4000 BC: The Arabistan region witnessed the birth of one of the oldest human civilizations, which is the Semitic Elamite civilization. 2320 BC: The Elamites took over the city of Ur, the capital of the Akkadian empire. 2095 BC: Babylonian King, Hammurabi, invaded the land of Elam and annexed it to his kingdom. 1160 BC: The Elamite king (Shtruk-Nakhunte) conquered the land of Babylon, where he seized the statue of Marduk, the greatest god of Babylon, and the Hammurabi obelisk, which the French found with other valuable relics in the city of Sus in 1901 A.D. 640 BC: The Assyrian king (Ashurbanipal) overthrew the Elamite state. 550 BC: the occupation of the region by the Achaemenid Persians. 331 BC: Ahwaz subjugation to the rule of Alexander the Great of Macedon, after defeating the Achaemenids. 311 BC: The Seleucid empire extends their control over the region. 221 AD: The occupation of Ahwaz by the Shapur I, the second Sasanian King 637 AD: The conquest of the Ahwazi lands by the Arab Muslims, led by Abu Musa al-Ash’ari. 1258 AD: The Mongol invaders occupied Arabistan, after they managed to overthrow the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. Hence, the territory was subject to the state of the black sheep. 1436 A.D.: The establishment of the Arab Musha’sha state under the leadership of Muhammad bin Falah, which maintained its existence for nearly three centuries, between the Iranian and Ottoman states, and managed in some periods to extend its control over large parts of Iran , including Bandar Abbas and Kermanshah, and regions in Iraq, including Basra and Wasit, in addition to Al-Ahsa and Qatif. 1509 AD: The occupation of Al-Hawiza, the capital of the Mushasha’is, by Shah Ismail Al-Safavid, but the outbreak of the Ahwazi Arab revolutions against the Safavid rule forced Shah Ismail to recognize the rule of Al-Musha’sha’i over the region.
1541 A.D.: Al-Mushasha’i’s army defeated the Ottoman forces that tried to occupy Arabistan, after being able to occupy Baghdad and Basra.
1589 A.D.: Mubarak bin Muttalib took over the rule of the emirate, which is considered the period of his rule as the golden age of the Musha’sha state, where he was able to extend his control over all parts of Arabistan, after expelling the Iranian forces from there.
1609 A.D.: The Al-Musha’sha emirate allied itself with the Portuguese without submitting to their will.
1625 AD: With the help of the Ottoman Empire, the Musha’sha forces defeated the Safavid Iranian army.
1639 A.D.: The Safavid and Ottoman states, according to the Murad IV covenant, recognized the independence of the Musha’sha emirate.
1694 A.D.: Faraj Allah bin Ali al-Musha’sha took over Basra and annexed it to his emirate.
1732 AD: Nader Shah Afsharid occupied the Ahwaz region and killed its prince, Muhammad bin Abdullah Al-Musha’sha. Simultaneously, the Emirate of Bani Kaab began to emerge on the scene, after its princes were able to extend their influence in some areas in the region.
1747 A.D.: Muttalib bin Abdullah Al-Musha’sha took over Al-Hawizeh and then imposed his control on other cities in the region, forcing the Afsharid state to officially recognize the authority of Al-Musha’sha in Al-Hawizeh.
1757 AD: Karim Khan Zand invaded Arabistan and took over some of its cities, but ultimately failed to subjugate the Kaab emirate.
1765 AD: The defeat of the Iranian-Ottoman-British alliance (East India Company) in front of the forces of Prince Salman bin Sultan Al-Kaabi, who is considered a unique Arab leader in his era, as he managed to defeat the Iranian and Ottoman states at the same time, and then forced the British forces to withdraw from the battlefield.
1821 AD: The Iranian and Ottoman states signed the first covenant of Erzurum, which divided Arabistan into two spheres of influence (Ottoman and Iranian).
