TEHRAN -- The joint work of the Iranology Foundation and the Iranian Academy of Persian language and Literature entitled “The Persian Gulf in Historical Maps” was unveiled at the Iranology Foundation Sunday.

One of the authors, scholar Mohammad-Hassan Ganji, delivered the first speech of the ceremony.
“Since the ancient times, those who knew the world have called ‘Persian Gulf’ the water passageway which separates the Arabian Peninsula from the land of Iran. ‘Sinus Persicus’, ‘Persischer Golf’, and ‘Golfo di Persia’ were some of the other terms used to refer to this passageway. But when Arab nationalists took power in Egypt in early 1950s, some began to use the term ‘Arab Gulf’. Iran has expressed its opposition since.”
With reference to the content of the book, he said, “The book tolerantly discusses all differing points of views, political propaganda and abuse of the term ‘Persian Gulf’. The name of ‘Persian Gulf’ would fade away only when all which has been said and written about it disappear—which will not ever happen.”
Another co-author, Javad Safinejad, went on to say, “The atlas contains 40 maps from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic era; the atlas derives its content from a wide array of sources, the major one being Istakhri’s “Al-Masalik al-Mamalik” (The Book of Roads and Kingdoms)”.
Mohammad-Baqer Vosuq, a co-author of the atlas, explained how the maps were described.
“We use of an old Islamic system for describing maps which had been forsaken for a long time. Actually we have tried to revive this old tradition,” he said.
Another author, Fatemeh Faridi, stated, “We selected 160 out of a total of 400 original maps. Our main criteria was the quality of the maps. The interesting point is that nowhere in the maps the name of the gulf could be found without the prefix ‘Persian’.”
In conclusion, Iranology Foundation Director Hassan Habibi handed plaques of honor to the authors.
Photo: Iranology Foundation Director Hassan Habibi holds the book of “The Persian Gulf in Historical Maps”, which was unveiled at the Iranology Foundation in Tehran on April 28. (Mehr/Baqer Nasir)