'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎100r] (204/862)

COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. 127
breezes are well marked in spring and autumn, and squalls are
frequent at all seasons.
The main ports are the river ports of Basra, Abadan, Khorramshahr
(Mohammerah), and Bandar Shahpur at the head of the gulf. Other
ports, which are all more or less inadequate and exposed, are Bushire,
Lingeh, and Bandar Abbas on the Persian side and Kuwait, Manama
(Bahrein), Dibai, and Sharja on the Arabian side. There are few good
anchorages.
The gulf has a central position on one of the main routes between
East and West and has been important from the earliest historical
times to the present day, both commercially and strategically.
Navigation was active between Mesopotamia and India in ancient
and classical times. Between the ninth and fifteenth centuries a.d.
Arab trade reached large proportions. Portuguese explorers in the
sixteenth, and English and Dutch traders in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries tried to establish trading monopolies in the
gulf (p. 263). English supremacy over the Dutch was gained during
the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century Arab piracy,
tribal warfare, slave-trading, and gun-running were gradually
suppressed by the English, and friendly relations established. The
English also surveyed a large part of the gulf and laid submarine
cables. At the beginning of the twentieth century the gulf was an
important factor in world politics, owing to the ambitions of Germany,
Russia, and Turkey. During the War of 1914-1918 most of the gulf
ports were temporarily occupied by the British. In the present war
the ports at the head of the gulf have been under British military and
naval control since 1941 and are used for supplies to Russia and
Turkey.
The peoples of the gulf coasts are mixed: on the Arabian side they
are mostly nomad beduin, with Persian and Indian communities in
the few towns; on the Persian side the cultivators are Persians and
the fishermen and sailors are Arabs. The inhabitants of the Musandam
peninsula and the Ruus al Jibal promontory are the primitive Shihuh
fisher-folk. Dates are the staple food all round the coasts.
The chief products of the gulf region are pearls, oil, gypsum, and
salt. Pearls are collected from the Great Pearl Bank in the south part
of the gulf by diving from boats. The industry has declined since the
world economic depression and the competition of artificial pearls.
The pearl market is Manama, the capital of the Bahrein islands. Oil
is found in Bahrein island, in Kuwait, in a few other places on the
Arabian coast, and in Persia. Active prospecting is taking place