The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran (Persia).United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names Working Paper No. 61 , 23rd Session, Vienna, 28 March – 4 April 2006. accessed 9 October 2010 It is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz. The river delta of the Shatt al-Arab forms the north-west shoreline.
The Persian Gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive reefs (mostly rocky, but also coral), and abundant pearl oysters; however, its ecology has been damaged by industrialization and oil spills.
The Persian Gulf is in the Persian Gulf Basin, which is of Cenozoic origin and related to the subduction of the Arabian plate under the Zagros Mountains.A Brief Tectonic History of the Arabian basin. Retrieved from the website: http://www.sepmstrata.org/page.aspx?pageid=133 The current flooding of the basin started 15,000 years ago due to rising sea levels of the Holocene glacial retreat.
Geography
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulf's southern limit as "The Northwestern limit of Gulf of Oman". This limit is defined as "A line joining Ràs Limah (25°57'N) on the coast of Arabia and Ràs al Kuh (25°48'N) on the coast of Iran (Persia)".
This inland sea of some is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz. Its western end is marked by the major river delta of the Shatt al-Arab, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. In Iran, this is called "Arvand Rud" ().
Its length is , with Iran covering most of the northern coast and Saudi Arabia most of the southern coast. The Persian Gulf is about wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are very shallow, with a maximum depth of and an average depth of .
Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are (clockwise, from north): Iran; Oman's Musandam exclave; the United Arab Emirates; Saudi Arabia; Qatar, on a peninsula off the Saudi coast; Bahrain, an island nation; Kuwait; and Iraq in the northwest. Various small islands also lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states in the region.
Exclusive economic zone Exclusive economic zones in the Persian Gulf:
NumberCountryArea (km2)1 97,8602 52,455 3 33,7924 31,8195 11,7866 8,8267 3,6788 540TotalPersian Gulf 240,756
Coastlines Countries by coastline length:
NumberCountryLength (km)1 1,5362 1,3003 9004 5635 4996 1617 1008 58TotalPersian Gulf 5,117
Islands
The Persian Gulf is home to many islands such as Bahrain, an Arab state. Geographically, the biggest island in the Persian Gulf is Qeshm island, belonging to Iran and located in the Strait of Hormuz. Other significant islands in the Persian Gulf include Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Kish administered by Iran, Bubiyan administered by Kuwait, Tarout administered by Saudi Arabia, and Dalma administered by UAE. In recent years, there has also been the addition of artificial islands for tourist attractions, such as The World Islands in Dubai and The Pearl Island in Doha. Persian Gulf islands are often also historically significant, having been used in the past by colonial powers such as the Portuguese and the British in their trade or as acquisitions for their empires.
Oceanography The Persian Gulf is connected to the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz. Writing the water balance budget for the Persian Gulf, the inputs are river discharges from Iran and Iraq (estimated to be per second), as well as precipitation over the sea which is around /year in Qeshm Island. The evaporation rate is high, so that after considering river discharge and rain contributions, there is still a deficit of per year.
This difference is supplied by currents at the Strait of Hormuz. The water from the Persian Gulf has a higher salinity, and therefore exits from the bottom of the Strait, while ocean water with less salinity flows in through the top. Another study revealed the following numbers for water exchanges for the Persian Gulf: evaporation = –/year, precipitation = /year, inflow from the Strait = /year, outflow from the Strait = -/year, and the balance is 0 m (0 ft)/year. Data from different 3D computational fluid mechanics models, typically with spatial resolution of and depth each element equal to are predominantly used in computer models.
Name Historical names
Before the adoption of the current name, the Persian Gulf was known by other names. The Assyrians called it the "Bitter Sea". In 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire established the first ancient empire in Persis (Pars, or modern Fars, also known as Persia), in the southwestern region of the Iranian plateau. Consequently, in the Greek sources, the body of water that bordered this province came to be known as the "Persian Gulf". In the book of Nearchus known as Indikê (300 BC), the word "Persikon kolpos" is mentioned multiple times referring to the Persian Gulf.
In 550–330 BC, coinciding with the sovereignty of the Achaemenid Persian Empire over the region, the name "Persian (Pars) Sea" appears frequently in written texts.
An inscription and engraving of Darius the Great, dating to the fifth century BC states: King Darius says:
In the Persian Sasanian Empire (224–651 AD), the Persian Gulf was called Pūdīg, which comes from , a name mentioned in Bundahishn.
Modern naming dispute
The body of water is historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf. It is listed in the third edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas as "Gulf of Iran (Persian Gulf) and, , in the draft fourth edition as "Persian Gulf". Arab governments refer to it as the Arabian Gulf or The Gulf.Niusha Boghrati, Omission of 'Persian Gulf' Name Angers Iran , World Press.com, 28 December 2006 The name Gulf of Iran is used by the International Hydrographic Organization.
