Gulf name controversy: Arabian or Persian, Iranian uses music in support
Gulf-Iran, Politics, 8/11/2008

Iranian music band 'Shams' will symbolically perform a concert in protest against what is regarded officially by Iran as a distortion of the name of the Persian Gulf, the manager of Tehran's Saadabad Palace said.

The controversy is the result of some calling the gulf the "Arabian Gulf" while others use "Persian Gulf", for possible cultural and political benefits and implications.

A post on the website describes one view on this issue (www.waleg.com/archives/2006/02/) saying " Since the 1960's, there has been a dispute on the name... Both names are correct. The term the Arabian Gulf is the original name of the Red Sea, while the Persian Gulf is the original name given to the sea between Iran ( Persia ) & the Arabian Peninsula, by early Islamic Muslim geographers. 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 in Iraq." while a description of this subject on the website Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute) says "The name of the body of water separating the Arabian Peninsula from Iran has been disputed by some Arab countries since the 1960s. This gulf is historically and most commonly called the Persian Gulf, after the land of Persia (Iran). Rivalry between Persians and Arabs, however, along with the emergence of pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism, has seen the name Arabian Gulf become predominant in some Arab countries. Names beyond these two have also been applied to or proposed for this body of water. On almost all (citation needed because a Wikipedia editor feels that the preceding statement is likely to be challenged) maps printed before 1960, and in most modern international treaties, documents and maps, this body of water is known by the name 'Persian Gulf'. This reflects 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 " " (al-Khal j al-'Arab ; Arab Gulf or Arabian Gulf) to refer to this waterway. 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'."

Being Conducted by Iranian musician Keikhosro Pour-Nazeri, the concert 'In the Sunshine of Persian Gulf' will be held from August 13-16 in the historical-cultural center of Saadabad Palace in Tehran, Eshrat Shaeq said.

Music can be recognized as a language which can be understood by the world, so Iranian musicians are trying to win worldwide support the name of the Persian Gulf by means of music language, he added.
Persian Gulf remains Persian Gulf forever as attested by history and this is an undeniable fact, Shaeq said.

Previous Stories:
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