Arabistan
عربستان

Map of Arabistan as produced by the War Office of the British Empire at 1910[1]
Geographical range	Mesopotamia

The Emirate of Arabistan or Emirate of Mohammerah was, from the 15th century until 1925, an Arab Emirate^{[2][page needed][3][4][verification needed]} in what is geographically the lower end of Mesopotamia.^{[5][6][page needed][7][page needed][8][page needed]}

Geography

The majority of Arabistan, with the exception of the Bakhtiari lands, fell within the geographical range of Mesopotamia^[9] while bordering the Zagros mountains to the East.

History

The population of Arabistan was ethnically very mixed and included a high proportion of Arabs.^[10] The Safavid Dynasty had named the region Arabistan, recognizing the ethnic origin of the majority of its inhabitants. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Arabistan was claimed as much by Persia as by the Ottoman Empire.^[10] By the 18th Century, the local authority was in the hands of two Bedouin tribes, first the Ka'b and then the Muhaisin who, in 1812, founded the emirate and town of Mohammerah. Caught between the two powerful empires, the emirs of Mohammerah succeeded nevertheless, through careful politics, in keeping their autonomy.^[10]

15th-18th Century: The rule of the Mush'ashayiah

Over many centuries, the Arab tribes crossed the Persian Gulf from Bahrain, Yemen, and Kuwait and settled in Khuzestan. In 1440, an Arab extremist Shia sect called the Mush'ashayiah, led by Muhammad ibn Falah ibn Hibat Allah, initiated a wave of attacks on Khuzestan, leading to a gradual increase in its Arab population. From the middle of the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, they came to dominate much of western Khuzestan and were in continual conflict with the Safavid dynasty in the sixteenth century, as well as with other Arab tribes. In 1508, Shah Ismail Safavid captured Hawiza, Dizful and Shushtar, and received the submission of the Musha'sha sultans. As a consequence of Musha'sha rule, the western portion of Khuzestan province became known from early Safavid times as Arabistan.^[11]

The rulers of Arabistan had carved out an independent existence since the late seventeenth century by playing the Persians against the Ottomans. Because of Qajar Weakness, the Arabistan tribes retained a large measure of autonomy.^[12] Until the early seventeenth century, the area east of the Shatt Al-Arab was an Arab emirate ruled by Sheikh Mubarak bin Abdul Muttalib.^[13][14] He ruled his emirate independently of both the Persian and Ottoman Empires. A later ruler, Sheikh Mansour, resisted Shah Abbas's attempts to interfere in his affairs. He also rejected the Shah’ s call to join the Persian forces besieging Baghdad in 1623.^[13][14]

In 1625, at the time of the Italian Pietro della Valle's, visit to Basrah, Sheikh Mubarak had been dead for some years. On his decease his brother, Sheikh Mansūr, had been recognized by the Persian emperor as the governor of Hawīzeh, but, finding the yoke of Shāh 'Abbās too heavy for his liking, he had entered into a treasonable correspondence with the Pāsha of Basrah, then Afrāsiyāb, with a view to asserting his independence.^[14] In order to bring his loyalty to the test, the Shāh, on the occasion of the successful expedition against Baghdād in 1623, required Mansūr to join the Persian army; but Imām Quli Khān, though on the march from Shīrāz to Baghdād he waited for him many days at Hawīzeh, could not induce him to move. After this the Shāh several times Mansūr to wait on him at Isfahān, but the cautious Shaikh, while he invariably returned a soft answer, did not obey; and at length Shāh 'Abbās became incensed and ordered him to repair to Isfahān on pain of losing his head. The only answer, however, which Mansūr returned to this ultimatum was: "That if the Shāh was King in Persia, himself was King in Hawīzeh, and that he did not value him;"^[14] and Imām Quli Khān was accordingly despatched with a large force to capture or kill Mansūr and to set up in his place his nephew Muhammad, a son of the late Mubārak, who had been educated at the Safavi court. In the latter part of his task the Persian general was successful; but Mansūr escaped and sought refuge, accompanied by 500 followers, with the Pāsha of Basrah, 'Ali Pāsha, who granted him a place to settle at in Basrah territory closely adjoining Hawīzeh. The former subjects of Mansūr acquiesced in the installation of Muhammad as their governor on the condition, which Imām Quli Khān granted, that no Persian garrison should be left at Hawīzeh. These events occurred at the beginning of 1625, immediately before the Persian movement against Basrah in March of that year.^{[citation needed]}

18th-19th Century: The rule of the Al Bu Nasir, Princes of Fallahiyah^[15]

By the eighteenth century, the Bani Ka'b had constructed one of the gulf’s largest seagoing fleets. Different accounts indicate that during this period of transition, the Ka’b recognized Ottoman sovereignty,^[16] and that it was only after their post 1720 expansion into Arabistan that the question of their allegiance came to the fore. This was when Nadir Shah (1732–47 ) dispatched Muhammad Husayn Qajar to besiege Quban and the Ka'b sued for peace thereby accepting Persian suzerainty for the first time.^[16]

