Viewpoint of Arabs
It's this name that has been retained by history books and Arab historians, like Ibn Khaldoun and Ibn al-Athir. It's also in treaties signed between the governors of the gulf and the British who dominated the region from the beginning of the 20th century.
“ ” Abdel Khaleq Al-Janabi, a Saudi history scholarIn 2010, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council said using the name "Persian Gulf" is "mocked history", because "Arab presence in this region goes back 3,000 years, while Persian presence dates only to the Safavid empire (1501–1736 AD)". However, Abdel Khaleq Al-Janabi, a Saudi historian said "rom a scientific and historical point of view, it has been called the Persian Gulf since Alexander the Great" and that it was "without foundation" to claim Romans named it "Arabian Gulf". "Things didn't change until Nasser came to power and the rise of Arab nationalism. The Arabs then began to use the name 'Arabian Gulf'," he added.
In an interview with Al Wasat, Bahraini writer Hussain al-Baharna said one of the reasons for the dispute over naming the "Arabian Gulf as the Persian Gulf" is that Red Sea was named Arabian Gulf back then, which "prevented the Arabian Gulf from being named as Arabian Gulf, and instead the name Persian Gulf became common".
Read more about this topic: Persian Gulf Naming Dispute
Famous quotes containing the word arabs:
“When I think of some of the Persians, the Hindus, the Arabs I knew, when I think of the character they revealed, their grace, their tenderness, their intelligence, their holiness, I spit on the white conquerors of the world, the degenerate British, the pigheaded Germans, the smug self-satisfied French.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)