Historical Approaches in Persian Gulf Studies as an Introduction to Iranian Studies

TThe Persian Gulf, as a trade highway throughout history, has played a key role in economic, political-military, social and even cultural issues not only in Iran but also in the world. The basic location of this important waterway has long attracted the attention of regional and supra-regional powers. For this reason, understanding the issues of the Persian Gulf in various aspects is of great importance. In other words, Persian Gulf studies are a prelude to understanding the history of Iran. The importance of this knowledge is such that knowing the history of Iran, without examining the history of the Persian Gulf, is a vague and incomplete knowledge. Throughout the history of Iran, due to the views of the rulers and consequently historians, less attention has been paid to the historiography of the Persian Gulf. However, from the Afsharid and Zandid periods, and especially the late Qajar period, more attention was paid to the Persian Gulf issues, and as a result, the volume of works and writings in this field increased. Today, many governments in the Persian Gulf region and world powers have studied the Persian Gulf. This research examines how to investigate the Persian Gulf and the reasons for paying attention to it, and is based on the assumption that the analysis of the history of the Persian Gulf can be an introduction to understanding the current developments of this waterway in the political, military, and economic context. This research has tried to analyze and analyze this issue with analytical and descriptive methods and relying on various data. The findings of this study indicate the development of scientific centers related to the history of the Persian Gulf, especially in the political, military and economic dimensions, and less attention has been paid to the social aspect compared to other aspects. It is also necessary to design new scientific strategies for Persian Gulf studies in order to avoid repetitive research on the Persian Gulf, especially in Iranian scientific centers, in order to help politicians, plan the current and future issues of this important waterway as accurately as possible.