Map of Persian Iraq and its surroundings

Persian Iraq, also uncommonly spelled Persian Irak ( fa, عراقِ عجم ''Erāq-e Ajam(i)''; ar, عراق العجم '''Irāq al-'Ajam'' or '''Irāq 'Ajami''), is a

historical region Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic, linguistic or political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as delimitations for studying and analysing soc ...

of the western parts of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The region, originally known as Media in pre-Islamic times, became known as

Jibal Jibāl ( ar, جبال), also al-Jabal ( ar, الجبل), was the name given by the Arabs to a region and province located in western Iran, under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. Its name means "the Mountains", being the plural of ''jabal'' (" ...

("mountain, hill") by the early Islamic geographers, due its mountainous layout. The name was progressively abandoned during the Seljuk era in the 11th-12th centuries, and was called ''ʿIrāq(-i) ʿAjamī'' ("Persian Iraq") to distinguish it from ''ʿIrāq(-i) Arab'' ("Arab Iraq") in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

. According to the medieval historian and geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, this course started taking place when the Seljuk sultans ruled both Iraq proper and Jibal, thus being addressed "sultan al-Iraq". However, the city of Hamadan in Jibal eventually became their capital, thus resulting in the region becoming known as Iraq, with the word

Ajam ''Ajam'' ( ar, عجم, ʿajam) is an Arabic word meaning mute, which today refers to someone whose mother tongue is not Arabic. During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a racial pejorative. In many languages, including Persian, Tu ...

i ("Persian") being added. Following the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206-1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

of Iran in the 13th-century, the name Jibal had become completely outdated. In the following century, the geographer

Hamdallah Mustawfi Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini ( fa, حمدالله مستوفى قزوینی, Ḥamdallāh Mustawfī Qazvīnī; 1281 – after 1339/40) was a Persian official, historian, geographer and poet. He lived during the last era of the Mongol Ilkhanate, a ...

was unaware of the name Jibal, and only knew it as 'Iraq-i Ajami'. It was regarded by him as ''sardsīr'' ("cold zone"). Later, until the beginning of the 20th century, the term ''Iraq'' in Iran was used to refer to a much smaller region south of

Saveh Saveh ( fa, ساوه, translit=Sāveh, also transliterated as ''Sāwa'') is a city in Markazi Province of Iran. It is located about southwest of Tehran. As of 2011, the city had a population of 259,030 people. History In the 7th century BC it ...

and west of

Qom Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its pop ...

. This region was centered on Soltanabad, which was renamed later as Arak.

References

Sources

* * * * {{EI2 , volume = 2 , title = D̲j̲ibāl , first = L. , last = Lockhart , authorlink = , page = 534 , url = https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_2068 Historical regions of Iran Historical geography of Iran