Notable Afro-Iraqis
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- Abbas Al Harbi – Australian theatre and film director, screenwriter, playwright [17] [18]
عراقيون أفارقة | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| 1,500,000–2,000,000 (Self-proclaimed) [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Basra, Maysan, Dhi Qar | |
| Languages | |
| Arabic Swahili (L2 minority) | |
| Religion | |
| Shia Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Afro-Jordanians, Afro-Palestinians, Afro-Syrians, Afro-Saudis, Al-Akhdam, Afro-Omanis |
Afro-Iraqis are Iraqi people of African Zanj heritage. Historically, their population has concentrated in the southern port city of Basra, as Basra was the capital of the slave trade in Iraq. [2] Afro-Iraqis speak Arabic and mostly adhere to Islam. Some Afro-Iraqis can still speak Swahili along with Arabic. [3]
Afro-Iraqi leaders claim that there are roughly between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Afro-Iraqis, however this is not verified by official figures. [4] [5] [6] [7] Their origins date back to the time of the Arab slave trade and slavery in Iraq between the 9th century AD to the 19th century AD. [8] [9]
Many are from the district of Zubair, descendants of the people who came to Iraq from East Africa. Some came as sailors, whereas others came as traders, immigrants, religious scholars, or enslaved people over the course of many centuries, beginning in the 9th century CE. [10]
Arab myths[ citation needed ] agree that the Cushitic king Nimrod crossed from beyond the waters of East Africa in the earliest times with an army, and established a civilization. Many[ which? ] existing sites in Iraq are still named after Nimrod. The Quran does not mention Nimrod by name, but Arab stories about Nimrod have resulted in him being referenced as a tyrant in Muslim cultures.
Jewish tradition recounts the tale of King Nimrod as well. It is stated in the book of Genesis that Nimrod was a mighty hunter of great renown and the first to build cities over the face of the world. He ruled in Mesopotamia, which includes modern-day Iraq.
Because of the legendary Nimrod's Cushitic origin (often identified with the historical Kingdom of Kush in what is today southern Egypt and northern Sudan), many believe that Afro-Iraqis now living in areas are his literal descendents. This is unlikely to be literally true for all afro-Iraqi citizens, as their presence in Iraq dates back only to the 9th century CE, [10] whereas the Kingdom of Kush ended in the 6th century CE.
However Black Iraqis are the descendants of East African coastal Bantu peoples probably the Swahili people who were enslaved and brought to Iraq in the 9th century during the Arab slave trade of the Abbasid caliphate to work on agricultural fields or as laborers. Although some African migrants came to Iraq as sailors and laborers the majority were brought as slaves in the 9th century. [11]
The Arab Muslim institution of slavery allowed enslaved people to own land, and enslavement was not generally hereditary. Conversion to Islam sometimes enabled enslaved people to escape their condition. Skin color played a distinctive role even amongst slaves, however, and discrimination based on skin colour existed, and continues to be a problem in Iraqi society. Today, many Afro-Iraqis activists report that they are denied job opportunities on the basis of their skin colour and ethnic background. Afro-Iraqis are well known as street musicians, as they historically experienced employment discrimination. [12] [13] Afro-Iraqis are also frequently called "Abeed", a pejorative meaning "slave" in Arabic. [14]
Most Afro-Iraqis still are able to maintain rituals related to healing that are of Zanj origin. The languages used in these rituals are Swahili and Arabic. Percussion instruments such as drums and tambourines are used in these ceremonies. Songs such as Dawa Dawa are in a syncretic mixture of Arabic and Swahili. The song, which is about curing people of illness, is used in the shtanga ceremony, for physical health. Another ceremony, called nouba, takes its name from the Arabic word for paroxysm or shift, as Sophi performers take turns at chanting and dancing to ritualistic hymns. [3] There are also unique ceremonies to remember the dead and for occasions such as weddings. [12] Although the vast majority of Afro-Iraqis are Muslim, a shrinking minority still practices these traditions. [15] [16] Few Afro-Iraqis can still speak Swahili. [3]
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Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification in the Western world, the term "black" is used to describe persons who are perceived as dark-skinned compared to other populations. It is most commonly used for people of sub-Saharan African ancestry, Indigenous Australians and Melanesians, though it has been applied in many contexts to other groups, and is no indicator of any close ancestral relationship whatsoever. Indigenous African societies do not use the term black as a racial identity outside of influences brought by Western cultures.
Zanj was a name used by medieval Muslim geographers to refer to both a certain portion of Southeast Africa and to its Bantu inhabitants. This word is also the origin of the place-names Zanzibar and the Sea of Zanj.
The Zanj Rebellion was a major revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate, which took place from 869 until 883. Begun near the city of Basra in present-day southern Iraq and led by one Ali ibn Muhammad, the insurrection involved both enslaved and freed Bantu peoples ("Zanj") who had originally been captured from the coast of Southeast Africa and transported to the Middle East, principally to drain the region's salt marshes. It grew to involve slaves and freemen, including both Southeastern Africans and Arabs, from several regions of the Caliphate, and claimed tens of thousands of lives before it was finally defeated.
Afro-Arabs or African Arabs are Arabs of full or partial African descent. These include primarily minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar, as well as Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Jordan. The term may also refer to various Arab groups in Africa.
Abeed or abīd, is an Arabic word meaning "servant" or "slave". The term is usually used in the Arab world as a name for Muslim and less frequently Christian families, however it also is used sometimes as an ethnic slur for Black people, and dates back to the Arab slave trade. In recent decades, usage of the word has become controversial due to its racist connotations and origins, particularly among the Arab diaspora.
