'Ajam of Kuwait

'Ajam of Kuwait or Ayam of Kuwait[1][2] are Kuwaiti citizens of Iranian descent.[3][4][5] Although Kuwaiti citizens are ethnically diverse, consisting of both Arabs and Persians;[6][7][8] the government of Kuwait discriminates its citizens on the basis of ethnicity and creed.

Ayam
العيم
Abdulhussain Abdulredha is the most famous Kuwaiti actor of Iranian descent.
Regions with significant populations
Kuwait
Languages
Kuwaiti Persian, Kuwaiti Arabic
Religion
Predominantly Shi'a Islam;
Minority Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Ajam of Bahrain, Ajam of Iraq

History

Antiquity

In 127 BC, Kuwait was part of the Parthian Empire and the kingdom of Characene was established around Teredon in present-day Kuwait.[9][10][11] Characene was centered in the region encompassing southern Mesopotamia,[12] Characene coins were discovered in Akkaz, Umm an Namil, and Failaka.[13][14] A busy Parthian commercial station was situated in Kuwait.[15]

In 224 AD, Kuwait became part of the Sassanid Empire. At the time of the Sassanid Empire, Kuwait was known as Meshan,[16] which was an alternative name of the kingdom of Characene.[17][18] Akkaz was a Partho-Sassanian site;[19] the Sassanid religion's tower of silence was discovered in northern Akkaz.[19][20][21] Late Sassanian settlements were discovered in Failaka.[22] In Bubiyan, there is archaeological evidence of Sassanian to early Islamic periods of human presence as evidenced by the recent discovery of torpedo-jar pottery shards on several prominent beach ridges.[23]

Pre-oil Kuwait City

Historically, Persian ports provided most of pre-oil Kuwait's economic needs.[4] Marafi Behbahani was one of the first merchants to settle in Kuwait in the 18th century.[24] Most Ajam (both Sunni and Shia) resided in the Sharq historical district in the old Kuwait City, thereby forming a linguistic enclave which preserved the language for generations until the discovery of oil. They communicated in Persian between each other, and did not frequently mingle with Arabic speakers who resided in other districts of Kuwait City until after the industrialisation of Kuwait City which scattered people who lived in the districts of Kuwait City to the suburbs. The linguistic enclave was not present any longer therefore the Ajam had to learn Kuwaiti Arabic to survive in the new environment.

In the pre-oil era, Ajam introduced many new things to Kuwait.[25] For instance, the first hotel in Kuwait in the later years of pre-oil era was built by Yusuf Behbehani;[25] the first telephone in Kuwait was brought by M. Ma’arafie;[25] the first radio agency in Kuwait was established by M. Ma’arafie in 1935;[25] and the first refrigerator in Kuwait was imported by M. Ma’arafie in 1934.[25] Murad Behbehani was the first person to officially introduce television to Kuwait.[26] He was the founder of Kuwait Television (KTV) before the company was nationalized by the government.[27]

The Ajam community originate from different Iranian ethnic groups including Lurs, Persians, Azerbaijanis, and Kurds. The majority of Ajam originate from Lamerd in Fars Province. There are also Kuwaiti Ajam of Sayyid descent especially those from the Al-Musawi family.[28]

Failaka Island

The majority of Kuwaitis from Failaka Island are of Iranian ancestry.[29] They originally migrated to Failaka from the Iranian coast, mainly Kharg Island and Bandar Lengeh.[29] These people are commonly known as the Huwala in the GCC states.[29] They are predominantly Sunni Muslims and speak Arabic fluently, although prior to the discovery of oil they also spoke Persian fluently.[29] The most important Huwala settlement in Failaka Island pertained to 40 families who migrated from the Iranian island Kharg to Failaka in the years 1841-1842.[29] The most recent settlement occurred in the early 1930s after the imposition of the unveiling law by Reza Shah.[29] A minority of Failaka Island's Kuwaiti families are Shia Persians, they were noted as having their own hussainiyas and the older generations were frequent Arabic speakers, unlike the Kuwaiti Shia of Persian descent in mainland Kuwait City at the time.[29]

