نشریه مطالعات خلیج فارس
پیاپی 3 (پاییز 1393)

Because of its significant role in economic and social relationships, the Persian Gulf has been a center of attention to different governments and nations since long ago. Considering the new approaches, the height of this attention can be observed from the Renaissance onwards. The presence of powerful European governments in the Persian Gulf has always invoked a kind of competition among them. Accordingly, in the 19th century, which marked the new period of competition among them, this water region turned into a field for the emergence of such competitions, and Russian ships arrived in the Persian Gulf under new conditions. The presence of these ships in this important waterway had several reasons. However, what demands our attention here is the conformity between their historical goals and the new benefits that they sought. This point explains the reason for Russians’ activities in Bushehr and the commutation of their ships in the Persian Gulf in the circle of the problems of this region in the 19th and 20th centuries.The present research explores and analyzes the arrival of Russian ships in the Persian Gulf in the 19th century and details the consequences of their arrival and presence in this important waterway. This paper reports on the results of a historical study in which the required data were collected following the library method.

The Persian Gulf gradually attracted the attention of the authoritarian countries of the world in the 17th century, and each of them tried to bring it under its control for some time. Portugal, Nederland, England, and even the Ottoman Empire intended to have active and permanent presence there and exploit the infinite resources of this region. However, the power of the Ottoman Government, which had once robbed a good night’s sleep from the eyes of the other great powers of the world of that time, declined from the 17th century onwards and moved towards destruction. The Berlin Conference put an end to the authority of the Ottoman Empire in 1878. Some years later, in 1912 the government of Young Turks came to power in the Ottoman Turkey with the purpose of strengthening the Turkish nationality and turning it into the majority ethnic group through adjoining the eastern Turk-inhabited lands to the Ottoman Empire. Hence, following its extremely “nationalist Turkish” tendencies, the government of Young Turks gradually began executing an “irredentist” policy. In line with this policy, the Ottoman government entered the First World War alongside Germany with its micro-colonial thoughts. Germany intended to reach the waters of the Persian Gulf with the help of the Ottoman Empire, which was a threat to the benefits of England in the Persian Gulf and India. The execution of young Turks’ irredentism carried in its heart an anti-irredentist policy towards the other nations of the Ottoman Empire, including the Arabs, the Greeks, Bulgarians, and Armenians. Finally, given the passive position of ottomans as to losing the Arab countries on the coastline of the Persian Gulf, the Arab countries dominated by the Ottoman Empire, particularly Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, were freed from their control, and the colonial power of Britain replaced them in these regions. This paper mainly focuses on the reasons for such changes in the region.

The Sea Silk Road was the vastest commercial network of the world for 1700 years (100 BC-1600 AD). Given the several difficulties happening in the land route of this road, the sea route was an important reason for merchants’ attention to trade through the Silk Sea Road. Although this route was long and unknown, and there was the possibility of occurrence of several dangers, in many cases it was greatly superior to the land route. The most important people who had a role in expanding and popularizing this route were Iranian and Chinese merchants and statesmen. A study of historical sources reveals that Iranian ships were commuting between India and China, and some important ports such as Canton and Changzhou in China, and Siraf, Ablah, Basra (2nd and 3rd centuries AH), Hormoz, and Kish (8th century AH) in Iran, which were among the most important ports of that time, are the remnants of the Sea Silk Road. This sea route was popular almost until the end of the Safavid Era. With the changes in the political and economic situations of different countries in the world, this route was gradually forgotten and lost its initial appeal. The present research mainly focuses on the sea connections from the Persian Gulf to the China Sea until the beginning of the Mongol Period. The required data for this historical research has been collected from historical sources following the analytic-descriptive method of research.

As an open sea, the Persian Gulf has always played an important role in the history of Iran. The particular geographical significance of the Persian Gulf has granted it a more important role than an open sea and gulf, which has attracted a lot of attention to it in different historical periods. Moreover, as the highway of waterway connections in the south of Iran, the Persian Gulf has always been considered to be an important factor in the splendor and flourishing of many civilization. In this paper, the writer examines the background of the name of the Persian Gulf in the sources related to ancient Iran and post-Islamic historical and geographical texts, the quality of the presence of the first races on the coastline of the Persian Gulf, its significance in each of the historical periods of ancient Iran, the nature of the dominance of each of the ancient Iranian governments on the Persian Gulf, and the competition between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea in the field of commerce. It is worth noting that the most important goals of the coastal governments of the Persian Gulf were the discovery of its waterways and the control of its commerce.

During the Qajar Period, Bushehr enjoyed a significant political, commercial, and cultural status as the main commercial port of Iran. The important commercial role of this port is explained through its interactions with the economic and political status and the strategic importance of the Persian Gulf in the 18th and 19th centuries. The unique status of the Persian Gulf in eastern and western countries and the colonial competitions among big countries have always persuaded colonial countries to impose their power on the port of Bushehr in order to consolidate their own benefits. This paper investigates the different features of commerce, customs system, and the communication network of Bushehr during the Qajar Era. It concludes that, in this Era imports had priority over exports, and most of the imported commodities consisted of industrial goods. The most important commercial partner of Iran in the Qajar Period was England.

Upon the downfall of the central government of Nader Shah Afshar in the chaotic society of Iran in the second half of the 12th century AH, the security of different places was often maintained by local authorities such as tribe leaders, city rulers, and heads of local power centers which usually enjoyed tribal structures. Therefore, the present paper intends to answer the following question: “Which strategies did local power centers used in order to establish the security of the region in their encounters with those with claims to monarchy?” following the historical method of research and the library method for collecting the required data from firsthand historical sources, this study analyzes and interprets the features and effects of local power centers on providing for the security of the different regions on the coasts of the Persian Gulf during Karim Khan Zand’s era. Some of the factors that can be examined with regard to the above question include the power structures of local centers, different competitions and conspiracies based on individual and local-tribal collective benefits, as well as the continuous attacks of the pretenders to monarchy to the region (this factor, by itself, resulted in the rise of some local crises and the inability of the regional leaders in confronting the different pretenders to the throne). The collection of these factors paved the way for the cooperation and unification of local power centers, particularly in the coasts of the Persian Gulf, with Karim Khan Zand.

An accurate knowledge of the required sources is the first step in research in any field and on any topic. There are several scientific sources on the Persian Gulf; however, given the great attention of the academic society and even ordinary people to the problems of this region, the necessity of studying this waterway, and the vastness of this thematic domain, there is still much room for introducing, criticizing, and exploring the related sources. This paper provides a brief introduction and critique of one of the oldest and most important written sources on the Persian Gulf in the present century: Farsnameh-ye Naseri, by Hassan Hosseini Fasaei (written in early 14th Hijri century). In the modern era, this work is considered to be the transition point at which old knowledge regarding the Persian Gulf was explored using certain scientific research methods. This paper begins with an Introduction. Then the author provides a short biography of the writer of the book and a list of his works. The next section presents the structure of the book. Finally, the author discusses the place and significance of Farsnameh-ye Naseri in the studies on the Persian Gulf, which in fact concludes the paper. This study was carried out following the descriptive-library method.