1837 AD: The Ottoman forces invaded and occupied the city of Muhammarah, and then took over all parts of Arabistan.
1847 AD: The Ottoman Empire relinquished its territories in Arabistan, according to another agreement known as the Second covenant of Erzurum.
1857 AD: Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar officially recognized the independence of Muhammarah as a hereditary emirate with its own sovereignty and laws.
1888 AD: For the first time, the Karun River (Dujail) in Arabistan was opened to international navigation.
1897 AD: The assassination of Prince Mizal bin Jaber Al-Kaabi, and his brother, Prince Khazal, came to power in Arabistan, who allied with Britain to preserve the independence of his emirates from the Iranian and Ottoman states. He played a prominent role in the events of the first quarter of the last century. Amin Al-Rihani said about him in his book (Kings of the Arabs): “He is the eldest of them after King Hussein (the Sheriff of Mecca), and the foremost of them to fame, and the companion of the greatest of them to generosity.”
1902 AD: Britain officially promised Prince Khazal that it would stand in the face of any foreign attack targeting his emirate.
1907 AD: Britain and Tsarist Russia signed a covenant that divided Iran into three spheres of influence, British, Russian and neutral. However, the Arabistan region was not mentioned in the framework of those divisions, as it was considered a semi-independent Arab emirate.
1908: The discovery of oil in Arabistan.
1910 AD: Britain awarded Prince Khazal the K.C.I.E Medal, and then other medals and titles.
1914 AD: The outbreak of World War I contributed to the strengthening of British influence in Arabistan, and thus helped to consolidate the status of Prince Khazal and the independence of his emirate. British forces entered the port of Abadan to preserve the oil facilities.
1915 AD: The Ottoman state incited the Arab clans opposed to Khazal, the most important of which were Bani Tarf, Rabia, and Bani Lam, to revolt against his rule and declare jihad against the British forces allied with him.
1917 AD: The victory of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia prompted the Western powers, especially Britain, to change their strategy towards the region, as they gradually gave up their support for the independence of the Emirate of Arabistan in favor of a strong and unified Iranian entity that constituted a strategic barrier in front of the Russian communists and their attempts to reach warm waters.
1921 AD: The failure of Sheikh Khazal’s efforts to win the throne of Iraq was announced.
1922 AD: In the framework of his efforts to confront the attempts of Reza Khan Pahlavi (father of the former Shah), to control Arabistan, Sheikh Khazal allied with the Bakhtiari clans opposed to Reza Khan.
1924 AD: Sheikh Khazal declared his resistance to the expansionist policies of Reza Khan. So he presented his case to the (League of Nations), and asked the religious scholars in Najaf to issue a fatwa excommunicating Reza Khan, who was famous for his hostility to Islam
and the Arabs, but his efforts failed. Especially since the British had reneged on all their promises to Sheikh Khazal.
1925 AD: Reza Khan, after appearing unable to achieve a military victory against Prince Khazal, resorted to deception, so he managed to kidnap him and transfer him to Tehran, where he was placed under house arrest, and then imposed his control over Arabistan with the help of Britain, the ally of Sheikh Khazal. Thus, Iran was able to annex Arabistan to its sovereignty, thus ending the last Arab emirate in the region.
1928 A.D.: A popular uprising erupted in the Al-Hawiza region, led by Sheikh Muhyiddin Al-Zaibaq, who managed to control the region for more than six months.
1936 A.D.: Sheikh Khazal was strangled in his exile in Tehran by the aides of Reza Khan.
1940 AD: A large uprising erupted, in which Arab tribes participated, led by a tribe from Bani Ka’ab, led by Sheikh Haider bin Talal.
1941 AD: British forces occupied Arabistan during World War II.
1946 AD: Immediately after the end of the war, one of Sheikh Khazal’s sons, Sheikh Jasib, led a revolution against the Pahlavi rule, but it was not successful. Hence, an organization was formed in the region in the name of the Felicity Party, which was demanding the autonomy of Arabistan, and confronting the policy of Farsization (imposition of the dominant language of Farsi on Arab people with the Arabic language) in the region.
