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The Toponymy of the Tonb Islands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
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This essay explores the toponymy of Great and Little Tonb (pron. tōm), two islands at the entrance to the Persian Gulf overlooking the main shipping lanes near the Straits of Hormuz. In view of their close proximity to the Persian coast, the Tonbs are considered geographically Persian islands.
This essay will provide, first and foremost, a consolidated record of the islands' nomenclature, with a view to ascertaining the etymological origins of the islands' many names. Toponyms tell us about physical and human geography in a historical context. To that extent, a study of place names is not free from political and legal implications.
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- Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1996
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The author wishes to thank professors Najmedin Meshkati and Houchang E. Chehabi for their kind encouragement and insightful comments. He is also thankful to the anonymous reviewers and the editors at Iranian Studies for their substantial contributions to the essay.
References
1. The name “Tonb” occurs in many forms, including “Tomb,” “Tunb,” “Tamb,” “Tanb,” and “Tumb.” See, for example, respectively, J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia (reprinted from an original in the India Office Library) (Farnborough: Gregg International/Irish University Press, 1970), 2:1908; K. Mitchell et al., eds., “Persian Gulf Islands,” in Alvin J. Cottrell, ed., The Persian Gulf States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), Appendix D, 566; British Foreign Office Records [F.O.] 371/310 (1907), Persia 34/41755, no. 1: “Memorandum Respecting the Persian Gulf Islands of Abu Musa, Tamb, and Sirri,” by Alwyn Parker, dated 17 December 1907 (hereafter Parker, “Memorandum“); Abdullah, Muhammad Morsy, The United Arab Emirates (London: Croom Helm, 1978), 16Google Scholar; Barbosa, Duarte, The Book of Duarte Barbosa (1518), trans, and ed. Dames, Mansel Longworth (London: Hakluyt Society, 1918), 1:79–81Google Scholar. Once the vowels are factored out from these variants, the name is reduced to one of two series of consonants: tnb and tmb, both of which occur also in Persian usage. See, for example, Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gozīdeh-ye asnād-e khalīj-e Fārs (Tehran: Institute of Political and International Studies, 1989), 1:264 (doc. no. 82/1904 for tāmb; 266, doc. no. 83/1905 for tomb; 268, doc. no. 84/1904 for tomb and tonb). Furthermore, the Persian orthography of the letter t as in Tonb has been at times with t or ṭ, but for the most part with the former. See ibid., 272 (doc. no. 86/1904 for ṭonb and tonb, and title page to chapter 2 for tonb).
2. The larger of the islands is located about 17 miles south of the southwestern tip of Qeshm Island off the Persian coast and 35 miles from the nearest point on the Persian mainland. It is roughly circular in shape, 2.25 miles in diameter, and 165 feet at its highest elevation. Little Tonb is situated 7 miles to the west of Great Tonb, 20 miles from Qeshm and 30 miles from the nearest point on the Persian mainland. It is triangular in shape, with a dark, 116-foot hill standing on its north point, and it is reputed to have been infested by snakes. For a brief geographical description of the Tonbs see Mitchell, “Persian Gulf Islands,” 566; Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1908–09.
3. See UN Security Council, Official Records, 26th year, 1610th meeting (9 December 1971), para. 135 (Iranian representative's statement) and paras. 71–72 and 81–95 (Iraqi representative's remarks) (strategic nature of the islands); Kennedy, R. H., “A Brief Geographical and Hydrographical Study of Straits which Constitute Routes for International Traffic,” in UN, Official Records (of the Proceedings of the 1958 United nations Conference on the Law of the Sea) (New York: UN Publications, 1958), 1:129–30Google Scholar.
4. See F.O. 371/13777 (1929), Persia E4369/19/34, G. W. Rendel's minutes, dated 10 September 1929: “Tamb is only 38 miles from the Persian, but 46 miles from the Arabian, coast, so that it is indeed geographically a Persian island” (emphasis in original). At various times British officialdom considered sovereignty over islands in the Persian Gulf to be allocated on the basis of proximity. For example, Harqus belonged to Kuwait, Das to Abu Dhabi, Dalma to Qatar, and Janah to Saudi Arabia. See F.O. 371/20775 (1937): Arabia E184/184/91, Political Resident to J. C. Walton (I.O.), P.Z.100/37, Bushire (D.O.No.872–5 of 1936), dated 9 December 1936; Arabia E2399/184/91, E. A. Seal (Admiralty) to Clauson (I.O.), M.02230/37, dated 29 April 1937.
5. See C. Edmund Bosworth, “The Nomenclature of the Persian Gulf,” in Cottrell, Persian Gulf States, xvii-xxxiv; Bruce Ingham, “Languages of the Persian Gulf,” in ibid., 314–33.
6. See, generally, Roger M. Savory, “The History of the Persian Gulf: 2. A.D. 600–1800,” in Cottrell, Persian Gulf States, 20–40; Malcolm Yapp, “The History of the Persian Gulf: 3. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” in ibid., 41–68.
7. See, generally, Wilson, Sir Arnold T., The Persian Gulf (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928)Google Scholar; Kelly, J. B., Britain and the Persian Gulf, 1795–1880 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968)Google Scholar; Busch, Briton C., Britain and the Persian Gulf, 1894–1914 (Berkeley: University of California, 1967)Google Scholar.
8. For details see, generally, Busch, Britain and the Persian Gulf, 46–48; Kelly, Britain and the Persian Gulf 71, 169–71, 181–91. See also below.
