There is a huge sports event taking place in Doha these days. It is called “The 17th Arabian Gulf Cup.” The name of the event would not have attracted my attention had I not been closely following the latest Iranian uproar over the use of the term "Arabian Gulf" in National Geographic [see related] rather than their preferred Persian Gulf.
I wonder how Iranians will feel about the name of this regional, heavily-marketed event held in Doha. The press is all over this event with their headlines using ‘Arabian Gulf’ popping up all over the globe. I guess this is a smart way for the Arabs to market their side of the story. Arshad are you there?
Yep, and I wrote “mostly the likes of Khaleej Times” because of that specific article. But I wouldn’t say Pakistan (Or Daily Times) “got in” on it. They overwhelmingly use Persian Gulf in their articles:
http://www.google.ca/search?as_q=persian-gulf&as_sitesearch=dailytimes.com.pk
This could be an oversight, or just a reproduction of an item by an Arab newspaper.
Well it does appear from your links that Pakistan got in on the ‘Arabian’ action:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-12-2004_pg2_14
My point wasn’t quite that. I meant that I don’t understand why they are pushing the use of “Arabian Gulf” in English, while other name variations exist in Arabic that don’t get transformed over into foreign languages. The Arab speaker seems to follow the norms in English when stating names, but when it comes to the Persian Gulf he/she insists on using the “Arabian Gulf” instead.
On the headline thingy, the search engine combs through the body of the articles as well. If you take a close look you’ll notice that mostly the likes of “Khaleej Times” have included the full term anywhere in the whole text.
Arash,
Your observation about the usage of the word “Arabian” instead of “Arabic” is very intriguing. Yeah, it does make you wonder.
The reason the media sometimes uses the generic name “the gulf” instead of “the Arabian or the Persian is simply because of the word limitation for a headline (I’m talking about print and online media) So if they refer to the Arabian gulf cup as the gulf cup it is mainly to shorten the headline. Trust me, been there, done that;-)
To make my case, compare these two Google News search results. The first one searches only for “Gulf Cup”, the second one explicitly excludes “Arabian”. You’d see that the difference in the number of results is only 60 out of a total of 666 present items. Ofcourse I’m really collaborating with the “enemy” here. I’m sure you being an Arab journalist working in the Persian Gulf will make it your point to see that balance changed 😉
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=gulf+cup&btnG=Search+News
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=gulf+cup+-arabian&btnG=Search+News
BBC? Give me a link and I’ll give you the corrected story. But everyone usually drops the “Arabian Gulf” part. Only on occasions you’d get to see the whole term used in the English media outside of these countries. English speakers (and everyone else) are not familiar with the term “Arabian Gulf,” they also try not to confuse their readers with it. I mean really, this whole thing is too silly. I cannot understand how this term got elevated to its present standing. Arabic has many other original names for other waterways and places (that are even genuinely historical for that matter), you don’t see those pushed in the faces of the outside world. Somehow, not only it has to be العربي in Arabic but Arabian in English as well. Or maybe it just shouldn’t be Persian? Makes you wonder! BTW, the same goes with the Gulf Cooperation Council, I have rarely, if at all seen the whole term used outside of the member states.
Yeah Arash of course, not Arshad. I’m sleep deprived, that’s my story!
Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I saw a BBC headline yesterday that referred to it as “the Arabian Gulf Cup. I mean how can they avoid it when it is the official name of the tournament.
“Muslim Unity?” Please!
The original Al-Jazeera animation which was later removed from their website.
Oil for map
In response to an animation by Al-Jazeera, some Iranian nationalist sums up his feelings about the issue.
Making headlines? Not really. It’s always reported as the “Gulf Cup” in the English (and Persian) media. When I was a kid I always wondered why Iran isn’t in this Gulf Cup (and now somehow Yemen is). I didn’t know they call it the “Arabian Gulf” Cup and it’s their own exclusive club. Yet another example of systematically changing the name of the Gulf by our neighbors. That’s Pan-Arabism of the 1960s for ya! And it’s funny, I can dig up the Kuwaiti declaration of independence (or something of that order) from 1950 and it refers to the Persian Gulf all over. Oh well, who cares about this cup of mediocrity! BTW, Arshad (or Ershad) is the common name of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Orthodoxy (ie the Censors) in Iran. I’m Ãrash!