Afro-Iranians
Afro-Iranians () are Iranian people of African Zanj heritage. Most Afro-Iranians are concentrated in the coastal provinces of Persian Gulf such as Hormozagan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Bushehr and Khuzestan. Most of the people of Lashar are Afro-Iranians. History. The Indian Ocean slave trade begun in the 6th century BC and was multi-directional and changed over time. To meet the demand for menial labor, black slaves captured by Arab slave traders were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Arabia, India, the Far East, the Indian Ocean islands and Ethiopia . Others came as immigrants throughout the centuries or from Portuguese slave traders who had conquered southern Iran. During Qajar rule, many wealthy households imported Black African women and children as slaves to perform domestic work alongside Eastern European Circassian slaves. This slave labor was drawn largely from the "Zanj", who were Bantu-speaking peoples that lived along the coast of the Southeast Africa, in an area roughly comprising modern-day Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya. However, Mohammad Shah Qajar, under British pressure, issued a "firman" suppressing the slave trade in 1848.