9. For a lucid analysis of Britain's withdrawal from the Persian Gulf see, generally, J. B. Kelly, Arabia, the Gulf & the West (New York: Basic Books, 1980), chapters 1–2. The legal and diplomatic history of the Anglo-Persian dispute over the Tonbs is detailed in Guive Mirfendereski, “The Tamb Islands Controversy, 1887–1971: A Case Study in Claims to Territory in International Law” (Ph.D. diss., Tufts University, 1985); idem, “The Ownership of the Tonb Islands: A Legal Analysis,” in H. Amirahmadi, ed., Small Islands, Big Politics (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996).
10. See, for example, “Talks break down on disputed gulf islands,” The Boston Globe, 29 September 1992, 28.
11. For a useful outline of Arab-Persian relations in the Persian Gulf see Marlow, John, “Arab-Persian Rivalry in the Persian Gulf,” in Journal of Royal Central Asian Society 23 (1964): 51Google Scholar.
12. See Amin, Sayed Hassan, International and Legal Problems of the Gulf (London: Menas Press, Ltd., 1981), 31–42Google Scholar.
13. Arrian (d. A.D. 180), Historia Indika, bk. viii, ch. xxxvii, reprinted in E. Iliff Robson, trans. & ed., Arrian: History of Alexandre and Indica, The Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann, 1949), 2:414–17.
14. See William Vincent, The Voyage of Nearchus from the Indus to the Euphrates (1797) reprinted in idem, The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean (London: Cadell & Davies, 1807), 1:356–57.
15. Claudius Ptolemaeus (d. A.D. 168), Geographia (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1969), Tabula Sexta Asiae (Sixth Map of Asia) and bk. six, ch. iv. A 19thcentury map depicted two islands named Tabiana at the entrance to the Persian Gulf slightly eastward of two other islands identified as Pylora and Fora (the Farurs). See D. Campio (litho.), “Arabia et Arabicus Sinus” (Nurenberg, 1829), in Christen Gottlieb Reichard, Orbis Terrarum Antiquus (Nurenberg: Freidrich Campe, 1819–1831), map no. 16. The name Tabiana may have derived from the Latin word tabeo, meaning “to waste away.” See D. P. Simpson, ed., Cassell's New Compact Latin Dictionary (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1963), 220. It may be that in antiquity the Tonbs were seen in relation to the Tab River (mod. Hindiyan) flowing into the Persian Gulf in the southwest of Fars. See Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 6, 41, 50, 71–73.
16. al-Balkhi, Ibn, Fāarsnāma, ed. Strange, Guy Le and Nicholson, R. A. (London: Luzac & Co., 1921), 141Google Scholar and 151. In Persian, among the many meanings for the word dam are “breath” and “humid.” The letters t and ṭ, and d and ẕ are interchangeable (Steingass, F., Persian-English Dictionary [Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1892], 271Google Scholar, 493–94, 556). Therefore, it is likely that dam may have been ẕamm, derived from the word ẕammat, meaning “a well with little water” (ibid., 559), or from tam, meaning “abounding” (as in water), “rubbish thrown by water, the sea,” and “walling a well with stones” (ibid., 819).
17. al-Qazvini, Hamdallah Mustawfi, Nuzhat al-qulūb, ed. Strange, Guy Le (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1913), 234Google Scholar. In Persian k and g are interchageable as a linguistic rule as well as mistaken orthography. See Steingass, Dictionary, 999, 1099. If Mustawfi's knd was gnd, one may suggest that the island derived its name from the word gand, meaning “foul.” The suggestion is supported by the occurrence of the name Ab-e Gandeh (“foul water“) as it applied to Gonaveh on the Persian coast. See Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 73.
18. Mustawfi, Nuzhat, 234.
19. The word gonbad is from pre-Islamic Persian (Pahlavi). See D. N. MacKenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), 111. Gonbad is written also as gonbaẕ, where d is replaced by ẕ (Steingass, Dictionary, 1098). While the word does not occur in Arabic, it does occur in Turkish in the form of kunbad (pron. gyunbed, vulg. kyumbed). See Redhouse, Sir Thomas W., Turkish and English Lexicon (Constantinople: American Board Mission/H. Matteosian, 1921)Google Scholar, 1574. The variations gunbad, gonbad, gumboẕ, gumbaẕ, gumbad, gombad and gomboẕ are all equally valid.
20. Vincent had been a dean of Westminster and master of Westminster School and lent his name to Vincent Square in London. See Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 36, fn. 2.
21. Idem, Commerce and Navigation 1:354–55, n. 116.
22. Ibid., 357.
23. Ibid., n. 122. Vincent's source for this revelation was Harford Jones, the resident of the British East India Company in Bushehr and Basra. This early reference to the Tonbs on the basis of size is a distinctive Persian influence preserved also in the contemporary Arab practice of differentiating the Tonbs as kubrā (big) and ṣughrā (little). See, for example, Morsy Abdullah, United Arab Emirates, 233. Among other gonbads are Gonbad Qabus, a city in northern Persia, a fortress called Seh Gonbadan (Three Domes), and an edifice erected by Bahram Gur called Haft Gonbad (Seven Domes). See Steingass, Dictionary, 711, 1504.
24. On Qeshm once Nearchus was shown the tomb of King Erythras, after whom the gulf at the time (325 B.C.) is said to have been named (Sea of Erythras), and whose tomb consisted of “a large mound planted with wild palm trees.” See Arrian, History, 414–17.
