Feylis

Feylis

Fayli, "Feili", or Feyli Kurds' (Kurdish: فه یلی /Feylî/Pehlî) are largely a Kurdish Shi'a community living in Baghdad and the Diyala Province of Iraq around Khanaqin and Mandali, and across the Iranian border, in the provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah and Luristan. They number an estimated 6.000.000. people. The Fayli Kurds are an important community within the wider Kurdish people. Faylee (Faylee, Faili, or Feli) are, according to some, part of the Kurdish population in Iraq and an integral part of the Kurdish nation, though others believe they are much more related to Lurs and Persians. This misunderstanding has an historical origin. Pushtkuh (or old name of ilam province) in Iran was under the control of Lur ruler. Their second name was faili or faylee, so because of their injustice and tyranny some of the old ilam inhabitants migrated to Iraq and some were exiled. This is in spite of the fact that ilam residents are not and were not lur and only their homeland was captured by lurs and the lur ruler many centuries controlled this region in their hands, although some of the tourist and writers in the past said that pushtkuh people are lur but this is not true it seems they didn't know that this region is a kurdish region under the control of a lur ruler called wali, they were kurds people with lur ruler. Unfortunately, when faylee kurds entered Iraq were enforced to introduce themselves as faili kurds its mean is the kurds under the control of lur ruler. When we saw a website as a western luristan which is belonged to faili kurds it is surprising because Iranian lur are different from kurds and disagree to be named as kurds and it seems by this site faili kurds try to say that we are from pushtkuh (old name of ilam)or it seems some faili kurds parties try to make a new identity for faili kurds in order to win the election in future because if they use same the word kurdistan instead luristan they can not be winner in election.so,it can be said that they try to show a different root for faili kurd to gain more poll in spite of the facts that there is in Iran about lurs and kurds. It is interesting to know that in ilam people say we are kurd not lur and in lurestan lurs say we are lur not kurd. Anyway, it should be reminded to faili kurds of Iraq that lur are different from kurds and if in a time lur has been classified as kurds it is because of ilam province which their language is kurdish but during a time was under the control of lur rulers. Faylee have themselves shown, over the years, and still show this fact and reality by words and deeds. They speak Feyli, a dialect that belongs to the kurdish language, which some argue is a dialect of middle Persian. Feyli is spoken particularly on both sides of the border areas between Iraq and Iran .

Feyli speak Gorani, a dialect of the Kurdish language. The roots of the Feyli go back to the Aryan immigrants of the first millennium BC, and more specifically, the Parthian/Pahlawi/Pahlawanid settlements of the 2nd century BC. They embraced Islam in the early stages of the Islamic conquest and colonisation of Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Iran, although archaeological evidence from the Ilam Province in Iran indicates that some proportions of Fayli might have been Nestorian Christians until the 18th Century. The conversion to Shia form of Islam seem to have begun under the Safavid dynasty (1507–1721) of Persia/Iran, Faylis today are primarily Imami Shias like the Persians, Lurs and the Azeris, as well as the majority of the Iraqi Arabs.

In modern times the Feylis have been subject to state persecutions. They are considered as a stateless people, with both Iran and Iraq claiming they are citizens of the other country. In the mid 1970s, Iraq expelled around 40,000 Feyli's who had lived for generations near Baghdad and Khanaqin, alleging that they were Iranian nationals.