Khaz'al Ibn Jabir Al-kaabi - Historical Background

Historical Background

In early 1920s, Khuzestan, with its large Arab population, was a virtual sheikhdom under the rule of Sheikh Khaz'al. An ambitious local Arab leader, Khaz'al was nominally under the jurisdiction of the Qajar king. In reality, he was protected and controlled by the British, whose 10,000-man army, the South Persia Rifles, operated with immunity in southern Iran. The British, without notifying Iran, were also providing Khaz'al with meager shares of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. They even considered Khazal as a possible king for Iraq or for an independent principality in southern Persia . Khaz'al was also the darling of many Sunnite Iraqi nationalists, who sought to foment dissent among Iran’s Arab population by referring to Khuzestan as Arabestān and glorifying Khaz'al as its independent “Sultan”.

The tribal leaders of the Bani Kaab, an Arab tribe which had originally come from the area of what is now Kuwait in the 16th century, had often been the Imperial-appointed tax farmers for the entire province for many years after the fall of the Msha'sha'iya. The Bani Kaab were the largest and most powerful tribe in the province. In the early 19th century the Bani Kaab had dissolved into a number of rival clans that often clashed and feuded with each other.

Of these factions, the Muhaisin clan, led by Jabir al-Kaabi, became the strongest and under his leadership the Bani Kaab were reunified under a single authority, the capital of the tribe being moved from the village of Fallahiyah to the flourishing port city of Mohammerah. Unlike previous leaders of the Bani Kaab, Jabir maintained law and order, and established Mohammerah as a free port and sheikhdom, of which he was Sheikh. Jabir also became the Imperial-appointed governor-general of the province.