# Khuzestan  
The province of Khuzestan illustrates a quite different situation. As a neighbour of Iraq, its inhabitants are ethnically Arab through centuries of travel and immigration. An abundance of water and fertile soil suitable for agriculture, along with oil reserves and various industries, have provided job opportunities (Jamalzada 1384 SH, pp. 70, 108; Khazeni, 2009, p. 123). Most people belong to the Shi'a denomination and speak Arabic. Society was divided into the ta'ife (tribe or community), 'ashire (clan), hamule (dynasty) and beyt (family). While not necessarily hierarchical, this system led to the formation of a few slave clans which adopted similar characteristics to those found in Sistan va Baluchistan. However, as illustrated by the enslaved people who joined the 'Abdulkhan community when it left the Iraqi part of the Ottoman Empire in 1856 and settled in Khuzestan, groups were able to form their own clan. The 'Abid or Kakahi clan are therefore descendants of enslaved Africans (Sistani 1366 SH, Vol.1, p. 417). Central government policies affected the local social system in this region in the twentieth century and the traditional social structure has now been transformed. For example, while many shaykhs still act as mediators in social, political and economic matters in their communities, their authority was officially abolished in the 1920s (Sanasarian, 2000, p. 14).