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The Persian Gulf is a unique geographical phenomenon whose role in human affairs began in remote antiquity and has continued to our own day. Traditionally, this role was due to the place it occupies as an avenue of cultures and trade; today, as the site of a resource vital not only for the inhabitants of the countries along its shores but for much of the modem world. The Persian Gulf's unique geostrategic position further enhances its present importance. A simple enumeration of the countries sharing the Persian Gulf's coasts and waters offers an evocative panorama of contemporary history: Iran, with the longest shoreline and some of the busiest ports along the northeastern coast; Iraq at the head of the Persian Gulf, then Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. All these countries, in varying degrees, are blessed with vast oil reserves lying along the coasts both under the ground on land and below the sea bottom. It is this vital resource that has propelled the Persian Gulf into the limelight of world events, and the story of its discovery, development and struggle over its exploitation makes for fascinating reading. It began almost a century ago, when in 1908 British prospectors struck oil at the Persian site of Suleymaniye. For nearly two generations, until the early 1950s, the province of Khuzistan was the center of production, processing and exporting oil, and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company had the lion’s share of this lucrative business. Geologists rightly suspected, however, that oil deposits might exist in many other parts of the Persian Gulf area. During the 1930s, a number of finds were made on the Arab side from Iraq all the way to Oman. This time mainly American companies seized the initiative, but until World War II production remained relatively modest The war and the quickened pace of consumption in the industrial world, especially in the USA, led to further development of these sources, but the main stimulus for the sudden and vertiginous development of oil wells on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf was came from the drama of Iran’s attempt to acquire a fairer share of its wealth. Great Britain and the United States thwarted Dr. Mossadegh’s heroic struggle, and in the process the production and export of oil from Iran was temporarily halted. That in turn created a windfall for the companies exploiting the oil fields on the Arab side, and their prospectors discovered still more deposits whose yield has led to today’s fabulous wealth of Saudi Arabia and the other principalities along the Persian Gulf This book offers a balanced version of the history of the Persian Gulf. The story itself is presented in the natural and anthropological context of the subject.