Jibāl (Arabic:جبال), alsoal-Jabal (Arabic:الجبل), was the name given by theArabs to a region and province located in westernIran, under theUmayyad andAbbasidCaliphates.
Its name means "the Mountains", being the plural ofjabal ("mountain, hill"), highlighting the region's mountainous nature in theZagros.[1][2] Between the 12th and 14th centuries, the name Jibal was progressively abandoned, and it came to be mistakenly referred to asʿIrāq ʿAjamī ("Persian Iraq") to distinguish it from "Arab Iraq" inMesopotamia.[1][3][4] The region never had any precisely defined boundaries, but was held to be bounded by theMaranjab Desert in the east, byFars andKhuzistan in the south, byIraq in the south-west and west, byAdharbayjan in the north-west and by theAlborz Mountains in the north, making it roughly coterminous with the ancient country ofMedia.[1][3]
Under theAbbasid Caliphate, Jibal formed a separate province, with its capital usually atRayy, until the Abbasids lost control in the early 10th century.[3] For most of the 9th century, however, the area was ruled by anautonomous local dynasty, theDulafids.[3][5] In the late 10th and early 11th century, the larger portion of Jibal became one of theBuyid emirates, while the south passed to theKakuyids.[3]
The language spoken in Jibal was known as Pahlavi, known asFahla orBahla inArabic records. Although Pahlavi literally meansParthian, the name had come to mean "heroic, old, ancient". "Pahlavi" most likely referred to a group ofnorthwestern Iranian languages and dialects, which are still spoken today, such asTalysh,Southern Tati, or variants ofAdhari.[6]