25. In 1218 the Muslim traveler and geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited the island of Khark where he found the tomb of Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyah, which was a place of pilgrimage. See Yaqut b. ᶜAbdallah al-Hamawi al-Rumi, Muᶜjam al-buldān (Beirut: DarSadir, 1955), 2:337. In 1898 Captain A. W. Stiffe of the Royal India Marines visited Khark and remarked on the ruins of the shrine: “The principal is a tomb with a spire standing behind these caves, higher up the hillside. It is said to be of Mir Muhammad, a son of Ali, and has an inscription stating it was rebuilt nearly six hundred years ago. It is still a place of pilgrimage. .. . There is also a tomb 40 ells in length, called Chehil-gazah, of a saint said by tradition to have been of that stature.” See Stiffe, A. W., “Persian Gulf Notes: Kharg Island,” The Geographical Journal 12 (1898): 179–80Google Scholar.
26. On his voyage to the Persian Gulf in 1762–64, Niebuhr noted the existence of the tomb of a Muslim saint on the island of “Schich Sure” (Sirri). See Niebuhr, Carsten, Beschreibung von Arabien, nach eigenen Beobachtungen und im Lande selbst gesammlten Nachrichten abgefasst (Copenhagen: Nicolaus Müller, 1772), 328CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
27. In 1786 Tipu Sultan's emissary to Constantinople touched at Hengam, where, according to Khwaja ᶜAbd al-Qadir, they paid a visit to the resting place of Sayyid Muhammad, son of Imam Riza, the eighth Imam of the Twelver Shiᶜites. See Khwaja ᶜAbd al-Qadir, Vaqāyeᶜ-e manāzel-e Rūm, ed. al-Hasan, Muhibb (London: Asia Publishing House, 1968), 19–20Google Scholar.
28. See Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1087.
29. See Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 30–32.
30. “ … and farther up the gulf lay Oaracta I., Kishm … it has been supposed to be the same with Ogyris I., where stood the tomb of King Erythras, who was said by the mythologists to have been drowned in the Erythraean Sea, and to have hence communicated his name to it. This tradition seems in a manner perpetuated by the names of two small islands close to Kishm, called the Great Tomb and Little Tomb” (Arrowsmith, Aaron, A Compendium of Ancient and Modern Geography [London: E. Williams & Eton, 1839], 605Google Scholar, emphasis in original).
31. See Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1908 (“In English formerly Tomb“). According to Niebuhr, the English practice of calling the islands Great and Little Tonb was already current in 1762–65 (Beschreibung, 328).
32. See, for example, William Vincent, Voyage de Néarque, des bouches de l'Indus jusqu'à I'Euphrate, ou journal de I'expédition de la flotte d'Alexandre, trans, and ed. J. B. L. J. Billecocq (Paris: Imprimérie de Crapelet, 1800), 354 (“le Grand Tombeau et le Petit Tombeau“); the French translation of J. von Hammer-Purgstall's travelogue to Persia, published as Le Baron de Nerciat, “Mémoire de M. de Hammer sur la Perse,” in Receuilde voyage et de mémoires (Paris: La Société” de Géographie, 1824–1864), 2 (1829): 273 (“des Tombeaux“).
33. See, for example, “Persia,” in Aaron Arrowsmith and S. Lewis, General Atlas (Philadelphia: John Conrad & Co., 1804); “Arabia,” in Playfair, James, A New General Atlas (London: printed for author, 1814)Google Scholar; “Persia,” in ibid.; “Tumb,” in Worcester, J. E., A Geographical Dictionary (Andover, Mass.: Henry Whipple, 1817)Google Scholar; “Arabia und Nil-land,” in Berghaus, Heinrich Karl Wilhelm, Atlas von Asia (Gotha: J. Perthes, 1832–43)Google Scholar; Kiepert, Johann Samuel Heinrich, Arabien (Weimar: Verlag des geograph. Instituts, 1857)Google Scholar; McCulloch, J. R., A Dictionary: Geographical, Statistical, Historical of the Various Countries (London: Longmans & Co., 1866), 3:130Google Scholar; Petermann, A., Iran und Turan, oder: Persien, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1875)Google Scholar; “Persia,” in Johnston, Alexandre Keith, The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography (Edinburgh: W. & A. K. Johnston, 1884)Google Scholar, no. 32; Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan (Chicago: Rand & Co., 1885); “Persia,” in Walker, H. B., Walker's International Atlas (Philadelphia: H. B. Walker, 1890)Google Scholar; Bohn, Henry G., System of Universal Geography (London: H. G. Bohn, 1859), 673Google Scholar; “Afrique en 3 feuilles,” in Saint-Martin, L. Vivien de, Atlas universel de géographie (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1877)Google Scholar; Stack, Edward, Six Months in Persia (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1882)Google Scholar, vol. 1 (map); “Persia and Afghanistan,” in Johnston, Alexandre Keith, The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography (Edinburgh: W. & A. K. Johnston, 1884)Google Scholar; “Asie Occidentale,” in Levasseur, Pierre Émile, Grand atlas de géographie (Paris: Librairie Ch. Delagrave, 1891)Google Scholar; “Asia Minor and Persia,” in The Times Atlas (London: The Office of The Times, 1895).
34. Barbosa, Book of Duarte Barbosa, 79–82.
35. See discussion below in section V.
36. See Andrews, E. A., Harpers’ Latin Dictionary (New York: American Book Co., 1907), 1912–13Google Scholar.
37. Whether Tomon actually meant tomb cannot be stated with certainty. The word for tomb in Portuguese is tumba and tumulo, in Spanish tumba, and in Italian tomba. See, respectively, Houaiss, A. and Avery, C. B., eds., The New Appleton Dictionary of the English and Portuguese Languages (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1964), 562Google Scholar; Gran Diccionario Español-Inglés (Paris: Larousse, 1993), 711; Reynolds, B., ed., The Cambridge Italian Dictionary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 2:722Google Scholar.
