Feyli (tribe)
Feylis (Kurdish: فهیلی, romanized: Feylî[11][12]), also known as Feyli Kurds,[1][13][14][15][16] is a Kurdish tribe based in 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,[1][7] but is commonly mistaken as being identical with the separate Feyli dialect of Northern Luri.[1] Linguist Ismaïl Kamandâr Fattah argues that the Kurdish Feyli dialect and other Southern Kurdish sub-dialects are 'interrelated and largely mutually intelligible.'[17]
Feylis are recognized as ethnic Kurds in the Iraqi constitution.[18] In January 2019, Feyli Kurds received a reserved minority seat in Wasit Governorate,[19] which was won by Mazen Abdel Moneim Gomaa with 5,078 votes in the 2018 Iraqi parliamentary election.[20]
Today, the 1,500,000 Feylis live mainly in Baghdad, Maysan, Diyala, Wasit, Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq, and provinces of Lorestan, Ilam, Kermanshah in Iran.[21][22]