Huwala

Huwala (, sing. Huwali هولي) also collectively referred to as Bani Huwala, is a blanket term usually used to refer to tribal Arabs who migrated to the coast of Iran around the 13th and 14th centuries. Such migrations continued till around 19th century to the area which is now Iran's Hormozgan province and Fars province, mainly Bandar Abbas, Qishm, and the mainland near Bandar Lengeh. The Huwala follows Sunni Islam, as opposed the majority Persian Twelver Shia and similar to Sunni Peninsular Arabs. Most of the Huwala have remigrated back to the Arabian Peninsula between late 19th century and early 20th century. The imposition of restrictive economic policies by Reza Shah in the 1930s led to the migration of most of the Huwala back to the Arabian Peninsula.

The term "Huwala" does not refer to Sunni Larestani Achomi families such as Kandari, Janahi, Khaloori, Zarooni, and Bastaki. It specifically refers to the actual Arab Huwalas (Arab El-Sahel), which encompasses the Qawasem, Hammadi, Al Nasur/Nassour, Obaidli, and Bani Tamim tribes.

The original Huwalas are commonly referred to as Arab el-Sahel el-Shargi (), or simply Arab Faris (), but some of them prefer not to be called Huwalas as the term is used for Achomis in the Gulf. On the other hand, Achomis sometimes choose to identify themselves as Huwalas due to societal pressure to assimilate.

Some families of non-Arab origins have adopted the surnames of Arabian Huwala tribes. For example, they are often Hammadi and Marzooqi only in name.

Etymology

Huwala (Arabic: الهولة), is a plural Arabic term for Huwali (Arabic: هولي). The meaning of the word remains unclear, and many Gulf historians continue to debate its origins and significance. Contrary to popular belief, there is very little evidence to support the claim that it means "to change over."

It appears that the Huwala was a tribal confederation formed in Coastal Oman, similar to the Al-Utub confederation, who were at times their arch rivals. However, it appears that the term was abandoned shortly thereafter, which explains its disappearance in the oral tradition of the Huwalas themselves.

A book by Dejanirah Couto and Rui Loureiro into Portuguese interactions in Hormuz defines Huwala as "migrant Arabs".

Author Lawrence G. Potter defines Huwala as

Identity and origin

Contemporary historians of that period, such as Niebuhr, Lorimer, David Seton, and others, did not neglect to record for us a huge number of political and social events in the Gulf during the period preceding the period of the recent migration of the inhabitants of the southern Iranian region to the Gulf states during the reign of Shah Reza Pahlavi at the beginning of the twentieth century AD. We find in these historians a clear description of the identity of the true Huwala Arabs according to geographical and social standards.

These historians agree geographically that the Huwala Arabs live in a specific geographical area starting from Bandar Kanj in the south and reaching Bandar Kangan in the north, and from the coast of the Persian Gulf in the west to the region of the (Shibkoh) mountains in the east. This geographical area is called the Shibkoh (شيبكوه) region, meaning the sloping mountain, and there are no Huwala Arabs according to this description in the regions outside this region, such as the Bandar Abbas, Bastak, Bushehr, Falamarz, Ahvaz or Abdan regions.

According to the Saudi historian Jalal Al-Haroon, there are two types of Huwalas:

* The first type consists of the original Arabs who migrated to Southern Iran from Coastal Eastern Arabia during the 16th and 17th centuries, such as the Bani Hammad, Qawasim, Obaidli, and Al-Haram. Those are now are now referred to Arab Fāris (عرب فارس) or Arab al-Sāḥil (عرب الساحل).
* The second type of Huwalas refers to the indigenous people of Southern Iran who resided under the rule of the aforementioned tribes and later migrated back with them to Arabia during the 20th century after the invasion by the Iranian government.

Huwala families

Historical sources tell us that the "Al-Hawla Arabs" do not descend from a single tribe, but rather they descend from a union of several specific Arab tribes. We must focus here on the word “specific,” as the tribes belonging to the "Huwala Arabs" are the following tribes:
# Al Qasimi or Al-Qawasim
# Al Marzooqi or Al-Marazeeq
#Al-Ali
#Bani Bishr
#Bani Hammad or Al-Hammadi
#Bani Obaidel or Al-Obaidly
#Al-Haram or Al-Harami
#Bani malik or Al-Malki
#Bani Tamim or Al Tamim
#Al Nasur/Nassour or Al-Mathkur

Intentional confusion with Achomis

Many Achomi sunni families changed their names (especially in Bahrain), having added Arabic "Al-" (ال) to their names, whilst others completely changed their names. Based on a study in 2013, the researcher noted: the linguistic and religious situation of Sunni Persians in Bahrain is thorny and sometimes it is intentionally confused between "Hole\Hawala Arabs" and "Sunni Persians". The same study also claims that Sunni Achomis did not face any systematic racism. In Achomi/Laristani blogs they claim they changed their names to either avoid racism or easily blend in. There is a similar issue in Kuwait. Likewise some sources intentionally (or unintentionally) list non-Arab families are "Huwala Arabs."

See also

* Arab-Persians
* Ajam of Bahrain
* Ajam of Kuwait
* History of Bahrain
* History of Kuwait
* Culture of Eastern Arabia

References

External links

Huwala/Arab El-Sahel DNA Project

{{Iranian peoples

History of Eastern Arabia
Bahraini people of Iranian descent
Kuwaiti people of Iranian descent
Persian communities outside Iran
Iranian diaspora in the Middle East