38. See, for example, Houaiss, and Avery, New Appleton Dictionary, All (tumulo=mox\n&); Casares, J., ed., Diccionario Ideológico de la Lengua Española (Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, 1959), 842Google Scholar (tumbo=waves or undulations in the earth); Guilberti, L. et al., eds., Grand Larousse de la langue française (Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1978), 7:6104Google Scholar (tombolo = la bande étroite de sable qui maintient une presqu'île reliée au continent); The American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1993), 1424 (sand bar that connects an island to the mainland or to another island).
39. See Skey, M., ed., Dizionario Italiano-Inglese (Torino: Societa Edrice Internazionale, 1981)Google Scholar, 1830 (tombolo=saad dune); Dogliotti, M. and Rosiello, L., Zingarelli Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana, 12th ed. (Bologna: Zingarelli editore, 1993)Google Scholar, 1908 (tombolo = mound of sand that the sea forms on the seashore); Reynolds, Cambridge Italian Dictionary, 1:819 (tombolo = connecting bar, small dune) and (tomboleto = dunes, shore with sand hill), p. 835 (tumolo/tumulo = sand-hill on seashore, grave) and (tumuleto = dune formed of volcanic dust).
40. Ramusio, Giovanni Battista, La Navigatione di Nearcho, in idem, Navigationi et viaggi (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1970), 3:270Google Scholar. In Italian, the word for dome or cupola is domo or duomo. The name “Doma” refers to isole (mod. isola, meaning “island“), which is feminine. See Reynolds, Cambridge Italian Dictionary 1:254, 259; Davenport, J. and Comelati, G., eds., Baretti's Dictionary of the Italian and English Languages (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1854), 1:204Google Scholar. See also Barbosa, Book of Duarte Barbosa, 80–81, fn., where doma is identified as dome.
41. Marco Polo visited the maritime city of Hormuz on the Persian mainland (near present-day Minab) in 1272 and again in 1292, providing detailed accounts of the place and its trade, referring also to Kish Island as an entrepot of trade. See Wilson, The Persian Gulf, 75, 99, 102–103. Varthema visited Hormuz Island and spent much of 1504 in southern Persia, especially Shiraz, before joining the Portuguese forces in India from 1505 to 1507 and returning to Europe, where, in 1510, he published his itinerary. See Encylopaedia Britannica (Micropaedia), 15th ed., s.v. “Varthema, Lodovico de.” For an account of his voyages, see Jones, John W., trans., and Badger, George P., ed., The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1858)Google Scholar.
42. Barret, W., “Notes of M. Will. Barret,” in Hakluyt, Richard, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Trajfiques & Discoveries of the English Nation (Glascow: James MacLehose & Sons, 1904), 6:14–15Google Scholar.
43. “Carte des trois Arabies, tirée en partie de l'Arabe de Nube, en partie de divers auteurs,” by S. N. Sanson d'Abbeville, royal geographer (Paris: P. Mariette, 1654); “Arabiae Felicis, Patrae et Desertae” (Amsterdam: Joannem Janssonium, 1658); “Arabia” (Amsterdam: J. Blau, 1666), all at Harvard College Library (Cambridge, Mass.), Map Room, nos. 2305/5, 2305/9, 2305/7. In Dutch the term for “dome” is koepel and in French dome. There seems to be no mention of the Tonbs in Dutch or French with the meaning of “dôme.”
44. “Arabia,” in Dunn, Samuel, A New Atlas of the Mundane System, Etc. (London: R. Laurie & J. Whittle, 1810)Google Scholar; Houaiss and Avery, New Appleton Dictionary, 175.
45. To connect dom with gonbad, one must account for the interchangeability of d and g, which is a phonetic possibility, arrived at from gonbad to tombad to dombad. See Steingass, Dictionary, 1071 (g to gutturals, palatals and labials) and 271 (t to d). Likewise, to make the connection between gond and gonbad, one must account for the absence of b, which would have occurred in written Persian in the form of a minor indentation; its absence could be explained by the probability of its having been omitted as a misprint. If b were allowed in, then it would need to be connected to d by use of a vowel, e.g., a, to yield gonbad.
46. See, for example, the schematic representation of the Tonbs in Ouseley, William, Travels in Various Countries of the East, 1810–1812 (London: Rodwell & Martin, 1819)Google Scholar, vol. 1, plate VI. See also, description of Little Tonb in Mitchell, “Persian Gulf Islands,” 566 (“topped by low, dark hills“); Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1908–1909.
47. Morier, James, A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople between the Years 1810 and 1816 (London: Longman & Co., 1818), 30Google Scholar.
48. Kiepert, Johann Samuel Heinrich, Arabien (Weimar: Verlag des geograph. Instituts, 1857)Google Scholar, Harvard College Library (Cambridge, Mass.), Map Room, no. 2306/10.
49. Curzon, George N., Persia and the Persian Question (London: Cass & Co., 1966), 2:448Google Scholar, n. 1. Curzon's full entry states: “Persian Gumbaz, but Badger writes the names Tanb” (emphasis in original). Curzon's use of the disjunctive “but” may have implied the existence of a name in contra-distinction to the Persian name and English usage. A speaker of Persian and Arabic, the Reverend G. P. Badger spent many years in Oman and his “Tanb” may have sought to emphasize an Arabic or Arabian connection with the Tonbs, consistent with his pro-Omani proclivities. For details regarding Badger's career see, generally, Kelly, Britain and the Persian Gulf. There is no doubt that, in 1892, Curzon considered the Persian appellation to be the primary, if not the only, local name for the islands. In 1892 the Royal Geographical Society of London published the Map of Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan (F.O. Map Room, no. 2084, Public Records Office, Kew Gardens, London). This map, compiled by Curzon himself, depicted the Tonbs in the same color (pink) as Persia.