Language
Main article: Kuwaiti Persian

Historically, the Ajam of Kuwait spoke the Kuwaiti Persian language fluently. The Persian sub-dialects of Larestani, Khonji, Bastaki and Gerashi have influenced the vocabulary of Kuwaiti Arabic.[30]

Religion
Main article: Shia Islam in Kuwait

The majority of Shia Kuwaiti citizens are of Iranian descent.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] Some Kuwaitis of Iranian descent are Sunni Muslims such as the Al-Kandari and Al-Awadhi families of Larestani ancestry.[38][39] Iranian Balochi families first immigrated to Kuwait in the 19th century.[40] Some Kuwaitis of Iranian Balochi descent are Sunni.[41][39] Although historically the term Ajam included both Sunni and Shia in Kuwait, nowadays in modern-day Kuwait, the term Ajam almost exclusively refers to Shia only; which is partly due to political sensitivities following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Discrimination

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Ajam community was subjected to xenophobic campaigns demanding their deportation back to Iran (despite the fact most held Kuwaiti citizenship).[42][43] Some Ajam are stateless.[44]

UNESCO identify Kuwaiti Persian as an endangered language.[45] The anti-preservation attitude of the Kuwaiti government towards the Kuwaiti Persian language will eventually lead to the complete disappearance of the language in Kuwaiti society, as Abdulmuhsen Dashti projects.[46] The government of Kuwait tries to delegitimise the use of the language in as many domains as possible.[46]

The Persian language has been considered a significant threat to the dominant Sunni Arab society. In 2012, MP Muhammad Hassan al-Kandari called for a "firm legal action" against an advertisement for teaching the Persian language in Kuwait.[47] The Kuwaiti television series Karimo received criticism for showing Kuwaiti actors speaking fluent Persian; with some racist politicians claiming it was a dictated enforcement of "Iranian culture" on the Kuwaiti society.[48]

The generation of young Kuwaiti Ajam born between 1983 and 1993 are reported to have a minimal proficiency in the language unlike the older generations of Kuwaiti Ajam.[49][50] In contrast to Bahrain where most Bahraini citizens of Iranian descent still speak Persian fluently on a daily basis even the young generations. Many Kuwaiti Ajam parents reported unwillingness to pass the Persian language on to their children for pragmatic reasons, as it will hurdle their integration into the xenophobic dominant culture. Kuwait is one of the most xenophobic countries in the world. The Ajam feel pressure to abandon ties that could be interpreted as showing belonging to Iran, as Persian is synonymous with Iranian for a lot of Kuwaitis, and the Persian language is actually called Iranian in Kuwaiti Arabic.[49] In several interviews conducted by PhD student Batoul Hasan, Ajam youth have shown hesitation to use or learn Persian due to stigmatisation and prejudice in Kuwait.[49]

