Feyli Kurds () are a collection of Kurdish tribes in the borderlands between Iraq and Iran. Historically, the lands of the Feyli Kurds were ruled by the Vali dynasty. Feyli Kurds are distinct from Feyli Lurs, and they speak the Feyli dialect of Southern Kurdish, which is also known as "Ilami" and is distinct from the Feyli dialect of northern Luri. They are mostly Shia Muslims.Göran Larsson och David Thurfell: Shiamuslimer i Sverige - en kortfattad översikt, SST:s skriftserie, nr 3, 2013, pp. 21, .
Feyli Kurdish was traditionally spoken in Ilam and Kermanshah provinces in Iran and in eastern Iraq. In 2017, their population was estimated around 1,500,000 in Iraq, mainly in Baghdad, but also the eastern parts of Diyala, Wasit, Maysan, and Basra provinces, and many in the Kurdistan Region. Mahdi Al-Tamimi, the director of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Basra, estimated the total population of Feyli Kurds at more than 3,000,000 in 2020. In 2008, there were 7,000 Feyli Kurdish refugees from Iraq in Iran.
Etymology The term "Feyli" was associated with the Vali dynasty, and was applied to all tribes that were under their authority. While the Vali dynasty was Lur, it ruled over Kurdish, Lur, and Lak tribes.تاريخ سياسى اجتماعى كردهاى فيلى در عصر واليان پشتكوه (ايلام), مراد مرادی مقدم, 2006, pp. 55, The tribes of Ilam and Lorestan provinces were all labelled Feyli during the Safavid period, whether they spoke Southern Kurdish, Luri, or Laki.Reintegrating the Faili Kurds into Iraqi Society: seeking their voice in politics, Hoshang Dara Hama Ameen, Saeideh Shariati Najafabadi, pp. 4, May 2024, presented at the International Scientific Conference of Genocide against Kurdistan People: Genocide of Faili Kurds, May 24, 2023. While it was generally agreed that the term "Feyli" referred to the Vali dynasty and was applied to the tribes under their rule, there were different views over what the term "Feyli" actually meant and where it derived from.Faylis, Kurds and Lurs: Ambiguity on the frontier of Iran and Iraq: An overview of the literature, Martin van Bruinessen, pp. 5-6.
From the Safavid to the Qajar eras, all the tribes living under the Vali dynasty were collectively referred to as "Feyli Lurs" in official settings, which also included the Kurdish tribes. Feyli Kurds were often mislabeled as Feyli Lurs in historical documents, mostly because Posht-e-Kuh was under Lur governance for over 700 years under the Khorshidis and Valis, thus being considered part of Lur-e-Kuchak, causing many writers throughout history to assume that Posht-e-Kuh was mostly Lur like the rest of Luristan. However, writers who personally went to Posht-e-Kuh, or did sufficient research, did mention the Feyli Kurds.تاريخ سياسى اجتماعى كردهاى فيلى در عصر واليان پشتكوه (ايلام), مراد مرادی مقدم, 2006, pp. 205, They were also called the "Kurds of Feyli Luristan".تحفة الأزهار وزلال الأنهار في نسب أبناء الأئمة الأطهار، Volume 3, 2019, pp. 231, .
In Iraq, the term "Feyli Kurd" was initially applied to immigrants from Posht-e-Kuh, which were mostly Kurds. With the formation of the Iraqi state, it was gradually used for all Shia Kurds in the country, whether they had always been in the eastern regions or immigrated from Iran. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Feyli Kurdish label expanded to include all Shia Kurds, regardless of where they came from, while some added that they appeared to be evolving into a sect if not an ethnic group.Reintegrating the Faili Kurds into Iraqi Society: seeking their voice in politics, Hoshang Dara Hama Ameen, Saeideh Shariati Najafabadi, pp. 5, May 2024, presented at the International Scientific Conference of Genocide against Kurdistan People: Genocide of Faili Kurds, May 24, 2023. Historically, the term "Feyli" was sometimes used to generalize all dialects of Southern Kurdish or Northern Luri, although academics gradually stopped using the term by the 21st century due to its inherent ambiguity, and to avoid the conflation of Feyli Kurds and Feyli Lurs.Current Issues in Kurdish Linguistics, 2019, pp. 77-78, . Fattah instead referred to them as "Posht-e-Kuhi Kurds", adding that the population of Lur-e-Kuchak comprised "Posht-e-Kuhi Kurds", "Lak Kurds" and "Fayli Lors".Les dialectes kurdes méridionaux: étude lingusitique et dialectlogique, Volume 37, Ismaïl Kamandâr Fattah, 2000, pp. 44, . He added that it was only some Kurds in Baghdad who identified with the term "Feyli".