50. Mojtahed-Zadeh, Pirouz, “Iran's Maritime Boundaries in the Persian Gulf,” in McLachlan, Keith, ed., The Boundaries of Modern Iran (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 106Google Scholar.
51. Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1869. The name presumably would be referring to the location in reference to “Three Hills” or “Black Hills.” The word seh could be simply the number three or a corruption of siyāh (black, unhappy). See Steingass, Dictionary, 710, 712–13.
52. Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1556. Lorimer gives the spelling in English as Tumbanu. This illustrates a similar interchange of n for m that occurs in Tonb/Tomb in both English and Persian. If verified as referring to a “hill,” the name Tonbanu then could be divisible into tonb (hill) and banu (lady), thus yielding the name “Lady's Hill” (Steingass, Dictionary, 152).
53. McCulloch, A Dictionary, 130. The name Slangen is derived from the Dutch slang and the suffix en, which together mean “both snakes.”
54. See Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gozīdeh-ye asnād, 327–31 (doc. no. 102).
55. See, for example, Mosahab, Gholam-Hosayn, ed., Dāyerat al-maᶜāref-e Fārsī (Tehran: Moᵓassasa-ye entesharat-e Feranklin, 1344 Sh./1965)Google Scholar, s.v. “Abū Mūsā.”
56. See, for example, Mohammad ᶜAli Janab, Khalīj-e Fārs: āshnāᵓl bā amārāt-e ān (Tehran: Padideh, 1349 Sh./1970), 316Google Scholar.
57. Mār is of pre-Islamic Persian origin (MacKenzie, Concise Pahlavi Dictionary, 133) and does not occur in Arabic with the same meaning.
58. Abu Eshaq Ebrahim Estakhri (d. A.D. 960), Masālek va mamālek, ed. Iraj Afshar, Persian Texts Series (gen. ed. E. Yarshater), no. 9 (Tehran: B.T.N.K., 1340 Sh./1961), 99–101. In Persian, the term ṭassūj means “coast, shore, tract of land,” and tonbūk (or tambūk) means “a bow, flap of a saddle, saddle tree” (Steingass, Dictionary, 815, 327). Tamastān may be a compound form of ṭam, meaning “ostrich,” “abounding in water” or “rubbish” (ibid., 819) and the suffix astān, meaning “place or country or land of.” Tonbuk al-Murestan translates literally into “Tonbuk of the anthill,” while “Tonbuk” is likely a reference to a topographical feature, perhaps a hill or formation resembling a saddle tree.
59. Kaarte van de Kuns van Arabië, de Roode-zee en de Golfe van Persie, tirée de la carte de l'océean oriental, publiée en 1740 (Hague: P. de Hondt, 1747), Harvard College Library (Cambridge, Mass.), Map Room, no. 2303/11, in A. F. Prévost, Histoire générate des voyages (Hague: P. de Hondt, 1747–67). Tomba is in the Persian plural form (tomb + hā). For “Tombo” and “Nabiyu” see Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, “Première partie de la carte d'Asie contenant la Turquie, l'Arabie, la Perse, l'lnde, en deça du Gange et de la Tartarie ce qui est limitrophe de la Perse et de 1'Inde” (Paris, 1751), in idem, Atlas moderne (Paris: self-published, 1749–60). The appellation Tombo contains the Persian conjunctive o as in tomb o nābīyū (Tomb and Nabiyu), in which case Nabiyu would relate to Tomb as its lesser counterpart (possibly, nābī = lesser + yū = its).
60. Niebuhr, Beschreibung, 328.
61. In Arabic the word ṭnb (pron. ṭunnub) means “to remain, abide, stay to live, settle down,” and “to take up permanent residence.” Compare Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, ed. J. M. Cowan (Ithaca: Spoken Language Services, 1976), 570 and Steingass, Dictionary, 326.
62. Namiveh (barren) can be pronounced as nāmīweh (substituting the soft w for the stronger v) and written as nāmīū, even though in its new form the word would have no meaning in Persian or Arabic. The name Nabiyu mentioned above, too, was in all likelihood the corruption of Namiveh qua Namiu, in which m and b were interchanged.
63. Khwaja ᶜAbd al-Qadir, Vaqāyeᶜ, 20. In the accompanying English translation, it is stated only that Great Tonb (Tunb) “has flocks of deer, but is deserted” (ibid., 31).
64. In Persian the word ṭm (read tamni) means “abounding” as in water (Steingass, Dictionary, 819).
65. Vincent, Voyage of Nearchus, 357, n. 122.
66. In Persian the word nāz means, among other things, “fresh, tender, soft,” while the word nāzā means “barren, sterile.” The name Namaun may have derived from the Persian mᶜn (pron. maᶜn), meaning “flowing” (like water). Combining it with the Persian negative prefix nā would result in nāmaᶜn, meaning “without water”. See Steingass, Dictionary, 1371 (nāz), 1276 (maᶜn). Accepting Vincent's Naz and Namaun at face value, it would, therefore, seem that Naz referred to Great Tonb and Namaun to Little Tonb. In all likelihood the name Namaun for Little Tonb is related to the aforementioned Namiu, Namiveh and Namin. It is also possible that Naz and Namaun are each one-half of a set of names which may have occurred in tandem within their individual word group. For example, Naz would have belonged to the set of “Naz and Naza,” in which Naz would refer to Great Tonb and its amenity, while Naza would have referred to Little Tonb and its barren character. There have been instances in which Little Tonb has been referred to as Naza (var. Naze). See, for example, Vincent, Voyage of Nearchus, 357, n. 121; idem, Voyage de Nééarque, 363. Similarly, the name Namaun would have belonged to the set of “Maᶜn and Namaᶜn,” where Macn would have referred to Great Tonb as a place with water and Namaᶜn to Little Tonb as a place without.