Notable people

Further reading

References
  1. Article in AL-AAN online newspaper Archived 15 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine (in Arabic) November 2010
  2. Article by Waleed aj-Jasim in Al-Watan daily newspaper Archived 15 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine (in Arabic). 25 May 2013
  3. "Policing Iranian Sanctions: Trade, Identity, and Smuggling Networks in the Arabian Gulf" (PDF). pp. 25–27.
  4. Peterson, J. E. (2016). The Emergence of the Gulf States: Studies in Modern History. p. 107. ISBN 9781472587626.
  5. Taqi, Hanan (2010). Two ethnicities, three generations: Phonological variation and change in Kuwait (PDF) (PhD). Newcastle University. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  6. Al Sager, Noura, ed. (2014). Acquiring Modernity: Kuwait's Modern Era Between Memory and Forgetting. National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters. p. 7. ISBN 9789990604238.
  7. Hamad H. Albloshi. "Social Activism and Political Change in Kuwait Since 2006".
  8. Hamad H. Albloshi. "Kuwait's National Assembly: Roles and Dynamics".
  9. Andreas P. Parpas (2016). The Hellenistic Gulf: Greek Naval Presence in South Mesopotamia and the Gulf (324-64 B.C.). p. 79.
  10. "Travel - Peter Harrington London" (PDF). Peter Harrington. 2017. p. 4.
  11. J. Theodore Bent (January 1890). "The Bahrein Islands, in the Persian Gulf". Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography. JSTOR. 12 (1): 13. doi:10.2307/1801121. JSTOR 1801121.
  12. Farrokh, Kaveh (2007). Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. p. 124. ISBN 9781846031083. With Babylon and Seleucia secured, Mehrdad turned to Charax in southern Mesopotamia (modern south Iraq and Kuwait).
  13. Reade, Julian, ed. (1996). Indian Ocean In Antiquity. p. 275. ISBN 9781136155314.
  14. "Hellenism in the East" (PDF). Amelie Kuhrt, Susan Sherwin-White. 1987. To the south of Characene, on Failaka, the north wall of the fort was pushed forward, before occupation ceased around 100 BC.
  15. Gregoratti, Leonardo. "A Parthian Harbour in the Gulf: the Characene". p. 216.
  16. Hill, Bennett D.; Beck, Roger B.; Clare Haru Crowston (2008). A History of World Societies, Combined Volume (PDF). p. 165. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2013. Centered in the fertile Tigris- Euphrates Valley, but with access to the Persian Gulf and extending south to Meshan (modern Kuwait), the Sassanid Empire's economic prosperity rested on agriculture; its location also proved well suited for commerce.
  17. Falk, Avner (1996). A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews. p. 330. ISBN 9780838636602. In 224 he defeated the Parthian army of Ardavan Shah (Artabanus V), taking Isfahan, Kerman, Elam (Elymais) and Meshan (Mesene, Spasinu Charax, or Characene).
  18. Cohen, Abraham (1980). Ancient Jewish Proverbs. ISBN 9781465526786. The large and small measures roll down and reach Sheol; from Sheol they proceed to Tadmor (Palmyra), from Tadmor to Meshan (Mesene), and from Meshan to Harpanya (Hipparenum).
  19. Gachet, J. (1998). "Akkaz (Kuwait), a Site of the Partho-Sasanian Period. A preliminary report on three campaigns of excavation (1993–1996)". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 28: 69–79. JSTOR 41223614.
  20. "Tell Akkaz in Kuwait.", The Journal of the American Oriental Society
  21. "LE TELL D'AKKAZ AU KOWEÏT TELL AKKAZ IN KUWAIT" (PDF). p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 December 2013.
  22. Bonnéric, Julie (2021). "A consideration on the interest of a pottery typology adapted to the late Sasanian and early Islamic monastery at al-Qusur (Kuwait)". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 32: 70–82. doi:10.1111/aae.12190. S2CID 234836940.
  23. Reinink-Smith, Linda; Carter, Robert (2022). "Late Holocene development of Bubiyan Island, Kuwait". Quaternary Research. 109: 16–38. Bibcode:2022QuRes.109...16R. doi:10.1017/qua.2022.3. S2CID 248250022.
  24. Mohammad E. Alhabib (2010). The Shia Migration from Southwestern Iran to Kuwait: Push-Pull Factors during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Thesis). Georgia State University.
  25. Waleed A.A. Al-Munais (1981). Social and ethnic differentiation in Kuwait: A social geography of an indigenous society (PDF) (Thesis). SOAS University of London. p. 151. According to Al-Hatim, 1961, Ibid, the Persian-Kuwaitis, have brought many new things to the society, i.e. the first hotel in Kuwait in the later years of preoil era was built by Y. Behbehani; the first telephone in Kuwait was brought by M. Marafie; the first radio agency was established by M. Ma'arafi in 1935; the first refrigerator in Kuwait was brought by M. Ma'arafi in 1934, see pp. 249, 282, 346, etc.