1956 AD: Massive demonstrations erupted in Ahwaz in solidarity with Abdel Nasser’s Egypt, which was subjected to the tripartite aggression.
1958 AD: The Arabistan Liberation Front was formed. Then other armed Nasserite nationalist organizations emerged in the region.
1963 AD: The Shah’s intelligence service (SAVAK), with the help of the Israeli Mossad, was able to detect and destroy a Nasserite organization in Ahwaz in the name of the Supreme National Committee, which was
planning a comprehensive Arab revolution in the region. After a mock trial, a number of the organization’s leaders were executed, namely the martyr Muhyiddin Humaidan Al Nasser, the martyr Issa al-Mathkhour, and the martyr Dahrab Shamil.
1965 AD: Iran severed its diplomatic relations with Syria in protest to the statements made by the Syrian Prime Minister Youssef Zain in the Syrian Parliament, where he called publicly for the need to “liberate Arabistan from the Iranian occupation.”
1967 AD: The National Front for the Liberation of Arabistan and the Ahwazi Liberation Front were formed.
1970 AD: The formation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Al-Ahwaz (Arabistan).
1975 AD: Closing down all offices of Arabistan political organizations in Iraq, and moving some of them to Syria, Lebanon and Libya, following the signing of the Algeria Agreement between Iraq and Iran.
1979 AD: The Iranian revolution, in which the Arab people in Ahwaz contributed a prominent role in its success, especially through their primary participation in the strikes of the oil workers, which paralyzed the capabilities of the Shah’s regime and hastened its downfall. However, only a few months passed until a confrontation erupted between the people of Arabistan and the new revolutionary regime, after it refused to recognize their national and cultural rights that the Shah’s regime had long violated, and then the governor of the region, General Ahmed Madani, committed heinous massacres that claimed the lives of hundreds of the people of the cities of Muhammarah and Abadan who resisted the attempt of the local authorities to close the Arab political and cultural centers in the region. Arabistan witnessed a campaign of arbitrary arrests and executions, and its spiritual leader, Ayatollah Al-Shabeer Al-Khaqani, was exiled to Qom, where he died in mysterious circumstances.
1980 AD: The occupation of the Iranian embassy in London by an armed group belonging to an Arabistani organization called the Martyr Mohieddin Al Nasser. The operation ended after the British Special
Forces stormed the embassy and killed all the perpetrators of the operation, except one of them, who is still under arrest in Britain. The outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war, which caused widespread destruction in Arabistan cities and villages, and brought countless calamities and disasters to its people.
1981: The establishment of the Arab Front for the Liberation of Al-Ahwaz.
1983 AD: Announcement of the formation of the National Council of Ahwaz.
1985 A.D.: A widespread popular uprising erupted throughout Arabistan in protest against an article in an Iranian newspaper that insulted the Arabs of the region.
1987 AD: The founding conference of the Ahwazi National Liberation Movement was held.
1994 AD: Bloody confrontations broke out between the security forces and the Arabs whose lands were confiscated in the framework of the sugar cane project in the region, during which dozens of landowners were killed and injured.
1996 AD: The founding of the Ahwazi Democratic Movement.
1998 AD: Announcing the formation of the Arab National Party.
1999 AD: The founding conference of the International Association of University Graduates of Iranian Arabs was held in London.
2000 AD: Massive demonstrations in Abadan protesting the pollution of drinking water, which came due to the implementation of the sugar cane project aimed at confiscating Arab lands in the Ahwaz region.
2001 AD: The establishment of the Ahwazi Solidarity Party.
2002 AD: A mass uprising erupted in the city of Ahwaz and some other Arab cities in the region, in protest against the confiscation of satellite dishes by the local authorities, which lasted for about two weeks.
2003 AD: The founding conference of the Ahwazi Democratic Solidarity Party was held in London.
