Khuzestan province

Khuzestan Province Persian: استان خوزستان
Province
From the top to bottom-right, Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System, Shush Castle, Tomb of Daniel, Ziggurat in Chogha Zanbil, Ahvaz
Location of Khuzestan province within Iran
Coordinates: 31°20′N 48°40′E / 31.333°N 48.667°E / 31.333; 48.667[1]
Country	Iran
Region	Region 4
Capital	Ahvaz
Counties	30
Government
• Governor-general	Ali-Akbar Hosseini Mehrab
• MPs of Assembly of Experts	1 Abbas Ka'bi 2 Abdul Karim Farhani 3 Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi Shahroudi 4 Mohsen Heidari Alekasir 5 Seyyed Ali Shafiei 6 Mohammad Ali Mousavi Jazayeri
• Representative of the Supreme Leader	Abdul-Nabi Mousavi Fard
Area
• Total	64,055 km2 (24,732 sq mi)
Population  (2016 Census)[2]
• Total	4,710,509
• Estimate  (2020[3])	4,936,000
• Density	74/km2 (190/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+03:30 (IRST)
ISO 3166 code	IR-06
Main language(s)	Khuzestani Arabic, Lurish, Persian dialects of Khuzestan , Mandaic
HDI (2017)	0.802[4] very high · 12th

Khuzestan province (Persian: استان خوزستان)^[a] is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covering an area of 63,238 square kilometres (24,416 sq mi). Its capital is the city of Ahvaz.^[5] Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's Region 4.^[6]

At the time of the 2006 National Census, Khuzestan province had a population of 4,192,598 in 862,491 households.^[7] The following census in 2011 counted 4,531,720 people in 1,112,664 households.^[8] At the most recent census conducted in 2016, the province had a population of 4,710,509 in 1,280,645 households.^[2]

Once one of the most important regions of the Ancient Near East, Khuzestan comprises much of what historians refer to as ancient Elam, whose capital was in Susa. The Achaemenid Old Persian term for Elam was Hujiyā when they conquered it from the Elamites. This element is present in the modern name. Khuzestan, meaning "the Land of the Khuz", refers to the original inhabitants of this province, the "Susian" people (Old Persian "Huza" or Huja, as in the inscription on the tomb of Darius the Great at Naqsh-e Rostam). They are the Shushan of the Hebrew sources where they are recorded as "Hauja" or "Huja". In Middle Persian, the term evolved into "Khuz" and "Kuzi". The pre-Islamic Partho-Sasanian inscriptions give the name of the province as Khwuzestan.

The seat of the province has for most of its history been in the northern reaches of the land, first at Susa (Shush) and then at Shushtar. During a short spell in the Sasanian era, the capital of the province was moved to its geographical center, where the river town of Hormuz-Ardasher, founded over the foundation of the ancient Hoorpahir by Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian Dynasty in the 3rd century CE. This town is now known as Ahvaz. However, later in the Sasanian time and throughout the Islamic era, the provincial seat returned and stayed at Shushtar, until the late Qajar period. With the increase in the international sea commerce, arriving on the shores of Khuzistan, Ahvaz became a more suitable location for the provincial capital. The River Karun is navigable all the way to Ahvaz (above which, it flows through rapids). The town was thus refurbished by the order of the Qajar king, Naser al-Din Shah and renamed after him, Nâseri. Shushtar quickly declined, while Ahvaz/Nâseri prospered to the present day.

Khuzestan is known for its ethnic diversity; the population of Khuzestan consists of Lurs, Iranian Arabs, Qashqai people, Afshars, indigenous Persians (Dezfuli-Shushtari, Behbahani), Kurds and Iranian Armenians.^[9][10] Khuzestan's population is predominantly Shia Muslim, but there are small Christian, Jewish, Sunni and Mandean minorities.^[10] Half of Khuzestan's population is Lur.^[11]

Since the early 1920s, tensions on religious and ethnic grounds have often resulted in separatist violence, including an insurgency in 1979, unrest in 2005, bombings in 2005–06 and protests in 2011. The Iranian regime has drawn harsh criticism from international human rights organizations for its repressive measures against the religious and ethnic minorities in the region. However, the internal conflict was brought to a temporary halt in 1980 when Khuzestan was invaded by Ba'athist Iraq, leading to the Iran–Iraq War where Khuzestanis of all backgrounds fought alongside the Iranian military in resisting the Iraqi offensive. Currently, Khuzestan has 18 representatives in Iran's parliament, the Majlis. Meanwhile, it has six representatives in the Assembly of Experts, including Ayatollahs Mousavi Jazayeri, Ka'bi, Heidari, Farhani, Shafi'i, and Ahmadi.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).