Page 63 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

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Introduction

The Arabian Gulf1 States comprise eleven countries stretching along
the eastern and south-eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, from
north to south, in the following order: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the
seven Shaikhdoms of the Trucial Coast of Oman (namely, Abu Dhabi,
Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah),
and the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman.2 Between Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia lies the area of the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone in
which both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia enjoy equal rights of sover­
eignty by treaty. The other side of the Arabian Gulf, the eastern, is
wholly occupied by Iran whose territory extends to the Gulf of Oman
below.3
Bahrain, Qatar and the seven Trucial Shaikhdoms are commonly
known as the British Protected States,4 or Shaikhdoms, of the Arabian

1 The terms ‘Arabian Gulf’ and ‘Persian Gulf’ are synonyms. During the last
decade or so the term ‘Arabian Gulf’ has become more commonly used by all the
Arab States, including the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, in preference to the
traditional and internationally recognised name ‘Persian Gulf’. The Arab States,
including the Gulf Shaikhdoms, have passed laws making the use of the term
‘Arabian Gulf’ compulsory in all communications with the outside world bearing
reference to the area. Iran, on the other hand, is the only country in the area
which objects vigorously to the use of a term other than the ‘Persian Gulf’. How­
ever, despite Iran’s constant objections and repeated protests, the new term
'Arabian Gulf’ seems to be gradually gaining universal recognition, though on a
limited scale. In line with this present Arab trend, the author has adopted the
name Arabian Gulf throughout this book whose topic is limited to the Arab
States of the Gulf. In order to avoid confusion, however, all uses of the term
‘Persian Gulf’ in various quotations from sources relied upon in this book will
remain unchanged.
3 See Map 1.
3 For general geographical and other information on the Arabian Gulf, see:
Wilson, Sir A. T., The Persian Gulf(1928, reprinted 1954), Part XV; Great Britain,
British Admiralty, A Handbook of Arabia, Vol. I (1916); Bent, J. T., ‘The Bahrain
Islands in the Persian Gulf’, Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society, vol. 12
(1890), pp. 1-19; Buss, K. C., ‘Persian Gulf’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 17, cd.
(1963), pp. 595-9. Describing the Arabian Gulf waters, Buss states at p. 595:
‘The Persian Gulf is the shallow trough which extends 500 miles from the Shatt-al
Arab in a southeasterly direction to the Musandam peninsula in Oman. There the
Hormuz strait separates it from the Gulf of Oman. The breadth of the Persian Gulf
varies from 50 miles at the entrance, the Hormuz strait, to 140 miles at the head and
200 miles at its widest part___In the Persian Gulf the depth of water rarely exceeds
50 fathoms and, generally speaking, increases more rapidly from the Iranian than
the Arabian shore . . .’
4 Although the Arabian Gulf Shaikhdoms are described, in British legal parlance,
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