The dispute in naming has become especially prevalent since the 1960s. Rivalry between Iran and certain Arab states, along with the emergence of pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism, has seen the name "Arabian Gulf" become predominant in most Arab countries. Although historically less common, the term "Arabian Gulf" first began to be used by some Arab states during the 1950s and 1960s, at a time when Arab nationalism was at its height. Despite the dispute, Britannica notes that outside Arab states, the name “Arabian Gulf” has not received widespread recognition.
History Ancient history The region of the Persian Gulf has been inhabited since the Paleolithic. During most of the Last Glacial Period (115,000–11,700 years Before Present), due to lowered sea levels (reaching around metres below present values during the Last Glacial Maximum) combined with the shallow depth of the Gulf (on average around and at max around metres depth) most of the Persian Gulf was exposed as dry land, forming a flat floodplain where a number of rivers converged.
This region may have served as an environmental refuge for early humans during periodic hyperarid climate oscillations. The modern marine Gulf was formed when sea level rose during the early Holocene, from around 12,000 to 6,000 years ago. The flooding of the Gulf may have stimulated the development of Neolithic farming cultures in regions of the Middle East adjacent to the Gulf.
The world's oldest known civilization (Sumer) developed along the Persian Gulf and southern Mesopotamia. The oldest evidence in the world for seagoing vessels has been found at H3 in Kuwait, dating to the mid-sixth millennium BC, when the Gulf was part of an extensive trade network that involved the Ubaid settlements in Mesopotamia and communities along the entire Gulf coast.
For most of the early history of the settlements in the Persian Gulf, the southern shores were ruled by a series of nomadic tribes. During the end of the fourth millennium BC, the southern part of the Persian Gulf was dominated by the Dilmun civilization. For a long time, the most important settlement on the southern coast of the Persian Gulf was Gerrha. In the second century the Lakhum tribe, who lived in what is now Yemen, migrated north and founded the Lakhmid Kingdom along the southern coast. Occasional ancient battles took place along the Persian Gulf coastlines, between the Sassanid Persian empire and the Lakhmid Kingdom, the most prominent of which was the invasion led by Shapur II against the Lakhmids, leading to Lakhmids' defeat, and advancement into Arabia, along the southern shorelines. During the 7th century, the Sasanian Persian empire conquered the whole of the Persian Gulf, including southern and northern shores.
Between 625 BC and 226 AD, the northern side was dominated by a succession of Persian empires including the Median, Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian empires. Under the leadership of the Achaemenid king Darius the Great (Darius I), Persian ships found their way to the Persian Gulf. Persians were not only stationed on islands of the Persian Gulf, but also had ships often of 100 to 200 capacity patrolling empire's various rivers including Shatt-al-Arab, Tigris, and the Nile in the west, as well as Sind waterway, in India.
The Achaemenid high naval command had established major naval bases located along Shatt al-Arab river, Bahrain, Oman, and Yemen. The Persian fleet would soon not only be used for peacekeeping purposes along the Shatt al-Arab but would also open the door to trade with India via Persian Gulf.
Following the fall of Achaemenid Empire, and after the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sasanian Empire ruled the northern half and at times the southern half of the Persian Gulf. The Persian Gulf, along with the Silk Road, were important trade routes in the Sasanian Empire. Many of the trading ports of the Persian empires were located in or around Persian Gulf. Siraf, an ancient Sasanian port that was located on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf, located in what is now the Iranian province of Bushehr, is an example of such commercial port. Siraf, was also significant in that it had a flourishing commercial trade with China by the fourth century, having first established connection with the far east in 185 AD.
Colonial era
Portuguese influence in the Persian Gulf lasted for 250 years. Since the beginning of the 16th century, Portuguese dominance contended with the local powers and the Ottoman Empire. Following the arrival of the English and the Dutch, the Safavid Empire allied with the newcomers to contest Portuguese dominance of the seas in the 17th century.
Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century following Vasco da Gama's voyages of exploration saw Afonso de Albuquerque capture the strategically located kingdom of Hormuz. The Portuguese fought the Ottomans in the Persian Gulf. In 1521, a Portuguese force led by commander Antonio Correia invaded Bahrain to take control of the wealth created by its pearl industry. On 29 April 1602, Shāh Abbās, the Persian emperor of the Safavid Persian Empire, expelled the Portuguese from Bahrain, and that date is commemorated as Persian Gulf National Day in Iran. With the support of the British fleet, in 1622 'Abbās took the island of Hormuz from the Portuguese; much of the trade was diverted to the town of Bandar 'Abbās, which he had taken from the Portuguese in 1615 and had named after himself. The Persian Gulf was therefore opened to a flourishing commerce with the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British merchants, who were granted particular privileges.