PERSIAN GULF extends from lat. 24° to 30° 20' N., and long. 48° to 58° E. It runs in between Arabia and Persia from the Straits of Ormuz, which are 35 miles wide, to the mouth of the Shatt-ul-Arab. In breadth at the narrowest part, between Cape Musseldom and Gombroon, it is 55 miles ; and at the widest part, between Bushire and Khodema, three degrees and 20 miles ; and is about eight degrees in length from the Straits of Ormuz. It is known in eastern manuscripts as the Sea of Fars, the Sea of Oman, the Sea of Kirman, Sea of Kateef, Sea of Basrah, deriving these and other names from the adjoin ing provinces, and from remarkable places on its Arabian and Persian shores. This great inland sea makes a rift in the continent of Asia 450 miles deep and from 100 to 180 broad, and com prises an area of about 70,000 square miles. The northern coast belongs exclusively to Persia. The southern coast is partly Turkish and partly in dependent Arab. Muscat forMerly possessed—by right of 100 years of fiefdom—almost a third part of the north coast of the gulf, which Persia resumed about 1878. A considerable portion of the southern coast of the gulf, too, has recently passed under Turkish from independent Arab rule. In the early part of the 19th century, the British assumed.the political control of the Arab tribes on both shores of the gulf, but the opening of the Suez Canal has admitted of Turkish war vessels being present, Great Britain retaining free control over the sea. A few years ago Turkish rule reached scarcely farther from the Shatt-ul Arab than Kowait, but has now added 400 miles of sea-coast. Turkey has ousted the Wahabees out of the broad strip of Arabian coast which hears the name of El Hasa or Lahsa, and in doing so has obtained the two seaports of Kateef and Ojeyr, thereby excluding the Wahabees from the sea ; and has, on the invitation of the Arab chieftains, carried her flag as far as El Bida, a town on the eastern coast of the bold pro montory of El Kutr (Gutter). Where the Turkish authority ends in the neighbourhood of El Bids, what used to be locally known as the Pirate Coast commences, and extends as far as Shinas, on the eastern coast of the bohl promontory of Cape Mussendum, which closes the Persian Gulf to the cast. From this point., Shinas, the territory of the little independent state of Muscat or Oman begins, from which the Zanzibar dominion is an offshoot. The Pirate Coast acquired its name from the pre datory habits of its Arab tribes. An expedition from Bombay in 1809 attacked their stronghold of Ras-ul-Kheima, on the western side of Cape Mussendom, and with the loyal aid of the Sultan of Muscat succeeded in destroying it. A more for midable expedition was organized, under General Keir, in 1819, and the pirates of this coast were effectually brought under control. The Arab
chieftains entered into a general engagement to abjure and put down piracy. This treaty is still in force.
It has numerous islands, but only the following are of importance :—Bahrein, 80 or 00 miles in circumference ; Kharak, about 4f miles ; Kishm, 51 miles long and 32 broad ; and Ormuz, though historically interesting, is a small barren volcanic island, covered with salt. Dr. Jules Oppert claims Bahrein as the common home to which classical and Chaldman tradition trace the ancient Assyrians and Phoenicians alike, with the Tilvun of the cuneiform inscriptions. Arrian called it Tio,o; and Strabo spelt it TI:pn.
Most of the ancient traffic with India seems to have been by way of the. Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The Tyrians established depots on the shores of the Persian Gulf, and the course of trade being through the land of the Cnshdi, the races in India came to be included under the ethnological title of Cush (Genesis x. 6), and hence the Persian, Chaldman, and Arabic version fre quently render that term by India, Isaiah xi. 2, xv ill. 1 ; Jeremiah xiii. 23. The Mesopotamian Valley is believed to possess a soil rich enough to supply whole nations with corn, if only the increase of cultivation and the prosperity of the cultivators were made matter of imperial concern. The valley of the Karim river, in the south of Persia, offers a scarcely less promising field for the growth of barley and wheat. The survey of the gulf was undertaken between 1820 and 1830 by the officers of the Indian navy. The winds are chiefly easterly and westerly, taking the direction of the coasts. When the S.E. wind sets in, the whole force of the sea is brought to bear directly against the current of the Euphrates, and hence an enormous deposit is effected of the alluvium brought down by the stream, thus barring up its mouth. This deposit, constantly on the increase, progresses, according to Sir Henry Rawlinson, at the rate of a mile in the lapse of 35 to 40 years. A great city, of which the ruins are to be seen above Mahal:cner* was an island in the time of Sennacherib named Billat, and has been shown to have been still an island in the time of Alexander.
At the present time it is sixty miles from tho mouth of the river, and a succession of cities can bo traced upon the desiccated delta below it, along the river, down to the sea. According to that writer, the gulf once extended to Baghdad, miles beyond its present point.—Ail. Treat. Eng. and Senn. iv. p. 199 ; Trace!, in Oman, I. p. 265 ; CoL Chesney, Euphrates and Tigris, i. p. 568 ; Rennell's Memoir, p. 34 ; Taylor.