The Arab Presence on the Iranian Coast of the Persian Gulf

Abstract

S h a h n a z R a z i e h N a d j m a b a d i The close relationship between the Iranian and Arab populations in coastal areas of the Persian Gulf is not a recent development or a consequence of the economic boom due to oil production in the Arab countries. Rather, it is the result of a long and partly confl ict-laden history. To illustrate the forms of exchange relations between these populations , it is necessary to explore the background of the current interconnections and conditions that preceded them. This will be achieved by an analysis of the local history, as far as written sources are available and the historical memory of the population can be interrogated. History here means, in particular, settlement history: the coexistence of Iranian and Arab settlements in the Iranian coastal region, their entwinement, and their relationship with the Arab world. A comprehensive history of settlement along the Iranian coast has not been compiled so far. The present study of the formation of the settlements in Hormuzgan, one of the three Iranian provinces on the Persian Gulf, 1 does not claim to replace this missing historiography or to give the Arab element a meaning to which it is not entitled in reality. Rather, as I conducted anthropological fi eld research in Hormuzgan, time and again I observed references to Arab life and forms of behavior that made the closer study of Arab infl uences appear necessary. The aim of the following study is to augment and offer explanations of this area's settlement history by using ethnographic data and to show that a local history of the Iranian coastal region cannot be constructed without considering its interaction with the Arab countries on the Persian Gulf. At the same time, a position is taken that opposes a hegemonic Iranian or Arab historiography, which for ideological/political reasons grants a meaning either to the Iranian or to the Arab element that is not appropriate and "arabizes" or "iranizes" the population and culture. This paper aims to demonstrate that in a multiethnic state such as Iran, despite a dominant national culture and language, there cannot exist only one homogeneous historiography. As far as the relationship between history and anthropology is concerned, I agree with the Comaroffs that "there ought to be no 'relationship' between history and anthropology , since there should be no division to begin with. A theory of society which is not L. G. Potter (ed.), The Persian Gulf in History