نشریه مطالعات خلیج فارس
سال ششم شماره 1 (پیاپی 21، تابستان 1399)

At the beginning of the 20th century, in spite of the royal proclamation of the Iranian Constitutional Decree by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah on 5 August 1906, unrests and uprisings still continued all over the country. In such conditions, due to its geographical distance from the center of power, the South of Iran suffered from chaotic and disorganized conditions. The khans of the tribes and ethnic groups acted independently and autocratically because of the central government’s lack of attention, and in the middle of this chaos people were treated with cruelty and despotism. Following a descriptive-analytic method and relying on library sources and documents, this study aimed to explore the effects of the ethnic and tribal system dominating the ports and islands of the Persian Gulf in the first half of the 20th century on the conditions of these regions and explain the outcomes of the policies of Reza Shah Pahlavi there. According to the findings of the study, the absence of the ruling power in the southern regions of the Persian Gulf during the last years of the Qajar government had resulted in a lot of unrest and despotic and willful acts on the part of tribes. After the beginning of the First World War and the violation of Iran’s neutral position by the involved countries, the situation was extremely worsened. The economic recess in the ports and islands and the blockage of trade routes, on the one hand, and the conflicts among the tribes and ethnic groups and the suppression of their rights caused people’s escape to other regions, particularly to the southern coasts of the Persian Gulf. This process continued during the reign of Reza Shah and the exercise of power by the central government and, as a result, the population of these regions decreased on a daily basis.

Qeshm Island is the largest Iranian island in the Persian Gulf and one of the most important coastal regions in the south of Iran for archeological studies. Some invaluable sites from the Paleolithic period to the contemporary Islamic centuries have been identified on this island, the study of which has revealed a number of valuable points regarding the cultural relationships of this region of Iran with its southern neighbors in the past. As a result of recent studies and excavations in the historical site of Khorbas on Qeshm Island, a huge Parthian cemetery has been discovered. In the proximity of this cemetery in Khorbas, there are some other works of this period in the form of man-made caves and residential areas, which, along with the newly found cemetery, create a huge collection belonging to the Parthian period. In the course of previous excavations, some other important sites such as Laft, Ramchah, and Defari were identified, which, with the addition of the newly discovered Khorbas collection, turn Qeshm Island into one of the most important regions for research on the Parthian period and, particularly, studies on Iran’s cultural relationships and interactions with its southern neighbors in the Persian Gulf during this era.

Solid waste management is one of the environmental problems and issues which large Iranian cities are faced with. The main purpose of this study is to find an optimal location for burying solid waste materials in Khorramshahr following the locating and modeling approach. The present study is of the type of applied research in terms of purpose and of the type of descriptive-analytic research in terms of methodology. Through a thorough study of the literature on the theoretical foundations of research, 12 features were extracted to conduct this study. Given the susceptibility and impact model in the process of locating the best place for waste burial, the mixed Anp-Demantel technique was used for modeling within the framework of the causal display of indices, weight measurement, and its priority. The appropriate frontage and layering of waste was determined based on available standards. Moreover, the ArcGIS software was used to determine the proper spatial distribution of waste in the landfill. The thematic findings of this study indicate that the sub-criterion of population centers with an impact factor of 0.108 was the most effective index, but in terms of susceptibility in macro indices, tectonic standard ( with a weight of 0.326) and accessibility ( with a weight of 0.103), it ranked first. Regarding the spatial findings, it was concluded that from the 1,805,947 km2 area of Khorramshahr, 647823 km2 or 35.87% of its area enjoyed a completely appropriate situation. Given the findings of the studies, the authors have provided some suggestions at three distinct levels. At the first level, considering the cost of distance from population centers, appropriate faults, recharge wells, and bedrocks are suggested. At the second level, given the factor of access to a proper connecting network and a slope of less than 5%, the appropriate level is suggested. At the third level, which deals with less dangerous places for the burial of solid waste, it has been suggested to take the principles of distance from city centers, village, and surface waters into consideration, which is of course neither very effective nor cost-friendly.

Presently, it is predicted that the American foreign policies regarding certain important international problems, including those related to the Persian Gulf, will undergo massive changes. America’s selling of military weapons to the countries on the southern coasts of the Persian Gulf can be considered a threat to the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Through investigating the effects of America’s gaining control over the Persian Gulf and a review of the internal security system of the US and the national and international security systems of the Islamic Republic of Iran, this study aims to provide an answer to the question of what the consequences of America’s coming to power in the Persian gulf will be in relation to political and security issues. The findings of this study indicate that this phenomenon could result in the disintegration of |America’s national unity regarding Iran’s regional and international policies, political isolation of the US, considering America responsible for any potential problem in the Persian Gulf based on its own national law, imposition of more economic and political sanctions against Iran, imposition of JCPOA II and III on Iran, a more open military attack against Iran by the Arab governments criticizing its regional policies, and the empowerment of the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf.

The various designs of the earthenware of the Chalcolithic period of ancient sites of Khuzestan have attracted the attention of researchers since long ago. It seems that these designs held a supreme place in the thoughts, insights, and beliefs of the people of that region. They could signify some geographical conditions and locations or even have a symbolic meaning. Following a descriptive-analytic method and based on library studies, this paper investigated one of the cultural customs of the people of Khuzestan, the Zar Ritual, in order to analyze and compare the existing symbolic designs on the earthenware of the Chalcolithic period and Afshari gelims. The findings of this study indicate that the insights, thoughts, traditions, and beliefs of Khuzestani people have lived on from prehistory until the present time and penetrated their other artistic works, such as gelims.

The Persian Gulf, as one of the main open waterways of the world, has been of great importance regarding economic, cultural, and political relationships among various countries since ancient times. Following a descriptive analytic method, this study examines the term Persian Gulf and its borderlines in ancient Greek sources and Arab-Islamic historical and geographical texts, particularly, the books of Masalik and al-Mamalik. The author concludes that the Persian Gulf has been called so since several millennia before Christ. Moreover, in all texts and maps of ancient times and the Arabic-Islamic period, the area of this waterway has been recorded to be much vaster than its present day area, including the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. Moreover, they call the Persian Gulf with such names as Pars Sea, Sea of Fars, and Khalij al-Farsi.