Historical Geography of the Persian Gulf from the Perspective of the Geography of Ancient World

The Persian Gulf, as one of the main open waterways of the world, has been of great importance regarding economic, cultural, and political relationships among various countries since ancient times. Following a descriptive analytic method, this study examines the term Persian Gulf and its borderlines in ancient Greek sources and Arab-Islamic historical and geographical texts, particularly, the books of Masalik and al-Mamalik. The author concludes that the Persian Gulf has been called so since several millennia before Christ. Moreover, in all texts and maps of ancient times and the Arabic-Islamic period, the area of this waterway has been recorded to be much vaster than its present day area, including the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. Moreover, they call the Persian Gulf with such names as Pars Sea, Sea of Fars, and Khalij al-Farsi.