Persian Gulf naming dispute

Parties to the naming dispute of the water body surrounded by them

The Persian Gulf naming dispute is about the name of the body of water known historically and internationally as the Persian Gulf (Persian: خلیج فارس), after the land of Persia (the old Name of Iran. some Arab countries since the 1960s started to call it Arabian Gulf

History of the name

This name has changed by some Arab countries since the 1960s, there was no act until the early 1960s does a major new development occur with the adoption by the Arab states bordering on the Gulf of the new expression al-Khalīj al-ʻArabī as a weapon against Iran for political influence in the Gulf. On almost all maps printed before 1960, and in most modern international treaties, documents and maps, this body of water is known by the name "Persian Gulf

[2] This reflects traditional usage since the Greek geographers Strabo and Ptolemy, and the geopolitical realities of the time with a powerful Persian Empire comprising the whole northern coastline and a scattering of local emirates on the Arabian coast. It was referred to as the Persian Gulf by all Arabs historian and Geoghraphers such as the Arabic Christian writer Agapius, writing in the 10th century.

United Nations

According to the book Documents on the Persian Gulf's name (pp 92–98), the United Nations Secretariat and its specialized agencies have requested its staff to use only "Persian Gulf" as a standard geographical name.

The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names discussed the naming issue during its 23rd session, held in Vienna from 28 March to 4 April 2006. According to the report of the meeting, "It is interesting that from among 6000 existing historical maps published up to 1890, there are only three maps mentioning the names of Basreh Gulf, Qatif Gulf, and Arabic Gulf, in addition to which the name of small gulfs(Bay) located at the coast with local use can be also named such as Siraf Gulf(bay), Basreh Gulf, Bahrain Gulf,…. but such names are not applied to the entirety of the Persian Gulf. It is obvious that the promotional use by the Arabs of the three aforementioned maps, whose identity and originality are not clear, in comparison with 6000 maps and more than 200 historical and tourism books from Irastus to Herodotus to Estakhri and Ibn Houghal, who have all called the water body, Persian Gulf, shall lack any value."

Persian Gulf Naming Dispute Media

• 

  PersianGulf vue satellite du golfe persique

• 

  An official letter from former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to a Bahraini official. The name "Persian Gulf" (الخليج الفارسي) has been used. The document dates before the initiation of Nasser's pan-Arabism policies.

• President Obama mentioned the term Persian Gulf in his Nowruz Message to the Iranian People at 2015.

• 

  Shāri' al-Khalīj al-Fārsī (Arabic: شارع الخليج الفارسي), the Persian Gulf Street in Cairo, Egypt

• 

  A historical map of the Persian Gulf in Saeed Al Maktoum House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The word "Persian" is erased from the phrase "Persian Gulf".

Related pages

• Names of Iran
• Persian Gulf
• Documents on the Persian Gulf's name
• Early world maps
• History of cartography
• List of cartographers
• Iran
• Middle East
• Cartography
• Maps

Other websites

• [3]
• What's in a name? For the Persian Gulf, quite a lot [4]
• the term Persian Gulf and its equivalents have been used continuously in all languages. [5] Archived 2020-09-30 at the Wayback Machine

Maps of Persian Gulf or its equivalent

• 

  Map of Persian Gulf 1747

• 

  Map of Persian Gulf 1747]]

• 

  Heinrich.Map of Persian Gulf 1903

• 

  Map of Persian Gulf 1838

• 

  An Pomponius Mela 43 AD.Map of Persian Gulf

• 

  Ptolemy's Map of Persian Gulf 1467

• 

  194 BC Eratosthenes 194 Map of Persian Gulf

• 

  Map of Persian Gulf 1531

• 

  Regional 1200 Map of Persian Gulf Istakhri

• 

  Giacomo Gastaldi's map circa 1548 Map of Persian Gulf

• 

  Map of Persian Gulf 1740

• 

  Map of Persian Gulf 1808