  26. Ahmad Hamada (2015). The Integration History of Kuwaiti Television from 1957-1990: An Audience-Generated Oral Narrative on the Arrival and Integration of the Device in the City (Thesis). Virginia Commonwealth University. p. 192. Similarly to television, the Behbahani family, particularly the merchant Murad Behbehani, is acknowledged by historical sources as the first to have officially brought television into the city (Al-Mudhaf, 2015). Murad was the son of the prominent merchant Yousef Behbehani, who opened the first hotel in the city of Kuwait in 1947, and imported weapons and cigarettes (Al-Habeeb, 2012; Al-Hatim, 1980). In the testimony below, Mubarak Al-Mubarak (75) remembers how the Behbehani house was a frequent destination for the neighborhood kids.
  27. Ahmad Hamada (2015). The Integration History of Kuwaiti Television from 1957-1990: An Audience-Generated Oral Narrative on the Arrival and Integration of the Device in the City (Thesis). Virginia Commonwealth University. p. 1. It is generally known that Kuwaiti television (KTV) started as the private initiative of the Kuwaiti merchant Murad Behbehani in 1957, before being quickly governmentalized on November 15, 1961 (Al-Mudhaf, 2015; Dajani, 2007).
  28. Murtadha Mutahhari, Majmu'at al-Athaar, Part 18. Qum, Tehran. p. 124
  29. Zubaydah Ali M. Ashkanani (June 1988). Middle-aged women in Kuwait: Victims of change (Thesis). Durham University. pp. 309–310. The Social Composition of Failakans
  30. Al-Tajir (2013). Lang & Linguistic in Bahrain Mon. p. 11. ISBN 9781136136269.
  31. Butenschøn, Nils August; Davis, Uri; Hassassian, Manuel Sarkis (2000). Citizenship and the State in the Middle East: Approaches and Applications. p. 190. ISBN 9780815628293.
  32. Binder, Leonard (1999). Ethnic Conflict and International Politics in the Middle East (PDF). p. 164. ISBN 9780813016870. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Unlike the Shi'a of Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, the Kuwaiti Shi'a mostly are of Persian descent.
  33. Azoulay, Rivka; Hertog, Steffen; Luciani, Giacomo; Valeri, Marc (2013). Business Politics in the Middle East. p. 71. ISBN 9781849042352.
  34. Ende, Werner; Steinbach, Udo (2002). Islam in the World Today: A Handbook of Politics, Religion, Culture, and Society. p. 533. ISBN 0801464897.
  35. Potter, Lawrence G. (June 2014). Sectarian Politics in the Persian Gulf. p. 135. ISBN 9780190237967.
  36. Louër, Laurence (2011). Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf. p. 47. ISBN 9781849042147.
  37. Dénes Gazsi. "The Persian Dialects of the Ajam in Kuwait" (PDF). The University of Iowa.
  38. Ali Al-Kandari. "The Political Identity of 'Ajam Sunna in Kuwait". Princeton University.
  39. Rivka Azoulay (2020). Kuwait and Al-Sabah: Tribal Politics and Power in an Oil State. p. 40. ISBN 9781838605063.
  40. The Shia Migration from Southwestern Iran to Kuwait: Push-Pull Factors during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Georgia State University. 2012. pp. 71–72.
  41. "The Baluch Presence in the Persian Gulf" (PDF). 2013. pp. 742–743.
  42. Albloshi, Hamad (2022). "Identity and Political Cartoons: Arab Nationalists and Ajam in Kuwait in 1960s".
  43. "Monolithic Representations of 'Arabness': From the Arab Nationalists to the Arab Gulf".
  44. Ajam Media Collective (2018). "Between Two Deserts: Visual Vignettes from an Iranian-Kuwaiti Bidoon in New Mexico". Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  45. "Kuwaiti Persian". UNESCO.
  46. Language Maintenance or Shift? An Ethnographic Investigation of the Use of Farsi among Kuwaiti Ajams: A Case Study. AbdulMohsen Dashti. Arab Journal for the Humanities. Volume 22 Issue : 87. 2004.
  47. الالكترونية, جريدة الآن. "ليس مقبولاً ربط الشيعة في الخليج بإيران.. بنظر د. صلاح الفضلي". Alaan Online Newspaper.
  48. "كريمو مسلسل كويتي باللغة الفارسية". 7 September 2010 – via YouTube.
  49. Ideology, identity, and linguistic capital: a sociolinguistic investigation of language shift among the Ajam of Kuwait. Batoul Hasan. 2009. The University of Essex.
  50. Taqi, Hanan (2010). Two ethnicities, three generations: Phonological variation and change in Kuwait (PDF) (PhD). Newcastle University.
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