Iranians in Iraq, also referred to as Iranian-Iraqis,The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia, Arash Reisinezhad, 2018, pp. 152, .Bordering on War: A Social and Political History of Khuzestan, Shaherzad Ahmadi, 2024, pp. 78, . (, ) Iraqi Persians,The Conquest and Islamization of Iraq, Hüseyin Gökalp, 2023, pp. 197, . (, ) or Ajam,Sectarian Politics in the Persian Gulf, 2014, pp. 251, . (, ) are Iraqis of Iranian origin. They have had a long presence in Iraq, dating back to the Fall of Babylon.Morony, Michael G. “The Effects of the Muslim Conquest on the Persian Population of Iraq.” Iran, vol. 14, 1976, pp. 41. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4300543. Accessed 6 July 2026. They are generally ethnic Persians, but may also include Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Turks, Jews, and others in Iraq with a connection to Iran.Reference Bordering on War: A Social and Political History of Khuzestan, Shaherzad Ahmadi, 2024, pp. 102, 121-122, .
History For over a thousand years from 500 BC until the Islamic conquest of Persia, the territory of Iraq had been ruled by the Persians, although with some interruptions. However, Persians were a minority in Iraq, generally comprising soldiers, governors, and clerics. As in other regions, the Persians in Iraq were not homogeneous, and the soldiers, clergy, and bureaucrats were classes with independent hierarchies or distinctive attire.The Conquest and Islamization of Iraq, Hüseyin Gökalp, 2023, pp. 164, . Despite ethnic Persians always having been a minority in Iraq, they had a long presence there, and formed the ruling class for thousands of years.Morony, Michael G. “The Effects of the Muslim Conquest on the Persian Population of Iraq.” Iran, vol. 14, 1976, pp. 41. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4300543. Accessed 6 July 2026. The Persian population in Mesopotamia under the Sassanids was clustered along the western and southern frontiers as military garrisons. Persian families of noble lineage lived in the main cities, and there were Persian farmers in some of the villages of the Sawad. Around 12,000 Persians from Istakhr, Isfahan, and other regions were settled at Nisibis in the 4th century, and their descendents remained there at the beginning of the 7th century. Persians also lived at Tikrit, Ctesiphon, Veh-Ardashir, Kaskar, and Maysan. Persians also lived in the districts between the Tigris river and the Zagros foothills. Most Iraqi Persians were Zoroastrians.
Before the Islamic conquest, Mesopotamia formed the central province of the Sassanids, and was referred to as "del-e Irānšahr" (the heart of Iranian kingdom) in medieval Islamic sources. After the Islamic conquests, most Iraqi Persians either died in battle or fled to other regions of the Sasanian Empire. There were some factors to why the Persians left Iraq while most other communities stayed, mainly as the Persians were the main enemy of the Muslims in battles, and they were not originally from the region. Persian soldiers, bureaucrats, and clergy were the first to leave Iraq, with the remaining Persian merchants, tradesmen, and farmers serving as "dehqans" or immigrated to the east of the Zagros Mountains. They were historically distinguished from the Kurds and Lurs, two other Iranian nations in the nearby Zagros mountains.The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century, Hugh N. Kennedy, 1986, pp. 13, .
After the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and the Siege of Ctesiphon, the center of the Sasanians, the Muslims had captured Mesopotamia, also entering the lowlands of Khuzestan, and penetrated the Iranian plateau during the Battle of Nahavand in 642, which secured Iraq and Khuzestan for the Muslims and gave them access to the rest of Iran which gradually fell. Because the region around Nahavand, known as Jibal, was so close to Iraq, it was called Iraq-e Ajam. The Umayyads ruled over Persia directly from Iraq, as did the Abbasids, and most Arab settlers in Persia came from Iraq. For the first century after Islam, most Persians in Iraq were brought there as captives. By the 9th century, as the Abbasid military shifted more toward Turks, the control over Persia no longer resided in Iraq. After the Islamic conquest, Persians continued to have a presence in Mesopotamia until the Safavid era, as Persian remained the language of most sedentary people and the chancery as late as the 15th century, according to Hafiz-i Abru, who wrote that in Iraq, the city dwellers, tradesmen, and craftsmen were Persian speakers, the Bedouins were Arabic speakers, and since the Turkic conquests, the governing classes were Turkic speakers, although all three groups generally knew the other languages due to frequent mixture.
Although Baghdad was founded near the ancient Ctesiphon, the Persian settlers had only came after the city was founded, but played a big role in the architectural influence on the original design, and there was also Persian military settlement in the early years of the city. However, around fifty years after Baghdad was founded, the Persian settlers lost connections with their homeland. Al-Fadl ibn Sahl rose in the Abbasid ranks and openly declared his aim of restoring Persian influence and making the Abbasids the true heirs of the Sasanians. Under the Buyids, an Iranian dynasty which was also Shia, the Persian influence greatly increased, although Baghdad was still not considered a Persian city, and while the Persian element was pervasive, it was never overwhelming. Despite the city of Baghdad being in decline, Persians were growing more influential in the city shortly before the Mongols carried out the siege of Baghdad. Persians played a role in the reconstruction of Baghdad afterwards. Baghdad later became the capital of the Jalayirids.
