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The name of the body of water separating the Arabian Peninsula from Iran has been the subject of some dispute in recent decades. It is most commonly called the Persian Gulf, after the land of Persia (Iran). However, various forms of rivalry between Persians and Arabs, along with the arrival of pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism, has caused the recently invented name Arabian Gulf to become predominant in some Arab countries. Names beyond these two have also been applied to or proposed for this body of water, as discussed below.

Overview

In possibly every map printed before 1960 and in most modern international treaties, documents and maps, this body of water is known by the name "Persian Gulf", reflecting traditional usage since the Greek geographers Strabo and Ptolemy, and the geopolitical realities of the time with a powerful Persian Empire (Iran) comprising the whole northern coastline and a scattering of local emirates on the Arabian coast. But by the 1960s and with the rise of Arab nationalism, some Arab countries, including the ones bordering the Persian Gulf, adopted widespread use of the term "الخليج العربي" (al-Khaleej al-Arabee; Arab Gulf or Arabian Gulf) to refer to this waterway; this is the standard usage in modern Arabic. This coupled with the decreasing influence of Iran on the political and economic priorities of the English speaking Western World led to increasing acceptance, in regional politics and the mostly petroleum-related business, of the new alternative naming convention "Arabian Gulf".

Until the end of the 19th century, "Arabian Gulf" has been used to refer to what is now known as the Red Sea. This usage was adopted into Europeans maps from, among others, Strabo and Ptolemy who called the Red Sea, Sinus Arabicus (Arabian Gulf). Both of these Greek geographers reserved "Persian Gulf" to refer to the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. In the early Islamic era, Muslim geographers did the same, calling the body بحر فارس (Bahr Faris; Persian Sea) or "خليج فارس" (Khalij Faris; Persian Gulf). Later, most European maps from the early Modern Times onwards used similar terms (Sinus Persicus, Persischer Golf, Golfo di Persia and the like, in different languages) when referring to the Persian Gulf, possibly taking the name from the Islamic sources. For a short while in the 17th century, the term "Gulf of Basra" was also being used, which made a reference to the town of Basra (Iraq), an important trading port of the time. Basra, however, is not on the shore of the waterway. The Times Journal, published in London in 1840, referred to the Persian Gulf as the "Britain Sea," despite the distant geography. For more information, see the United Nations paper: "Historical, Geographical and Legal Validity of the name 'Persian Gulf'" (April 2006).

The matter remains very contentious, in particular as the competing naming conventions are supported by respective governments, in internal literature, but also in dealings with other states and international organizations. Some parties with certain aims use terms like "The Gulf" or the "Arabo-Persian Gulf". After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 some people within Islamic groups suggested the use of "Islamic Gulf" (the originator of the term is not known, while some people suggest that prominent figures of the early years of the Islamic republic including Ruhollah Khomeini, Mehdi Bazargan, and Sadegh Khalkhali may have supported the idea), but the idea was quickly abandoned after Iran was invaded by its predominantly Muslim neighbor, Iraq. Possibly the most famous person who has used the term "Islamic Gulf" recently has been Osama bin Laden, who used the term as late as 1996.

Viewpoint of Iran

According to the Jerusalem Post:

Tehran believes in defending the historical term "Persian Gulf" against "Arabian Gulf," which it regards as a name dreamed up by Arab nationalists. While Iran dominates the eastern side of the waterway, the western shores are held by Arab countries.

Viewpoint of the UN and the US

The United Nations on many occasions has requested that only Persian Gulf be used as the standard geographical designation for that body of water. Most recently, the UN Secretariat has issued two editorial directives in 1994 and 1999 affirming the position of that organization on the matter.

The group of experts on Geographical Names was set up by the secretary-general of the United Nations in pursuance of economic and Social council resolution 715A(XXVII) on April 23, 1959 and has endorsed 'Persian Gulf' as the official name for this body of water.

The use of the name 'Arabian Gulf' was described to be 'faulty' by the eighth United Nations conference on the standardization of Geographical names, Berlin, 27 August September 2002.

In the United States, Persian Gulf has been the label sanctioned for U.S. government use since a decision by the State Department's Board of Geographical Names in 1917. This practice remains State Department policy . In recent years, due to increased cooperation with Arab states of the Persian Gulf, various branches of the U.S. armed forces have issued directives to their members to use the "Arabian Gulf" when operating in the area ("Persian Gulf" is still used in official publications and websites), partially to follow local conventions, or simply to follow local laws that ban the use of "Persian Gulf", e.g. in the United Arab Emirates. Also for similar reasons, branches of American universities in the region have also dropped references to "Persian Gulf" in their teaching materials.

In 2004, the National Geographic Society published a new edition of its National Geographic Atlas of the World using the term "Arabian Gulf" as an alternative name (in smaller type and in parentheses) for "Persian Gulf". This resulted in heavy protests by many Persians, especially the Internet user community, which led to the Iranian government acting on the issue and banning the distribution of the society's publications in Iran. On December 30, 2004, the society reversed its decision and published an Atlas Update, removing the parenthetical reference and adding a note: "Historically and most commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is referred to by some as the Arabian Gulf." It also removed the alternative Arabic names for certain islands and/or replaced them with Persian ones (see also National Geographic Society).

Some atlases and media outlets have taken to referring to "The Gulf" without any adjectival qualification. This usage is followed by The Times Atlas of the World.

In June 15, 2006 Iran banned the sale of The Economist for the above reason. A major map in an issue labeled the Persian Gulf as 'The Gulf'.

See also

• Sea of Japan naming dispute

External links

• Historical, Geographical and Legal Validity of the name: PERSIAN GULF, Iranian delegation working paper for the 23rd Session of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, April 2006
• Encyclopedia Iranica on the History of the Persian Gulf
• Factsheet on the Legal and Historical Usage of the "Persian Gulf" - ISG MIT
• A repository of Historical maps
• The Persian Gulf: The Politics of Geographic Renaming
• The Persian Sea (Gulf) in the Avesta, Pahlavi Texts & the Shahnameh
• CAIS at SOAS
• WIKIPEDIA & Two New Entries for the Persian Gulf (in Persian)
• Iran bans The Economist over map

• Geographical naming disputes