The Persian Gulf in Modern Times People, Ports, and History [Hardcover]

This book explores the historiography, ports, and peoples of the Persian Gulf over the past two centuries, offering a more inclusive history of the region than previously available. Restoring the history of minority communities which until now have been silenced, the book provides a corrective to the 'official story' put forward by modern states.Introduction, Lawrence G. Potter PART I: THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE PERSIAN GULF 1. Rethinking the History of Port Cities in the Gulf, Nelida Fuccaro 2. Narrative and the Historian's Craft in the Arabic Historiography of the Gulf, Fahad Ahmad Bishara 3. The Historiography of the Persian Gulf: A Survey of the 19th and 20th Century Persian Sources, Gholam Reza Vatandoust 4. Narrating the Gulf: Literary Evidence for History, Muhsin al-Musawi PART II: PORT CITIES AND LITTORAL SOCIETY 5. The Rise and Fall of Port Cities in the Persian Gulf, Lawrence G. Potter 6. Muscat as a Port City, J. E. Peterson 7. Bushehr: Southern Gateway to Iran, Willem Floor 8. Inside a Gulf Port: The Dynamics of Urban Life in Pre-Oil Kuwait, Farah Al-Nakib PART III: PEOPLES IN THE GULF 9. Indian Communities in the Persian Gulf, c. 15001947, James Onley 10. The Baluch as an Ethnic Group in the Persian Gulf Region, Carina Jahani 11. 'Purity and Confusion': The Hawala between Persians and Arabs in the Contemporary Gulf, Ahmed al-Dailami 12. The African Presence in Eastern Arabia, Matthew S. Hopper 13. Identity Transformations of African Communities in Iran, Behnaz A. Mirzai

Much of the historiography of the modern Gulf deals exclusively with either Iran or the region's Arab states, which helps to underscore the notion that this narrow stretch of water is a natural divide between the Persian and the Arab worlds. This book demonstrates that prior to the establishment of modern borders the Gulf ports benefited from unfettered interaction between both shores as well as their lively participation in the trade of the entire Indian Ocean. The voices of hiló(