Below is map of the Persian Gulf which was published bt the government of Saudi Arabia in 1952.
Saudi Arabian Map of 1952 displaying the correct name for the Persian Gulf.
The Saudi Arabian map is noteworthy as it was published at the time of the coup d’etat of pan-Arab nationalist Gamal Abdul Nasser who had siezed power in Egypt. At the time Nasser consistently applied the correct term to the body of water (Persian Gulf) but this changed by the late 1950s.
Gamal Abdul Basser (1918-1970). Known for his honesy and integrity of character, Nasser was a tragic victim of the ideology of pan-Arabism by his advocacy of changing the historical name of the Persian Gulf. Some have speculated that Nasser may have been partly motivated to do so due to his dislike of the late Shah of Iran.
The first person to apply the historically inaccurate term “Arab Gulf” to the Persian Gulf was a non-Arab by the name of Roderick Owen a British agent who had also worked for the British petroleum Company (originally the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) in the 1950s. Owen wrote a book entitled “The Golden Bubble of the Arabian Gulf: A Documentary“. His thesis for changing the name of the Persian Gulf was that the name of Persian Gulf was “unfair” due to Arabs inhabiting regions such as Kuwait, Arabia, etc. Despite the weak logical and historical foundation of Owen’s argument, pan-Arabists have been working consistently to rewrite not only the name of the Persian Gulf but also its entire history.
A tragic case of this can be found in the museum of Dubai where an ancient map of the Persian Gulf has been displayed with the name “Persian” literally erased off that map (see below).
Map of the Persian Gulf in the Dubai Museum. Note how the word “Persian” has been blotted out. This questions the impartiality of the museum as well as its adherance to honest historiography.
Comparison of the above map with the Saudia Arabian 1952 publication clearly demonstrates how ideology (in this case pan-Arabism) is able to overide impartial historiography, thanks to decades of irredentist propaganda. Despite the efforts of venues such as the Dubai Museum, pan-Arabism (like any other racialist ideology) cannot “erase” the history of the Persian Gulf as the primary references to the domain are simply far too numerous across thousands of years.