When the Safavids occupied Iraq, during both the first (1508-1533) and second (1622-1638) periods, Shia Persian merchants came to Iraq and procured a good share of the commerce of Baghdad. Early in the 17th century, there were a few thousand Persians in Karbala, Najaf, Kadhimayn, and Baghdad. At that time, there were still no Persians in Basra, which mostly comprised Arabs and some Turks. After the second Ottoman occupation of Baghdad in 1638, around 1,700 Persians in the region were killed and many fled to Persia. The Persian colony in Iraq until 1638 largely comprised merchants and others seeking economic opportunities. Since the main Shia academic centers were in Persia at the time, there were no significant numbers of Persian scholars in Iraq, and it was only from the 18th century that Persian scholars arrived in Iraq on a large scale. After the Afghan invasion of Isfahan in 1722, hundreds of families of Shia scholars were displaced, and many of them fled to Iraq during 1722-1763. The center of Shia scholarship shifted from Persia to Iraq, first to Karbala and then to Najaf, and at that time, the Persian language gained much ground in Iraq, specifically in Karbala, Najaf, Baghdad, and Basra. Persian religious families in Karbala and Najaf managed to overshadow the Arab scholars and dominated the religious circles. By the 20th century, there was a significant Persian population in Baghdad, Basra, and Tawayrej. The position of Persians in Iraq improved after Ottoman-Qajar agreements such as the Treaty of Erzurum in 1823. As they were relatively privileged, important, and had a large presence in holy cities, the Persians in Iraq had an advantage over the Shia Arab population. The increased tolerance for Shia Islam by the Ottomans during the Afsharid and Qajar periods in Iran allowed Persian influence to grow in Iraq, especially among Shia Muslims in the south. The local Persian community were targeted during the Wahhabi sack of Karbala.War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and Present, 2008, pp. 103, .
The Persians in Iraq were historically considered Persian subjects rather than Ottoman, and the Persian consular offices held extra-territorial jurisdiction over them. The status of Persians in Iraq was a major cause of strained Ottoman-Qajar relations even after their privileges were officially confirmed in 1875. They had signed an agreement recognizing the status of Persian consuls and consular dragomans in the Ottoman Empire as carrying the same privileges enjoyed by their European counterparts. The 1875 agreement affirmed that the Persian consuls were exclusively the authority over Persian subjects in matters of civil and criminal law and of succession. Persian subjects were declared amenable to the jurisdiction of Ottoman courts in cases of violation of the law, and in mixed civil and commercial cases, certain powers of assistance and protection in the proceedings were reserved for the Persian consular representatives. The agreement also exempted Persian subjects from certain taxes to which Ottoman subjects were liable. Although it was declaired that the same provisions would apply to Ottoman subjects in Persia, the Persians were the main beneficiaries of the agreement. Iraqi Persians were considered ethnic Persians and were distinguished from the Arab Shias of southern Iraq who historically adopted Iranian citizenship to escape Ottoman conscription.The Shi'is of Iraq, Yitzhak Nakash, 2018, pp. 100, . Rupert Hay claimed that the city of Mandali included Persians along with Kurds, Lurs, and others.Iraq and Rupert Hay's Two Years in Kurdistan, Paul J. Rich, 2008, pp. 15, . Iraqis of Iranian origin who lost their culture and language and Arabized were collectively considered Arabized Iranians, regardless of their Persian, Kurdish, Lur, or other origins.Bordering on War: A Social and Political History of Khuzestan, Shaherzad Ahmadi, 2024, pp. 92, .
During the Persian Constitutional Revolution, local committees of Persians in Iraq created Persian-language schools with the backing of scholars such as Mohammad-Kazem Khorasani and Abdollah Mazandarani. The first schools were "Ukhuwwat" ("brotherhood"), an elementary school for boys in Kadhimayn founded in 1907 by "Anjoman-e Okhowwat-e Iranian" ("Iranian Brotherhood Association"), and two coeducational elementary schools, 'Alawi, founded in Najaf in 1908-09 by the local religious establishment, and Hosayni, founded in Karbala by "Anjoman-e Mosawat-e Iranian" ("Iranian Equality Association"). Another elementary school for boys, Sharafat, was founded in Baghdad in 1913 by "Anjoman-e Sharafat-e Iranian" ("Iranian Honor Association"). All four schools later expanded their program to the high school level, in 1936, 1960, 1956, and 1943 respectively. Two others also founded in Najaf and Amarah but closed in World War I. While teaching foreign languages and subjects at schools in Tehran and Tabriz was considered "kufr", the Persian schools in Iraq had more freedom. At the same time, the Persian community in Iraq established more Persian-language newspapers, which had existed in Iraq since the start of the Second Constitutional Era. The Persians in Ottoman Basra were despised by the local Sunnis, although there was no serious tensions.Merchants, Mamluks, and Murder: The Political Economy of Trade in Eighteenth-Century Basra, Thabit Abdullah, 2001, pp. 93, .