Yes. For centuries throughout the entire world that crucial body of water has been called "the Persian Gulf," even though in 1935 the nation of Persia changed its named to "Iran." I became aware several decades ago when I was in Saudi Arabia that they have a really big fuss that it should be called "the Arabian Gulf." I think maybe their fellow Arab GCC members have been supporting this nonsense as well, but nobody else did, certainly not the US.
But now here it is, and I had noticed in some other US media outlets recently. Is this yet another payoff to the murderous Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) for funneling piles of money to Jared Kushner and the Trump Organization? I mean, Fox News does what Trump and his flunkies want. So, not only are we not punishing MbS for his awful war in Yemen, which even the UAE is now getting out of, not only are we not punishing him for ordering the assassination of a US-based journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, but, heck, Trump through Fox News and I am not sure who is trying to change the name of this body of water from its historical origin to kiss the ass of this disgusting murderer.
Oh, there is also the matter that Trump has gotten himself off into a totally anti-Iran schtick, with his withdrawal from the JCPOA and his imposition of massive sanctions on Iran. But this looks like an attempted permanent punishment. Frankly, I hope the rest of the world does not go along with this bs, but in the US, I fear he may have succeeded, so many people are so ignorant.
Barkley Rosser
4 comments:
Actually, Iran has always been the autonym in Farsi. "Persia" is presumably derived from a deformation of the name of the language. And "Arabian Gulf" has long been an alternative name, just as the section of the Indian Ocean in the area is referred to as the "Arabian Sea"
John,
You are partly right and partly wrong. "Persia" is derived from "Pars," the name of their leading tribe at the time of Cyrus, and it was the ancient Greeks who started calling them that, which stuck until 1935. It is true that internally they always called "Iran" internally, which is related to "Aryan." In 1935 Reza Shah insisted on others using that also to emphasize his de facto alliance with Nazi Germany against USSR and UK.
The Arabian Sea has been called that for at least a thousand years. Nobody called the Persian Gulf "Arabian Gulf" prior to 1960. This is a recent schtick pushed by the Saudis, as I pointed out.
A bit more.
We hear that their language is "Farsi." But they themselves call it "Parsi." In India followers of the traditional Persian religion, known to most of the world as "Zoroastrianism," is known as "Parsee." They are a small minority there, concentrated especially in Mumbai (Bombay), but they have been exceptionally successful economically there, able to get accepted by the British in the 19th century to the point of even joining their clubs, even as some of their leaders became crucial supporters of the independence movement, most notably the Tatas, one of the world's wealthiest fsmilies. Their early support for the Congress Party kept their companies from getting nationalized. Very astute, that move.
Anyway, saying that calling them "Persians" is some sort of odd distortion is simply ridiculous.
Maybe we should call it the "Gulf of Araby" and appoint a "Sheik of Araby" to oversee it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofXvX5wtyY8
(Just in case anyone missed it, I am making a joke.)
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