[Mb-civic] FW: Persian Golf Is The Persian Golf

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Shahla Samii <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 10:37:51 -0500
Subject: Persian Golf Is The Persian Golf

Here the writer, in his title, uses the word 'Golf' instead of 'Gulf',
based on the Germanic root of the word. It is not a mistake.
Shahla
---
Sent: December 18, 2004 8:16 AM
To:
Subject: Persian Golf Is The Persian Golf

 

The Persian Golf Is The Persian Golf

 

An article by Patrick Buchanan for Washington times Jan 14th, 1998.

 

³ŠŠWhen the Americans, like the British before them, grow weary of
their imperial duties and sail away, Iran will dominate the Persian
Golf.  It is ordained.  No nation in the region can match Iran¹s size,
population or powerŠ.The question is:  what kind of Iran shall it be?²

 

Historical facts are known and self ­ evident.  Throughout the years, a
few of Iran¹s neighboring countries have claimed many of Iran¹s men of
science and letters as their own.  Sadly enough, now there is yet a new
vain attempt to re-name that body of water which for several millennia
has been universally known as the ³ Persian Gulf ² to the ³Arabian Gulf
².

 

There are those who are unaware of the historical truths and while they
do not bother to study the history of the region, they unintentionally
contribute to a psychological warfare against the Iranian people. 
Among them, certain elements in the U.S. Defense Department, especially
those who serve in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.  In order to
appease local sensitivities, ³they² use ³Arabian Gulf² instead of the
³Persian Gulf² simply to please their hosts, unaware that they are
refusing to accept historical facts and international usage.  Indeed
they are offending the national feelings of the Iranian nation.

 

The ancient Greek geographers and historians called this body of water
³Sinus Persicus².  It is interesting that since before the time of
Christ until as late as the 17th century,  the world greatest
historians and cartographers from Strabon and Ptolemy to famous flemish
geographer, Mercator, along with Arab historians referred to the Gulf
south of Iran as wither ² Sinus Persicus² or ³ mare Persicum², as
distinct from ³ Arabicus Sinus², the name they used to refer to what is
known as the red sea. 

   

The ³Arabian Gulf² was the ancient name of the Red Sea, actually a gulf
prior to being connected with the Mediterranean via the opening of the
Suez Canal.  For the last two millennia the term ³ Persian Gulf ³ has
been used universally by historians, geographers, scholars, strategists
and politicians.  Also Arab historians and Geographers from Ibn al ­
Mujavir to Yussuf Kamal, author of ³ Monumenta Cartographica ³, used
³Alkhalij al- Fars ³, or Persian Gulf.  The latte President Sadat of
Egypt, in his book, ³Revolt on the Nile ³ correctly identified the Gulf
by its historical and original name.

 

Anyone who has troubled himself to look at antique maps, contemporary
writings and research documents, historical accounts of the region and
encyclopedias written either by western or eastern observers and
scholars would conclude that there is but one single name that is
applicable to the Persian Gulf.  It is the practice of the White House,
the State Department, the U.S. government agencies and also the United
Nations Secretariat, and National Geographic Society, to use in the
document and maps the term ³ Persian Gulf ³ to indicate the body of
water between Iran to the north and east and a number of other states
to the south and west.  It is a long established usage that is followed
by publishers of atlases and geographical dictionaries.

 

It was in the 1950s that in order to manipulate the simple yet vital
nationalistic sentiment of its people, that the then Iraqi president
Colonel Abdol Karim Ghasem, ventured to refer to the ³Persian Golf ³,
as the Arabian Gulf ³.  His intention was to create a new common enemy
for the Arab world which were busy fighting Israel under the guidance
of Egyptian Colonel, Gamal Abdol Naser, and to divert the attention of
Arab world from Nasser¹s leadership in Egypt  to his own in Baghdad. 
This strategy back-fired in the true sense of the word.  The scholastic
community in Baghdad as a whole, and the faculty in the Baghdad
University, especially due to overwhelming amount of historic and
geographical evidence,  reaching back to records as ancient as 2.5
millennia, refrained from supporting the belligerent and the unfounded
claim of Colonel Abdol Karim Ghasem.

