Iranians in Iraq
فرس العراق / إيرانيو العراق (Arabic)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Flag_of_Iraq.svg/23px-Flag_of_Iraq.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg/23px-Flag_of_Iran.svg.png)
Iraqi Persians (Persian: ایرانیان عراق, Arabic: إيرانيو العراق) or Iranians in Iraq (Persian: ایرانیان در عراق, Arabic: الإيرانيون في العراق) are Iraqi citizens of Iranian 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 belong to.
See also
- Iranian diaspora
- Moaved
- Medes
- Achaemenid Assyria
- Asuristan
- Parthian Empire
- Baghdad Province (Safavid Empire)
- Feyli (tribe)