Origin The region of Posht-e-Kuh had a Kurdish majority, with Lurs in the south and Laks in the east. Lurs were the majority of Pish-e-Kuh which had a Lak population in the north.Les dialectes kurdes méridionaux: étude lingusitique et dialectlogique, Volume 37, Ismaïl Kamandâr Fattah, 2000, pp. 43, .Changes of Poshtkouh Boundary in the Qajar Era, Alireza Asadi, Kaivan Shafei, Seyed Mohammad Sheikh Ahmadi, pp. 7. In Historical Studies, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS) Biannual Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, Autumn and Winter 2022–2023, 1–5, Doi: 10.30465/hcs.2022.42447.2671 Vladimir Minorsky described them as a Kurdish community living among the Feyli Lurs in Posht-e-Kuh and one of the Kurdish communities of Luristan, alongside the Lak tribes in the north.Minorsky, V. (1986). "Lur". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. . Garnik Asatrian also accounted for the Kurds of "western Luristan".Asatrian, Garnik. “Die Ethnogenese Der Kurden Und Frühe Kurdisch-Armenische Kontakte (The Origins of the Kurds and the Early Kurdish-Armenian Contacts).” Iran & the Caucasus, vol. 5, 2001, pp. 42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4030845. Accessed 7 Sept. 2026. According to Gilbert Lazard, a group of Kurds historically immigrated from north Luristan to Baghdad, and considered themselves Kurds while their dialect met the characteristics of Southern Kurdish.Annuaire 1978-1979, pp. 939, . Alfons Gabriel wrote that the population of Posht-e-Kuh included "Feyli Lurs" in the south and "Kalhor Kurds" in the north.Die Erforschung Persiens: die Entwicklung der abendländischen Kenntnis der Geographie Persiens, Alfons Gabriel, 1952, pp. 205. Chris Kutschera mentioned them as ethnic Kurds who migrated to Iraq from Iranian Luristan.Le mouvement national kurde, Chris Kutschera, 1979, pp. 270. M. Reza Hamzeh'ee wrote that the Feyli Kurds in eastern Iraq were related to the Kurds of Kermanshah,Zigeunerleben im Orient: eine vergleichende interdisziplinäre Untersuchung über die Geschichte, Identitätsstruktur und ökonomische Tätigkeit orientalischer Zigeuner, M. Reza Hamzehʼee, 2002, pp. 202, . while David McDowall described them as being "of Kirmanshahi origin".A Modern History of the Kurds, David McDowall, 1997, pp. 11, . According to G. B. Akopov, the Feyli Kurds in Posht-e-Kuh were in fact ethnic Kurds, although historically they did absorb some Lur elements which assimilated among them.كردان گوران و مسأله كرد در تركيه: از آغاز جنبش كماليان تا كنفرانس لوزان، G. B. Akopov (Hakopian), M. A. Hasarof, translated by Sirus Izadi, 2007, pp. 91, .
In Iraq, the historic label "Irani ol-asl" ("originally Iranian") variously included people of Persian, Kurdish, and Lur heritage.Bordering on War: A Social and Political History of Khuzestan, Shaherzad Ahmadi, 2024, pp. 92, . Some Lurs had "spilled over into Iraq" in the Zagros foothills around Mandali and in towns along the Tigris,Middle East Patterns: Places, People, and Politics, Colbert C. Held, John Thomas Cummings, 2018, pp. 115, . and were a much smaller community considered distinct from their Feyli Kurdish neighbors.Middle East Patterns: Places, People, and Politics, Colbert C. Held, John Thomas Cummings, 2018, pp. 426, . The Feyli Kurds were also counted separately from the Iraqi Persians, who were the larger group in the 1980s,The Modern History of Iraq, Phebe Marr, 2012, pp. 17, . and 20th-century Feyli Kurdish immigrants from Ilam province to Iraq generally felt no connection with the Persian community there aside from their association to Iran.Bordering on War: A Social and Political History of Khuzestan, Shaherzad Ahmadi, 2024, pp. 67, . All three communities were similarly persecuted in the Ba'athist period, with the Iraqi Persians and Feyli Kurds being targeted in deportations,Iran, Iraq and the Arab Gulf States, 2016, pp. 79, . and the Lurs also undergoing a large-scale relocation to Iran.Update on Luri: How many languages?, Erik John Anonby, pp. 174, JRAS, Series 3, 13, 2 (2003), pp. 171–197 DOI: 10.1017/S1356186303003067.
History Feyli Kurds originated from the region historically known as Masabadhan. After the Islamic conquest of Iran, Masabadhan was frequently mentioned as a region of Jibal. The term Luristan came into use with the rise of the Lur dynasties such as the Khorshidis. Under the Lur dynasties, the region of Masabadhan became known as Posht-e-Kuh, and made up the western part of historical Lur-e-Kuchak.تاريخ سياسى اجتماعى كردهاى فيلى در عصر واليان پشتكوه (ايلام), مراد مرادی مقدم, 2006, pp. 36-38, Minorsky, V. (1986). "Luristan". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. pp. 829-832. Leiden: E. J. Brill. . The Kurds of Masabadhan (and the wider Jibal region) were frequently mentioned by Arab historians after the Islamic conquests, after which several native Kurdish dynasties rose from the region, including the Hasanwayhids and Annazids.
According to the 12th century Mojmal al-Tawarikh, the Hasanwayhids originated from the rulers of Jibal and Masabadhan. The Hasanwayhids were a Kurdish dynasty which descended from Hasanwayh, who succeeded his maternal uncle, the last ruler of the Kurdish Aishanid dynasty.Tor, D.G. (2017). The Abbasid and Carolingian Empires: Studies in Civilizational Formation. pp. 54–55. Brill Academic Pub. . The Hasanwayhids were succeeded by the Annazids, another Kurdish dynasty which was related to them by marriage and in a rivalry with them. The Annazids ruled over a vast territory, on both sides of what later became the Iran–Iraq borderlands. After the Annazids collapsed, their territory was incorporated by the Lur Khorshidi dynasty, beginning the Lur governance over the region.