Saturday, April 30, 2022

Persian Gulf; blue zone of ancient civilization

Commentary (IP) – Today, April 30, 2022, is the anniversary of the expulsion of the Portuguese colonialists from the southern waters of Iran in 1622, which has been designated as Persian Gulf National Day.

Iran Press/Iran news: The Persian Gulf is a water area of more than 237,000 square kilometers along the Sea of Oman, between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. This gulf is an important waterway and is the third-largest bay globally after the Gulf of Mexico and the Hudson's Bay, an important and strategic region at the international level due to its oil and gas resources.

The historical name of this gulf, in various languages, has been a translation of the phrase the Persian Gulf or Persian Sea. Still, by inciting Western colonialism, some Arab countries along the Persian Gulf have sought to distort its name in recent years.

However, the Persian Gulf is the prominent name that has survived from the oldest sources. Islamic geographers and historians such as Tabari, Mas'udi, and Ya'qubi have unanimously stated in their surviving manuscripts that all parts of the Persian Gulf belonged to Iran in pre-Islamic times. The ancient Greeks called this bay "Sinus Persicus," the Persian Gulf.

According to the directive of the United Nations Secretariat of 14 May 1999, the waterway's name between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Arabian Peninsula is "Persian Gulf," and the full name "Persian Gulf" must be used in UN documents and publications.

The Iranian Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution (SCCR) has named April 30, the day of the expulsion of the Portuguese from the Strait of Hormuz, as the Persian Gulf National Day.

The Persian Gulf, however, due to its geographical and civilizational values, has always been the arena of competition and conflicts between the colonial and aggressor powers; one of the periods of foreign presence in the Persian Gulf is the 150-year domination of the Portuguese over this waterway and the Strait of Hormuz, which ended on April 30, 1621 AD.

In 1506, the Portuguese set foot in the Persian Gulf under the command of Captain Albuquerque, a famous Portuguese sailor. Albuquerque believed that any country could rule world trade by occupying the three points of Malaga, Aden, and Hormuz. This thought caused the Portuguese to settle the islands of Qeshm, Hormuz, and Gambron (present-day Bandar Abbas).

The British colonialists also coveted the area at some point in the history of the Persian Gulf, but they were eventually forced to leave the area. The British attacked Bushehr in southern Iran four times. Each time, the ulema issued a fatwa in defense, and commanders such as Ra'is Ali Delvari and Ahmad-Khan Tangestani created an epic and defeated the old colonization.

Mohammad Ajam, a writer and researcher in the Persian Gulf and West Asia and one of the founders and activists of the Persian Gulf Studies Center, writes about the importance of the Persian Gulf region and the impact of this waterway on various fields: "The sensitivity of the Persian Gulf is very important in terms of economic, political, commercial and communication dimensions in the world; in the documents that exist in Arabic, the word Khalij al-Farsi (Persian Gulf) is also mentioned."

The Persian Gulf is considered the largest communication center between the three continents due to its particular location. Its rich resources and connection with the world's great water regions have made this region one of the most critical strategic regions in the world.

This waterway is also crucial for Iran in the domestic and regional arenas; accordingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, emphasizing the neighborhood policy, has expressed hope that this watershed will be guarantee security and stability in the region and a symbol of peace, friendship, and coexistence between regional nations. Others would respect its peace and security at the hands of the countries around the Persian Gulf. 

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