Afro Iranian

People of Black African descent reside in Iran. Most Afro Iranians are concentrated in Hormozagan, Sistan and Baluchestan and Khuzestan.^[1]

History

The Indian Ocean slave trade was multi-directional and changed over time. To meet the demand for menial labor, black slaves captured by Arab slave traders were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Arabia, India, the Far East, the Indian Ocean islands, Ethiopia and Somalia.^[2]

During the Qajar dynasty, many wealthy households imported Black African women and children as slaves to perform domestic work. This slave labor was drawn exclusively from the Zanj, who were Bantu-speaking peoples that lived along the coast of East Africa in an area roughly comprising modern-day Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi.^[3][4] However, Mohammad Shah Qajar, under British pressure, issued a firman suppressing the slave trade in 1848.^[5]

Notable Afro-Iranians

Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, Caliph of Baghdad and son of an Afro-Iranian mother

See also

• Afro-Arab
• Afro Iraqis
• Afro-Turks
• Lashar
• Zanj
• Slavery in Iran
• Kolu people

Further reading

• Mirzai, B. A. (2002), "African presence in Iran: Identity and its reconstruction in the 19th and 20th centuries", Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer 89: 336–337 

References