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was a major institution and a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and traditional society. The main sources of slaves were wars and politically organized enslavement expeditions in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Southeast Europe, and Africa. It has been reported that the selling price of slaves decreased after large military operations. In Constantinople, the administrative and political center of the Ottoman Empire, about a fifth of the 16th- and 17th-century population consisted of slaves. Statistics of these centuries suggest that Istanbul's additional slave imports from the Black Sea have totaled around 2.5 million from 1453 to 1700.
The Swahili coast is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala ; Mombasa, Gede, Pate Island, Lamu, and Malindi ; and Dar es Salaam and Kilwa. In addition, several coastal islands are included in the Swahili coast, such as Zanzibar and Comoros.
Afro-Iranians are Iranian people of African Zanj heritage. Most Afro-Iranians are concentrated in the coastal provinces of Persian Gulf such as Hormozagan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Bushehr and Khuzestan.
The Shirazi also known as Mbwera, are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting the Swahili coast and the nearby Indian ocean islands. They are particularly concentrated on the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Comoros.
In the Arab world, racism targets non-Arabs and the expat majority of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf coming from South Asian groups as well as Black, European, and Asian groups that are Muslim; non-Arab ethnic minorities such as Armenians, Africans, the Saqaliba, Southeast Asians, Jews, Kurds, and Coptic Christians, Assyrians, Persians, Turks, and other Turkic peoples, and South Asians living in Arab countries of the Middle East.
The Bantu peoples are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native African ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The languages are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Southern Africa.
The history of slavery in the Muslim world began with institutions inherited from pre-Islamic Arabia. The practices of keeping slaves in the Muslim world nevertheless developed in radically different ways in different Muslim states based on a range of social-political factors, as well as the more immediate economic and logistical considerations of the Arab slave trade. As a general principle, Islam encouraged the manumission of Muslim slaves as a way of expiating sins, and many early converts to Islam, such as Bilal, were former slaves. However, Islam never banned the practice, and it persisted as an important institution in the Muslim world through to the modern era.
Afro-Palestinians are Palestinians of black African heritage. A minority of Afro-Palestinians, who number around 350-400, reside in an African enclave around the Bab al-Majlis, in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem. Some of the community dwell in other areas of Jerusalem such as Beit Hanina and A-Tur.
The Trans-Saharan slave trade, also known as the Arab slave trade, was a slave trade in which slaves were mainly transported across the Sahara. Most were moved from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa to be sold to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations; a small percentage went the other direction. Estimates of the total number of black slaves moved from sub-Saharan Africa to the Arab world range from 6-10 million, and the trans-Saharan trade routes conveyed a significant number of this total, with one estimate tallying around 7.2 million slaves crossing the Sahara from the mid-7th century until the 20th century when it was abolished. The Arabs managed and operated the trans-Saharan slave trade, although Berbers were also actively involved. Alongside Black Africans, Turks, Iranians, Europeans and Berbers were among the people traded by the Arabs, with the trade being practised throughout the Arab world, primarily in Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa, and Europe.
The Indian Ocean slave trade, sometimes known as the East African slave trade or Arab slave trade, was multi-directional slave trade and has changed over time. Captured in raids primarily south of the Sahara, predominately black Africans were traded as slaves to the Middle East, Indian Ocean islands, Indian subcontinent, and Java. Beginning in the 16th century, they were traded to the Americas, including Caribbean colonies.
Attitudes of medieval Arabs to Black people varied over time and individual attitude, but tended to be negative. Though the Qur'an expresses no racial prejudice, ethnocentric prejudice towards black people is widely evident among medieval Arabs, for a variety of reasons: Arabs' extensive conquests and slave trade; the influence of Aristotelian ideas regarding slavery, which some Muslim philosophers directed towards Zanj; and the influence of Judeo-Christian ideas regarding divisions among humankind. On the other hand, the Afro-Arab author Al-Jahiz, himself having a Zanj grandfather, wrote a book entitled Superiority of the Blacks to the Whites, and explained why the Zanj were black in terms of environmental determinism in the "On the Zanj" chapter of The Essays.
Afro-Saudis are Saudi citizens of partial or full black African heritage. Afro-Saudis are the largest Afro-Arab group. They are spread all around the country, but they are mostly found in the major cities of Saudi Arabia. Afro-Saudis speak Arabic and adhere to Islam. Their origins date back centuries ago to the Arab slave trade.
Afro-Omanis are Omani people of African Zanj heritage. Most live in the coastal cities of Oman, with many speaking Arabic and adhering to Islam. Their origins date back to the time of the Arab slave trade and era Slavery in Oman, and when Zanzibar was a part of the Omani Empire.
Slavery existed in the territory of the modern state of Iraq until the 1920s. When the area later to become the modern state of Iraq was a center of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258), the area was a major slave trade destination, and slaves were imported to Iraq from the North along the Volga trade route, from the West via the Red Sea slave trade, and from the South from the Indian Ocean slave trade.
Slavery existed in the territory of the modern state of Syria until the 1920s.
Black or African Iraqis, who number between 1.5 and 2 million, are believed to have first migrated from East Africa to Iraq after the birth of Islam.
Salah Ruhais Salman, vice-president of the Iraqi Freedom Movement, a political party established to defend the rights of Iraqis of African descent ... [says] "There are around 1.5 million of us in Iraq but none of us occupies any position in the Iraqi administration."
It is noteworthy that their marginalization persists although they exceed about 1.5 million, according to the Free Iraqi Movement Vice President Salah Ruhais Salman, or 2 million, according to a statement made by the secretary-general of the movement, Abdel Hussein Abdel Razzak.
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| Secondary Afro-American diaspora |
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