Feyli (tribe)
Feylis (Kurdish: فهیلی, romanized: Feylî), also known as Feyli Kurds, is a Kurdish tribe mainly from Baghdad and the borderlands between Iraq and Iran. They speak Feyli (also known as "Ilami" or "Southern Kurdish Feyli") which is classified as a sub-dialect of Southern Kurdish, but is commonly mistaken as being identical with the separate Feyli dialect of Northern Luri. Linguist Ismaïl Kamandâr Fattah argues that the Kurdish Feyli dialect and other Southern Kurdish sub-dialects are 'interrelated and largely mutually intelligible.'
Feylis and their dialect | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Baghdad, Maysan, Diyala, Wasit, Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq, and provinces of Lorestan, Ilam, Kermanshah in Iran . | |
| Iraq | 1,500,000 (7,000 refugees still in Iran) |
| Languages | |
| Feyli or Ilami (sub-dialect of Southern Kurdish) | |
| Religion | |
| Islam (Shia majority, large Sunni minority) | |
Feylis are recognized as ethnic Kurds in the Iraqi constitution. In January 2019, Feyli Kurds received a reserved minority seat in Wasit Governorate, which was won by Mazen Abdel Moneim Gomaa with 5,078 votes in the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary election.
Today, the 1,500,000 Feylis live mainly in Baghdad, Maysan, Diyala, Wasit, Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq, and provinces of Lorestan, Ilam, Kermanshah in Iran.