The Reign of Sheikh Salman

The Ka'b reached the zenith of their power under Sheikh Salman, who by the early 1760s controlled most of southeast Arabistan. With a navy of some eighty boats, they controlled all traffic between Basra and the mouth of the Shatt,^[17] conducting their “ piratical fleet into the Gulph.”^{[citation needed]} Thanks to a favorable location and the activities of this fleet, the economy on both sides of the Shatt flourished, and Ka‘b rulers were able to incorporate the Persian lands along the Karun as well as the nominally Ottoman districts of Muhammarah, Haffar, and Tamar, while retaining a degree of autonomy from both the Ottomans and the Persians.^[16]

In 1763, the Ottoman authorities, in co-operation with the British, sought to weaken the Bani Ka’ b tribes and a joint Anglo-Ottoman campaign marched on Arabistan. This culminated in victory for the Arab tribes. Two years later, Persia launched a violent and destructive military campaign that led the Arab inhabitants of Arabistan to abandon their capital in Qabban and seek refuge in the village of Al-Fallahiyya. Because of this, Arabistan became fragmented and it divided into scattered tribal groups, the most prominent of which was the Al-Muhaysin. In due course, the capital of Arabistan moved again from the village of Al-Fallahiyya to the city of Al-Muhammara, which had been built by the Bani Ka’ b Arabs near the mouth of the river Karun on the Shatt Al-Arab, and continued to be Arabistan’ s capital until 1925. Al Muhammara was given its name because its soil was red.^[13]

19th-20th Century: The Rule of the Al Bu Kasib, Princes of Mohammerah

Since the emergence of Mohammerah in 1812 as an autonomous emirate in Arabistan it had been a bone of contention between the Persian and Ottoman Empires.^[18] The Emirate’s strategic and commercial location in the Shatt al Arab accentuated Persian Turkish rivalry for control over it. Muhammarah subsequently became a hostage to the two states, until the 1847 Erzurum Treaty alloted it to Persia.^[18] Despite the treaty, the Emirate continued to be an autonomous entity, and the flow of arab tribes across the Shatt al Arab preserved the Arab identity of the eastern bank of the Shatt. Thus Richard Frye maintains that the Arabs of Khuzistan and of the seaports of southern Persia were simply an extension of Arab settlements from the West Bank.^[19]

In 1890, British consulate established at Muhammarah,^[20] simultaneous with the opening of the Karun to foreign shipping and the advent of Messers. Lynch Brothers. Thence-forward the affairs of Arabistan began to assume more than academic importance to British diplomatic and political authorities.^{[citation needed]}

Relationship with Central Government

At the turn of the twentieth century, Arabistan was still a frontier zone that enjoyed considerable autonomy, and two prominent British observers of the time commented on its sense of separateness.^[21] In the words of journalist Valentine Chirol, “The Turk and the Persian are both aliens in the land, equally hated by the Arab population, and both have proved equally unworthy and incompetent stewards of a splendid estate.^[21] British imperialist George Curzon remarked that “No love is lost between the two people, the Persian regarding the Arab as an interloper and a dullard, and the Arab regarding the Persian, with some justice in this region, as a plotter and a rogue.^[21]

The discovery of Oil in Arabistan

In 1901 the Persian government had granted William Knox D'Arcy the exclusive right to drill for oil in certain parts of Persia, including the region in which the territories of the ruler of Arabistan were located. But in January 1903, the Shah of Persia, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, granted a firman (Imperial edict) to the shaykh using language in which the Qajar government admitted, “at least by implication,” that it had exceeded its powers in conferring certain privileges on D’Arcy. The lands in question had belonged in the past to the shaykh, his tribesmen, and their ancestors.^[22]

In 1908, William Knox D'Arcy discovered oil near Masjed Soleiman by contract with its local ruler Ali-Qoli Khan Bakhtiari.^{[23][page needed][24]}

Strategic importance of Mohammerah^[16]

Starting with Colonel Chesney’ s expeditions (1835–37 ) to prove the navigability of the Tigris and Euphrates, which concluded that Muhammarah should be the center of communications between India and Europe, the East India Company tried to establish a foothold in the region. As Gamazof notes, the scramble over Muhammarah was understandable, for it had many desirable features. These included its anchorage in the deep and broad Haffar Canal; its good weather, safe harbor, and sweet water; the possibility of constructing stores and a wharf, or even a complete port; its strategic command of the Karun and the Shatt and the great rivers forming it; and its proximity to the trade of Baghdad, Basra, and the many local tribes that carried on commerce independently.

The same conditions also protected them from intrusive Iranian interference, while acceptance of the suzerainty of Iran ’ s rulers further ensured independence from Ottoman interference. Yet acceptance of suzerainty did not necessarily mean recognition of sovereignty, and the multiple claims of suzerainty over them, which continued through the second half of the nineteenth century, gave them even more room to maneuver.

Persianization

Following the occupation at 1925, a lot of projects were started in this region by Reza Shah Pahlavi. One of the oldest and most effective projects was the persianization of this area. After the command of Reza Shah, the name of many places, cities and villages was changed, including the name of the entire region which was changed from Arabistan to Khuzestan.^[25]

According to a British military report made in 1939, the following names were changed by the Persian government:

Area Reduction

Among the many post-occupation projects, there was the project dedicated to the curtailment and shrinkage of the area of Arabistan. The Pahlavi government split the area to multiple provinces, namely: Ilam, Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad^[27]

References

External links

• Emirate of Mohammarah official website