67. Vincent, Voyage of Nearchus, 357; idem, Voyage de Néarque, 363.
68. “Persien” (1804) and “Charte von Persien” (Prague, 1811), Harvard College Library (Cambridge, Mass.), Map Room, nos. 2276/8, 2276/10.
69. The name Bani Hul occurs in a variety of forms, such as Beni Hule, Ibn Hule, Beni Houl, and Bani Hule, and the name Hul is related to such names as Holi, Huwalah and Mawal. See, generally, Niebuhr, Carsten, Travels Through Arabia and Other Countries in the East, trans. Huron, R. (Edinburgh: Morison & Son, 1792), 2:134–45Google Scholar; Malcolm, Sir John, Sketches of Persia from the Journals of a Traveller in the East (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1928), 27–28Google Scholar; Miles, S. B., The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf (London: Harrison & Son, 1919), 2:430Google Scholar; Lorimer, Gazetteer, 754; Kelly, Britain and the Persian Gulf, 18; Morsy Abdullah, United Arab Emirates, 222, 284, n. 2.
70. Worcester, J. E., A Geographical Dictionary or Universal Gazetteer: Ancient and Modern (Andover, Mass.: Henry Whipple, 1817)Google Scholar, vol. 2, s.v. “Greater Tomb.”
71. Kempthorne, G. B., “Notes on a Survey along the Eastern Shores of the Persian Gulf in 1828,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 5 (1835): 280CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
72. Whitelock, H. H., “Description Sketch of the Islands and Coast Situated at the Entrance of the Persian Gulf,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 8 (1838): 181CrossRefGoogle Scholar, n. In the reprint of Whitelock's account a decade later the Tonbs were described, probably mistakenly, as inhabited. See idem, Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society (1836–1938), vol. 1 (1844), 124.
73. See Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, 448. The fauna on nearby Qeshm Island was similar to that found on Great Tonb, consisting mainly of goats and antelopes, which, too were hunted by the British personnel stationed on the island at Basidu (ibid., 411). The similarity in the fauna and the fact that Qeshm has been settled since antiquity together suggest that the goats and antelopes on Great Tonb may have been transported there from Qeshm.
74. Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:630.
75. Battuta, Ibn, The Travels of Ibn Battuta (A.D. 1325–1354), trans. & ed. Gibb, H. A. R., (London: Hakluyt Society, 1962), 2:392Google Scholar.
76. Valle, Pietro della, The Travels of Pietro della Valle in India, trans. Havers, G., ed. Grey, Edward (London: Hakluyt Society, 1892), 1:3Google Scholar; Fryer, John, A New Account of East India and Persia Being Nine Years'Travels, 1672–1681 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1912), 2:158Google Scholar, n. 2.
77. Mohammad ᶜAli Sadid al-Saltaneh Kababi, Iᶜlām al-nās fī aḤwāl Bandar ᶜAbbās, published in Persian as Ahmad Eqtedari and ᶜAli Setayesh, eds., Bandar ‘Abbās va khalīj-e Fārs (Tehran: Ketabkhaneh-ye Ebn-e Sina, 1342 Sh./1963), 132–33; Bohn, Henry G., ed., System of Universal Geography Founded on the Works of Malte-Brun and Balbi (London: H. G. Bohn, 1859), 673Google Scholar.
78. F.O. 371/13721 (1929), Arabia E982/52/91: Foreign Secretary, (G.I.), Delhi, to I.O., letter no. F160-N/28, dated 29 January 1929, enclosure: “Extract from translation of a letter from Shaikh Khalifah-Bin-Saiyid, Chief of Lingah, to the Chief of Ras el-Khaimah,” dated 12 Ramadan 1289/15 November 1872; Arabia E850/52/91: Residency Agent (Sharjah) to Political Resident (Bushire), no. 536, dated 10 November 1928, enclosure: “Copy of a letter of Sheikh Khalifah bin-Said, Ruler of Lingah, to Sheikh Humaid bin Abdullah, Ruler of Ras el-Khaimah,” 20 Ramadan 1289/22 November 1872.
79. Arabia E982/52/91, ibid., enclosure: Extract from translation of a letter from Shaikh Ali-Bin-Khalifah to the Chief of Ras-el-Khayma, 13 Moharram 1294 (8 January 1877).
80. Ibid., enclosure: “Translated purport of a letter from Residency Agent at Shargah to the Political Resident, Persian Gulf,” no. 3, dated 18 January 1888, and enclosure: “Extract from translation of a letter from Shaikh Yusuf, Chief of Lingah, to Shaikh Hamid-Bin-Abdullah, Chief of Ras-el-Khymo,” 1 Jamadi II 1301/29 March 1884.
