Persian Iraq in the context of "Southern Mesopotamia"

Arab Iraq (Arabic: عراق العرب, romanized: ‘Irāq ul-‘Arab, lit. 'Iraq of the Arabs') was a term used to refer to the Arab-populated region to the west of Persian Iraq. It included Lower Mesopotamia and some desert areas which are geographically connected to the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula without any natural borders. The name "Arab Iraq" (Persian: عراق عرب, romanized: Irâq-e Arab) was created during the Seljuk era in the 11th-12th centuries, to distinguish it from "Persian Iraq" (Persian: عراق عجم, romanized: Irâq-e Ajam). Persian Iraq and Arab Iraq were often referred to as "al-Iraqayn" (Arabic: العراقين) meaning "the two Iraqs" collectively. According to Ottoman documents Lugat-i Tarihiyye ve Cografiyye, written in 1894, and Kâmûs-ül Â'lâm, written in 1896, Arab Iraq was located to the southwest of Persian Iraq, east of the Levant, southeast of Al-Jazira, south of Kurdistan, and west of Khuzestan.

Jibāl (Arabic: جبال), also al-Jabal (Arabic: الجبل), was the name given by the Arabs to a region and province located in western Iran, under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates.

Its name means "the Mountains", being the plural of jabal ("mountain, hill"), highlighting the region's mountainous nature in the Zagros. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, the name Jibal was progressively abandoned, and it came to be mistakenly referred to as ʿIrāq ʿAjamī ("Persian Iraq") to distinguish it from "Arab Iraq" in Mesopotamia. The region never had any precisely defined boundaries, but was held to be bounded by the Maranjab Desert in the east, by Fars and Khuzistan in the south, by Iraq in the south-west and west, by Adharbayjan in the north-west and by the Alborz Mountains in the north, making it roughly coterminous with the ancient country of Media.

The Ildegizids, Eldiguzids or Ildenizids, also known as Atabegs of Azerbaijan (اتابکان آذربایجان Atabakan-e Āzarbayjan), were an Atabegate of the Seljuk Empire, and a Sunni Muslim Turkic dynasty (started by Eldiguz of Kipchak origin), which controlled most of northwestern Persia, eastern Transcaucasia, including Arran, most of Iranian Azerbaijan, and Jibal. At their maximum extent, the territory under their control, roughly corresponds to most of north-western Iran, most of the regions of modern Azerbaijan and smaller portions in modern Armenia (southern part), Turkey (northeastern part) and Iraq (eastern part). Down to the death in war 1194 of Toghril b. Arslan, last of the Great Seljuq rulers of Iraq and Persia, the Ildenizids ruled as theoretical subordinates of the Sultans, acknowledging this dependence on their coins almost down to the end of the Seljuqs. Thereafter, they were in effect an independent dynasty, until the westward expansion of the Mongols and the Khwarazm-Shahs weakened and then brought the line to its close.

Atabeg (literally "father-lord" in Turkic) was the title conferred upon the Turkic officers who served as guardians of minor Seljuq rulers. In the political circumstances of the time, Atabegs were not only tutors and vice-regents of their princes, but also de facto rulers. At the height of Eldiguzid power, their territory stretched from Isfahan in the south to the borders of Kingdom of Georgia and Shirvan in the north. However, closer to the end of their reign amidst continuous conflicts with the Kingdom of Georgia, the Eldiguzid territory shrank to include only Azerbaijan and eastern Transcaucasia.

The Muzaffarid dynasty (Arabic: آل مظفر;Persian: مظفریان) was a Muslim dynasty that came to power in Iran following the breakup of the Ilkhanate in the 14th century. At their zenith, they ruled a kingdom comprising Iranian Azerbaijan, Central Persia, and Persian Iraq.

The Muzaffarids were known for their patronage of Arabic and Persian literature, helping to create Shiraz as a centre of cultural learning. Shah Shoja was a poet and wrote in both Arabic and Persian and was said to be capable of memorizing eight verses of Arabic poetry after hearing them read once. While the Muzaffarid ruler of Kirman, Shah Yahya, commissioned the scholar Junyad bin Mahmud Al-Umari to compile an anthology of Arabic poetry and prose for him