According to
Encyclopedia Iranica, the
Arab presence in Khuzestan dates back to centuries before the Common Era. During the Kingdom of Characene, established in Khuzestan around 129 BCE after the decline of the
Seleucid Empire, the region known as
Characene was home to a predominantly
Arab population. The kingdom was ruled by Hyspaosines, who was referred to as the
king of the Arabs of that area. According to Iranian Scholars, including
Ahmad Kasravi, Iraj Afshar Sistani and Javad Mashkour, referring to the historical account of
al-Tabari during the
Parthian era, the
Sasanian monarch
Ardashir I sought the assistance of
Arab tribes in Khuzestan (Banu al-'Am) in his military campaigns against the Parthians leading to the defeat and eventual downfall of
Ardavan, the last king of the Parthian Empire. During the Islamic conquests in 638 CE, according to Muslim scholars such as
al-Tabari and
Ibn al-Athir, local Ahwazi Arab tribes already present in Khuzestan supported the Muslim armies against the Persian forces. Their involvement was extremely helpful to the Muslim Army leading to the defeat of the Sasanian commander
Hormuzan and the subsequent muslim control of the region. Since the 16th century, Khuzestan was slowly becoming
arabized, due to new Arab settlers arriving from
Mesopotamia, such as the Banu Ka'b. Due to influx of Shia Arab tribes invited by the
Safavids to act as a bulwark against the
Ottoman Empire, the western part of Khuzestan became known as Arabestan. According to the
Iranologist Rudi Matthee, this name change took place during the reign of
Shah Abbas I (). Like the provinces of
Kurdistan and
Lorestan, the name of Arabestan did not have a "national" implication. Later on, the whole Khuzestan province came to be known as Arabestan. It is uncertain when this change occurred. According to Rudi Matthee, it was first during the reign of the
Afsharid ruler
Nader Shah (), that this happened. The Iranologist
Houchang Chehabi considers this to have taken place in the second half of the 18th century. Another Iranologist,
Roger Savory, considers this change to have happened later, by the
Qajar era. The name was reverted back to Khuzestan by
Reza Shah in 1925 under his campaign which included the central government ordering the change of names of many cities and towns during the 1930s; these orders changed names of many towns from their native names to Persianized names, to the new name of Reza Khan, naming himself Pahlavi in honor of the Pahlavi scripts, and changing names to historical Persian names which included changing names of Arab towns to Persian ones to encourage the Arab identification with the Iranian nation, especially after the collapse of Arab autonomy in Iran. The ancient port city in Khuzestan, known as the
Emirate of Muhammara, which was autonomously ruled
Khazʽal Ibn Jabir, was renamed from its Arabic name after the
sheikh was driven out and his oil lands were confiscated by the government. Reza Shah discouraged the usage of Arabic in the state and also relocated tribes to elsewhere in the province. although there are numerous immigrant Arab tribes of Khuzestan with origins from the
Arabian Peninsula, such as the
Banu Ka'b at
Dawraq, the later Fallāhīya and present-day
Shadegan, the
Musha'sha' at
Hoveyzeh,
Banu Tamim, and more from southern Iraq. == Language ==