The history of Faily Kurds as well as the Kurdish people in general is not studied systematically due to political repression,…

discrimination and the absence until recently of a Kurdish power. This is why what I will mention is sporadic and refers to a few highlights in Faily Kurds history.

As Kurds, Faily Kurds are ancient part of the Middle Eastern peoples. Some writers maintain that they are the descendants of the culturally well advanced and sometimes militarily powerful Ilamite Empire (Ilam Province in western Iran). It ruled vast areas of western Iran and parts of Mesopotamia.

During 1623-1629 Faily Kurds under the leadership of Dhulfiqar Mouseli, ruled Iraq from Kirkuk to Basrah when the Ottoman and the Safavid empires where busy fighting each other on other fronts.

At the beginning of the last century a women, Qadam Khair, led a revolt in Ilam against the central power. Until the central powers could control Faily Kurds areas, manly local rulers enjoyed local autonomy.

When the nowadays state of Iraq was founded in 1921 one of the leaders was contacted by the British to become the king of the new country was a Faily Kurd leader named Hussein Quli Khan.

In a publication in Arabic on the history of Baghdad in the eighteen nineties, Al-‘Adhami mentioned at least two areas in Baghdad baring the name “Kurd”.

As repressed and discriminated segment of the Iraqi society, Faily Kurds have been politically active and supportive of the Kurdish and democratic and progressive opposition forces in Iraq since the nineteen-forties of the last century. Young Faily Kurds resisted the Baath Party coup d’état of 8 Feb 1963 and paid a heavy price. Many Faily Kurds took part in and were leaders of an urban political and armed revolt against the Baath regime after the double coup d’états of 1968 that brought the Baath party to power once again.

However, because of the historic open conflict and sectarian enmity between the Ottomans (Turkey) and the Safavids (Iran),  Faily Kurds were victimized, stigmatized and made second-class citizens in the new state of Iraq; the Law of Citizenship (Law number 42 of 1924) classified them as “Iranian subjects” (or Iranian dependents) while calling the rest of the population “Ottoman subjects” (or Ottoman dependents).

Faily Kurds have participated in the economic development of Iraq and worked in building the infrastructure, especially roads since before World War Two. However, the real turning point in their economic fortunes and status, in particular in Baghdad, took place at the end of the forties and beginning of the fifties of the last century. When Iraqi Jews were deported or migrated from Iraq to the new state of Israel on a mass scale they left a vacuum in many sectors. Before the authorities decided to “freeze” their property, some of them managed to sell part of their businesses and property to Faily Kurds, probably out of sympathy with a prosecuted minority. Faily Kurds stepped in and partially filled this vacuum mostly in the trade and commerce sector, particularly in Baghdad (Suq al-Shorja). As Faily Kurds are industrious, risk taking and socially mobile, they developed and expanded these businesses achieving dominant positions, particularly within wholesale-trade and import and other businesses. This prosperity enabled young Faily Kurds to study at universities and make strides in many professions, for example as physicians, engineers, economists, charter accountants, academics and so on.

However, their wealth and prosperity later brought upon them the envy of the greedy people within the ruling circles of the Baath party. Faily Kurds political, economic and social advances partially shed light on why Faily Kurds were later targeted, suppressed and subjected to periodic forcible deportation from Iraq to Iran particularly when political relations between the two countries were tense. Forcible deportation was carried out only once before W .W2 on a very small-scale. After W.W2 during the monarchy deportations were mostly on a very limited scale or on an individual and temporary basis, mainly of activists of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Iraqi Communist Party, the deportees used to return to Iraq without a problem after few weeks. No deportations took place under the rule of General Abdul-Karim Qassim, whose mother was a Faily Kurd. However, under the Baath regime forcible deportation became more wide-spread during 1969-1972. But the 1980-1990 forcible deportation was comprehensive and more punishing and ruthless. It included Faily Kurds from Kirkuk in the north to Basra in the south. The inhabitants of Faily Kurds towns like Khanaqin and Mandali and other border towns were either deported to Iran or forcibly displaced to other areas in Iraq during this period.

Dr. Majeed Ja'afer