 

Even later, when President Gamal Abdol Nasser under the pretext of
enhancing his Pan-Arabist ideology proceeded to use Ghaesem¹s self
invented term for the ³ Pesian Gulf ², he was instantly reminded of his
own earlier comments wherein he had emphatically described the
boundaries of the Arab World as:  ³Menal moheet al-Atlasi elal Khalij
­ol Farsi² (from Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf).

 

As mentioned before, throughout history, educators, historians,
travelers and geographers have always referred to this region as the ³
Persian Gulf ³ not only because of the vast coastal lines of various
Persian Empire or the number of its Persian/Iranian inhabitants, but
simply, and in their own words, to recognize the noble notion that ³
The Persians were the first to have developed and greatly improved this
part of the earth².

 

Therefore, to apply the term  ³Arabian Gulf ³ or any other name to the
Persian Gulf is an error, and indeed is to become a party to the
psychological warfare mainly aimed against the Iranian people.  Thus,
this change of historical name, especially by some in the service of
the U.S. government who are serving in the region is entirely absurd,
counterproductive, and does not serve the interests of the United
States.

 

We can hope that sooner or later, the rule of reason and  rationalism
will triumph in Iran and liberty and democracy will replace the
Theocratic regime in Tehran.  Iranians and Arabs must live together in
peace.  The United States and Arab Nations of the region need to deal
with the people of Iran, in a just and equitable manner, just as the
Iranians need to deal similarly with their neighbors.  Furthermore Iran
must reestablish friendly relationship with the United  States on the
basis of mutual trust and equality.  The U.S. Department of defense and
especially the Navy which always take gei-strategic factors into
consideration, must also take seriously the historic sensitivity ans
the rightful concerns of the Iranian People.

 

It should be remembered that for three decades prior to the revolution
in Iran, the pentagon trained close to 30,000 members of Iranian armed
Forces and considered Iran a principal element of the regions
stability.  It ought not forget the past and close the door to future
friendly relationships which will indeed be essential for stability and
peace in the Persian Gulf.  It should be remembered also that the
Iranian Navy played a crucial role as the stabilizer for two decades
following the British withdrawal from the Persian Gulf in 1971.  Indeed
it was the Iranian Armed Forces which defended both north and south of
the Strait of Hormuz against Marxist subversion.  On one hand it
prevented the fall of Oman, and on the other hand thwarted the Yemeni
inspired  guerrillas to undermine the Persian Gulf Sheikdoms.

 

Iran is a land bridge between two centers of the world¹s most important
energy zones. And the only power among the Persian Gulf states that has
the capabilities to undertake military operation beyond its own
frontiers.  Iran is in the heart of the Eurasian Corridor.  Because of
its geo-strategic location, population, resources and cultural identity
it can play a decisive role in the security of the Persian Gulf.  Iran
was once a moderating force and it could, once again become a moderate
regional force, friendly to the United States.

 

For more information and clarification we would like to refer the
readers to following publications mostly written by historians,
geographers and scholars regarding the Persian Gulf.  We are certain
that only through rational channels we can shed light on and sort
historical facts from baseless propaganda, which were at one time aimed
to toy with the territorial integrity of Iran, albeit currently being
directed in reaction to the short-sighted policies and irresponsible
political behavior of the ruling clerical regime of Tehran.

 

1)      Revolt On the Nile, Anwar Sadat, 1957

2)      Monumenta Cartographica et Aegypti  ( Le Caire), Yusuf Kamal,
1926 - 51

3)      Geographie, De Strabon, Paris,1805

4)      Historical Geography of Iraq, Mohammad Rashid, Baghdad
University, 1965

5)      The past history of Arabs and Islam, OmarAbdol-Nasr, 1062

6)      Science and Civilization of China,  J. Needham Cambridge
University Press 1959

7)      Political History of Islam, Dr. HassanIbrahim Hassan. Cairo,
1935

 

 

 

 

  

   

 

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