The Persian Gulf: Khark: The Island’s Untold Story

This article first appeared in ISAW Newsletter 20 (Winter 2018).

The title appears in a large horizontal band of pink at the top. A smaller band of pink at the bottom contains the authors' names. The large area in between contains a photograph depicting a large olive tree and, next to it, a smaller, dilapidated stone or brick domed structure. Willem Floor and D.T. Potts (ISAW Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History), The Persian Gulf: Khark: The Island’s Untold Story (Washington DC: Mage Publishers, 2017).

The island of Khark was an important link in Persian Gulf navigation, supplying passing ships with water, victuals, and pilots for ships sailing to and from Basra. In the eighteenth century, the Dutch made the island their center of trade in the Persian Gulf, and by the nineteenth century the island was dubbed “the most important strategic point in the Persian Gulf.” This book presents the history of Khark from its pre-Islamic occupation, as attested both archaeologically and in written sources, to the modern day. (Mage Publishers)