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image of The effect of the Muslim geographers’ mental mapping on the naming of seas: Applying the names Indian and China to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea

Abstract

According to the naming method applied by medieval Muslim geographers, seas were named after the coastal countries, provinces and ports adjacent to them. As a result, given that multiple provinces and ports bordered a single sea, Islamic geographical texts often record multiple names for the same body of water. For instance, in the same texts we see the Mediterranean Sea was called Baḥr al-Rūm, Baḥr al-Shām, Baḥr al-Andalus, Baḥr Miṣr and Baḥr Ifrīqiyah, and the Caspian Sea was called Baḥr Ṭabaristān, Baḥr al-Khazar, Baḥr Jīlān, Baḥr Jurjān and Baḥr Ābaskūn. Following this same logic, the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea were called Baḥr Fāris, Baḥr ʿUmān, Baḥr al-ʿIrāq, Baḥr al-Baḥrayn, Baḥr Sīrāf, Baḥr al-Baṣra and Baḥr Makrān, and the Red Sea was called Baḥr al-Qulzum, Baḥr Aylah, Baḥr Jiddah, Baḥr al-Yaman and Baḥr al-Ḥabashah in Islamic geographical and historical texts. However, notwithstanding the long distance from China and India to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, in the same texts we find the names Indian Sea (Ar. Baḥr al-Hind) and China Sea (Ar. Baḥr al-Ṣīn) refer to the Persian Gulf, the Oman Sea and the Red Sea. The purpose of this article is to discover the reasons for calling the Persian Gulf, the Oman Sea and the Red Sea the names of Indian and China in medieval Islamic texts. The article shows that Muslim geographers’ view on seas had an impact on the sea naming. Hence, because the Oman Sea and the Persian Gulf were considered as a single sea in Muslim geographers’ mental mapping and this body of water is located on the coast of India, the Persian Gulf occasionally was called the Indian Sea. Furthermore, because the Oman Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea were considered as branches and gulfs of the Eastern Sea (Ar. al-Baḥr al-sharqī) and eventually were portions of this body of water in Muslim geographers’ mental mapping, the names of the Eastern Sea such as Persian, Indian and China were applied to its branches and gulfs. For these reasons, the Persian Gulf, the Oman Sea and the Red Sea occasionally were named the Indian Sea and the China Sea in medieval Islamic geographical and historical texts.

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2025-08-23
2026-01-15
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The effect of the Muslim geographers’ mental mapping on the naming of seas: Applying the names Indian and China to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea
Intellect ; https://doi.org/10.1386/jgs_00017_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jgs_00017_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jgs_00017_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keywords: Persian Sea ; medieval ages ; naming the sea ; Islamic geographical texts ; pre-modern geography ; Muslim worldview

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