed nothing. North of Arabistan and almost equally independent of the Qajar dynasty lay Luristan, the province of the Lurs, who are racially and dialectically distinct from the Persians. It fell into two areas, the Greater and the Lesser. The Pusht-i Kuh, western zone of the latter and home of the Fayliya Kurds, formed its boundary with Basra and Baghdad wilayas. It had remained for three centuries under a single line of Walis. The obligations of the government were confined to a small tribute to the central Government, its powers unlimited within Pusht-i Kuh, its influence considerable in eastern Iraq. Quolam Reza Khan, fourteenth of his line, was respected for his pomp and his religious observances, but hated for his morbid avarice."^[36]

A Feyli Kurd became a member of the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce in the 1960s.^[37] Before the Ba'athist era, most Feyli Kurds were involved in politics, and supported either the Kurdistan Democratic Party or the Iraqi Communist Party.^[38] The Feyli Kurds had a hybrid identity as ethnic Kurds, Iraqi nationals, and Shia Muslims. As Shias, they were a minority among the Kurds and a majority among the Arabs. As Kurds, they were a minority among the Arabs. An Iraqi identity offered them a new position, although not having Iraqi citizenship affected their attachment to Iraq. This situation encouraged many Feyli Kurds to join the Iraqi Communist Party and fight discrimination.^[39] The ICP was known for trying to break the primordial ties in the Iraqi population, and accepted many Kurds into its ranks, with some even reaching leadership positions. In 1963, 23.1% of the ICP Central Committee were Kurds. The ICP tried to cooperate with Kurdish parties despite disagreeing with their nationalism, and were given asylum in the mountains during the Ba'athist era. However, their solidarity was brief and often ended in clashes. Many Kurds in the north had joined the ICP in defiance of traditional Kurdish society in the villages.^[40] Many Kurds in the ICP had joined to transform Kurdish society, although the Feyli Kurds usually joined the ICP to escape discrimination. However, Kurds in the ICP sometimes found themselves unwillingly compromising their Kurdishness in favor of the vague Iraqi patriotism presented by the ICP. When conflict broke out between the KDP and ICP, Abdulmajid Lutfi, a Feyli Kurdish member of the ICP, wrote an article in al-Ta'akhi, the Arabic magazine of the KDP, calling on Aziz Muhammad, an ICP leader who was also Kurdish, to resolve the conflict.^[41]

After the Iraqi–Kurdish Autonomy Agreement of 1970, which included the appointment of a Kurdish vice president of Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) nominated Habib Karim, a Feyli Kurd, although the Iraqi government refused to approve the nomination, accusing him of having Iranian origin. Throughout the Ba'athist period, the Feyli Kurds were persecuted. Although the Iraqi government officially justified the persecution of Feyli Kurds by claiming they were originally Iranian, its main goal was to reduce Kurdish influence in Iraq.^[42] After Mustafa Barzani left for Iran in 1975, Feyli Kurds supported other Kurdish groups, primarily the PUK.^[43] During the Ba'athist era, most Feyli Kurds supported either the Kurdish nationalist groups or the SCIRI which had Kurdish Shia representatives.^[44] The Islamic Dawa Party also had many Feyli Kurdish members during the Ba'athist era.^[45] Abduljalil al-Fayli and his associates formally launched the Fayli Kurdish Muslim Movement on March 21, 1981, to politically mobilize Feyli Kurds made up the majority of Iraqi exiles and deportees in Iran. This was before the SCIRI was founded. While the group had a Shia orientation, it also had a strong nationalist orientation. Its founder, Abduljalil al-Fayli, was a former KDP activist, and the group leaders were aware that Feyli Kurds generally leaned towards nationalism more than religion.^[38]

After Saddam Hussein was overthrown in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the situation of the Feyli Kurds began to improve. Many Feyli Kurds rose to significant positions, including Fuad Hussein.^[46][47][48] Aras Habib Karim, a Feyli Kurd from a family with longstanding KDP ties, also served as the intelligence chief of the INC.^[49] Feyli Kurds were recognized in the Iraqi constitution of 2005.^[50] In January 2019, Feyli Kurds received a reserved minority seat in Wasit Governorate,^[51] which was won by Mazen Abdel Moneim Gomaa who had 5,078 votes in the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary election.^[52]

By the early 2000s, around half of the Feyli Kurds in Iraq were native to eastern Iraq, while the other half descended from those who migrated from Posht-e-Kuh.^[53] Many Feyli Kurds complained about Western scholars portraying them as "Arabized Kurds." In November 2007, Sa'ad Iskandar, a Feyli Kurd serving as the director of the Iraqi national archive, strongly criticized a scholar for using the term and argued that it diminished the Kurdishness of the Feyli Kurds.^[54] During the war on the Islamic State in 2014, the Peshmerga established a Feyli Kurdish militia, among Yazidi, Kaka'i, and Christian militias under the Ministry of the Peshmerga.^[55] The Popular Mobilization Forces also established a Feyli Kurdish militia under the Badr Brigades.^[56] After the 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum, Feyli Kurds in Baghdad became targets of Anti-Kurdish attacks, and many fled to Iraqi Kurdistan.^[57]

Subdivisions

The Kurdish tribes which historically lived under the Vali dynasty were considered Feyli Kurds. They lived mainly in Posht-e-Kuh and adjacent areas of Iraq.^[58][59] Kurdish tribes which were considered Feyli included the Kordali, Malekshahi, Khezel, Dehbalayi, Panjsutun, Kalhor, Arkavazi, Suramiri, Rizavand, Mishkhas, and many others.^[60] Historically, the tribes of Posht-e-Kuh were traditionally grouped into two confederations, the Kord and the Mahaki. The Kord tribes lived in the south, while the Mahaki tribes lived in the north.^[61]

Language

The Feyli Kurds speak the Feyli dialect of southern Kurdish. Their dialect was also known as Ilami, due to most of its speakers being located in Ilam province, and to distinguish it from the Feyli dialect of northern Luri.^[62] The largest language of Posht-e-Kuh was Southern Kurdish.^[63] Feyli Kurdish dialects were also called "Kurdish of the Vali" (کردی والی; Kordi-ye Vali), referring to the Vali of Luristan.^[64]

Historically, due to Lur dominance, the Kurdish dialects of Ilam province (Posht-e-Kuh) were often incorrectly classified as Luri, although later and deeper studies in the 20th and 21st centuries revealed their Kurdish nature.^[65]

Linguist Ismaïl Kamandâr Fattah argued that Feyli Kurdish and the other dialects of Southern Kurdish were 'interrelated and largely mutually intelligible.'^[66] The term Feyli was sometimes incorrectly used as a name for all Southern Kurdish dialects.^[67]

Notable Feyli Kurds

• Ghulamrezakhan Arkawazi, poet
• Fuad Hussein, politician
• Leyla Qasim, Kurdish national hero

See also

• Kurdish tribes

References

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