81. Movahhed, Jamil, Bastak va khalīj-e Fārs (Tehran: n.p., 1349 Sh./1970), 43Google Scholar. Movahhed's source on this is a Persian manuscript entitled “Tārīkh-e Jahāngīreh va Banī ᶜAbbāsīān-e Bastak,” written by Mohammad Aᶜzam Bani ᶜAbbasian, a descendent of Shaykh Muhammad Khan, whose family governed the Jahangireh-Bastak region of south Persia, off and on, from 1760 to the first decade of the 20th century.
82. For details see Morsy Abdullah, United Arab Emirates, 233–38.
83. Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1908.
84. Yule, H. and Burnell, A. C., Hobson-Jobson, ed. Crooke, W., 2nd ed. (Delhi: Munshiram Manohrlal, 1968), 65Google Scholar, quoting the 17th-century French voyager Tavernier, who referred to the banyan as the only tree that grew on Hormuz Island.
85. Pietro della Valle, Travels, 35 (emphasis in original).
86. For details on the appeal and characteristics of betel see Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 89–90; Ibn Battuta, Travels, 387–88.
87. In Persian the term lūl means “shameless, bold, impudent” (Steingass, Dictionary, 1132). In idiomatic Persian it denotes a state of exhilaration induced by alcohol or narcotic substances. It is also likely that the name Lul, as reported by Pietro della Valle, may have been a corruption of the Persian folfol (pepper), which the Portuguese used to call betel on account of its pungency. See below.
88. Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 913–14. Among the variations of tanbūl are tembūl and tamboli. See also Ibn Battuta, Travels, 387, n. 84.
89. For historical descriptions of pān see Ibn Battuta, Travels, 387–88; Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 89–90, 913–14; Pietro della Valle, Travels, 36–37.
90. See Pietro della Valle, Travels, 36, n. 2.
91. Steingass, Dictionary, 938 (folfol, felfel, felfelmūr, felfelmūn).
92. See Fryer, New Account 2:158 (n. 4), 202–203; Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 485–86; Steingass, Dictionary, 1034.
93. Barbosa, Book of Duarte Barbosa, 80–81.
94. F.O. 371/13721 (1929), Arabia E982/52/91: Foreign Secretary (G.I.), Delhi, to I.O. (London), letter No.F160-N/28, dated 29 January 1929, enclosure no. 3: “Brief purport of five letters written by Shaikh Yusuf-Bin-Muhammad to Muhammad Hassan Khan, formerly Governor of Bunder Abbas and Lingah,” envelope no. 1, letter dated 25 Jamadi I 1302/12 March 1885.
95. Ibid., envelope no. 2, letter dated 5 Jamadi II 1302/22 March 1885.
96. Ibid., envelope no. 3, letter dated 15 Jamadi II 1302/1 April 1885. There is no indication as to the nature of “that Tamb business.”
97. Ibid., envelope no. 4, letter dated 28 Jamadi II 1302/14 April 1885.
98. F.O. 371/13010 (1928), Arabia E4266/42/91: “India Office Memorandum on Status of the Islands of Tamb, Little Tamb, Abu Musa, and Sirri,” by J. G. Laithwaite, dated 24 August 1928, para. 12, citing charge d'affaires (Tehran) to political resident (Bushehr), telegram dated 10 December 1887 (hereafter Laithwaite, “India Office Memorandum“).
99. F.O. 371/13721 (1929), Arabia E982/52/91: Foreign Secretary, (G.I.), Delhi, to I.O., letter no. F160-N/28, dated 29 January 1929, enclosure no. 2, “Residency Agent (Shargah) to Political Resident (Bushire),” no. 3, dated 18 January 1888.
100. Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. 1 (1915), Appendix O, 2594–97, 2602–2607.
101. Ibid., 745; Morsy Abdullah, United Arab Emirates, 244.
102. Parker “Memorandum,” Part I; Lorimer, Gazetteer 1:745–46.
103. Parker “Memorandum,” Part I, Major Percy Z. Cox (political resident) to India Office, dated 20 September 1904.
104. Laithwaite, “India Office Memorandum,” Part IV, para. 22: Sir Arthur Hardinge (Tehran) to political resident (Bushehr), dated 20 May 1905; political resident to Hardinge, dated 1 June 1905. See also Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gozīdehye asnād, 278, doc. no. 89, letter from Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar to prime minister (dated 1905): “Instruct the Foreign Ministry to tell the British Embassy that last year we negotiated the matter. The British Government supplicated that we remove our flag from these two islands [Tonb and Abu Musa] so that there can be an inquiry and discussion, even though we know that these two islands doubtless belong to the Iranian Government. Then, how is it that the British Government in this atmosphere of friendship can agree that we give up our own territory to the sheikh so that he can hoist his flag there? Negotiate further; we shall not in any way give up our rights.”
105. Lorimer, Gazetteer 2:1908–1909.
106. At this time the Persian spelling for Tonb was definitely with t, not ṭā, and not all of Lorimer's statements can be taken as fact without first checking their accuracy against other sources. See Bidwell, R., “A British Official Guide to the Gulf,” Geographical Journal 138 (1972): 234–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
107. The substance of the British documentation regarding the status of the islands as Persian is treated in Mirfendereski, “Ownership of Tonb Islands.” As evidence of the British recognition of Persian sovereignty over the Tonbs, one may point to the 1870 edition of the Persian Gulf Pilot, a British Admiralty publication, where the Tonbs were mentioned as islands belonging to Persia (Morsy Abdullah, United Arab Emirates, 234); the 1897 decision by the British political resident in the Persian Gulf to consider Great Tonb as Persian (ibid., 236); and the 1886 Map of Persia, published by the Intelligence Branch of the British War Office, where the Tonbs were depicted in the same color as Persia (Foreign Office Map Room, no. 2699, and F.O. 371/18917 [1935], Arabia E2145/653/91: A. E. Lambert's minutes, 29 May 1935).
108. Morsy Abdullah, United Arab Emirates, 246; Laithwaite, “India Office Memorandum,” Part VI, para. 26, India Office Records P.4778/21, political resident to Government of India, dated 12 October 1912.
109. Vadala, R., Le Golfe Persique (Paris: Librairie A. Rousseau, 1920)Google Scholar, Annex: ports persans, 85, 87.
110. In a speech before the Royal Geographical Society in London on 10 January 1927, Sir Arnold Wilson, a British official in the Persian Gulf, said of Great Tonb: “A barren island this, standing stark out of the water, inhabited—except for a few months when cattle belonging to the Shaikh of Sharjah, to whom the island belongs, are brought from the Arabian side to graze—only by snakes, seafowl and in spring, by the ubiquitous swallows, which build their nests every year in the quarters of the lighthouse crew, well knowing that from Ireland to Cape Comorin no man will molest them, be he Persian, Arab, Turk, Indian, or European, for their presence brings good luck to the house. This belief is of great antiquity. The lighthouse crew, mostly Indians from the Ratnagiri district, here and on the Little Quoin rock, must surely find time lie heavy on their hands, for the lighthouse tender visits them only once every few months, bringing food, water and a relief crew. Yet there is no lack of competition for the duty” (Wilson, A. T., “A Periplus of the Persian Gulf,” The Geographical Journal 69, no. 3 (1927): 244CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
111. Laithwaite, “India Office Memorandum,” para. 33: “Minutes of exchanges between the Persian Minister of Court, Teymourtache, and the British Minister in Tehran, Sir Robert Clive,” dated 29 August 1929.
112. F.O. 371/1371 (1929), Arabia E5541/52/91: I.O. to F.O., dated 25 October 1929, no. 1, enclosure no. 6: Lieutenant-Colonel Barrett, P.R., to Sir Robert Clive (Tehran), no. 138, dated 25 September 1929.
113. F.O. 371/14478 (1930), Arabia E6161/1358/91: “Memorandum Suggesting Lease of Tamb to Persia,” minutes of G. W. Rendel, head of the Eastern Department (F.O.), dated 14 November 1930.
114. F.O. 371/15276 (1931), Arabia E/l 343/280/91: I.O. to F.O., dated 17 March 1931, no. 1, enclosure no. 1: Consul-General and Political Resident Biscoe (Bushehr) to chargé d'affaires (Tehran), dated 28 February 1931; and enclosure no. 2: “Note on Tamb,” dated 28 February 1931.
115. Wilson, Arnold T., Persia (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 15Google Scholar.
116. F.O. 371/17827 (1934), Arabia E5652/3283/91: “Minutes of D. W. Lascelles,” dated 4 September 1934, para. 12.
117. F.O. 371/18901 (1935), Arabia E4701/4/91: senior naval officer (Persian Gulf) to Admiralty: “Report of Proceedings for January 1935,” no. 53/587, dated 25 February 1935, enclosure no. 4: “Report of Proceedings of H.M.S. Fowey” for the period 15–31 January 1935, no. 102, dated 2 February 1935.
118. Ibid., Arabia E3204/4/91: Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen (Tehran) to G. W. Rendel (F.O.), dated 3 May 1935; G. W. Rendel (F.O.) to Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, dated 29 May 1935.
119. Hosayn ᶜAli Razmara, “Jazāyer-e khalīj-e Fārs,” in Semīnār-e khalīj-e Fārs (Tehran: Edareh-ye koll-e entesharat va radyo, 1343 Sh./1964), 1:64.
120. Janab, Khalīj-e Fārs, 316.
121. “Iranian Troops Occupy Three Strategic Islands in Persian Gulf, and a Sheikhdom Protests,” The New York Times, 1 December 1971.
122. Arab Report & Record (London), 1–15 December 1971, 623 (6 December 1971); UN Security Council, Official Records, para. 137.
123. UN Security Council, Official Records, para. 228.
124. F.O. 371/19979 (1936), Arabia E4022/2902/91: Minutes of Baggallay, dated 25 July 1936 (emphasis in original).
125. F.O. 371/21831 (1938), El 154/1154/91: Baggallay (F.O.) to Gibson (I.O.), No. 1154/1154/91, 11 April 1938, rejecting the proposal contained in Admiralty to Baggallay (F.O.), M06555/37, 26 February 1936 (Farsi, Arabi and other islands “should be annexed by one of our four Arab clients and not by either Persia or Saudi Arabia“). Ultimately, in 1968, Iran and Saudi Arabia respectively recognized the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia over Arabi (al-ᶜArabiyah) and of Iran over Farsi. See The Geographer, Limits in the Seas, no. 24: Iran-Saudi Arabia Continental Shelf Boundary (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, 1970), Agreement (signed 24 October 1968, entered into force 29 January 1969), art. 1 (and Geographer's note, 4).
126. Oppenheim, Lassa, Oppenheim's International Law, ed. Lauterpacht, H., 6th ed. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1947), 1:407Google Scholar. A useful discussion of the nationality principle as source of title is contained in Moore, J. B., Digest of International Law (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906), 1:17Google Scholar; Rivier, A., Principes du droit des gens (Paris: Arthur Rousseau, 1896), 1:49Google Scholar; Pradier-Fodéré, P., Traité de droit international public: européen & americain (Paris: G. Pedone-Lauriel, 1885), 1:121–44Google Scholar.
127. Rivier, Principes, 49, cited in Moore, Digest 1:17.