There are in excess of a hundred million of Persians worldwide. They are a disparate group, yet they are united through their core beliefs. They are a group whose origins are found several millennia in the past, their ethnicity often inextricably linked with their heritage. Hitherto, however, there has been no way to easily unify them and their common cultural, linguistic and historical heritage. The .PERSIANGULF gTLD will help change this.
The origins of the ethnic Persians can be traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of the greater Indo-European linguistic family. The Ancient Iranian peoples arrived in parts of Iranian plateau around 2000-1500 BCE. The Old Persians were originally nomadic, pastoral people occupying the western Iranian plateau. By 850 BCE they were calling themselves the Parsa, and their constantly shifting territory Parsua for the most part localized around Persis (Pars), bounded on the west by Tigris River and on the south by Persian Gulf. The Persian Gulf is located in the southwest of the Asian Continent at 23 to 30 degrees northern latitude and 48 to 56 degrees longitude on the south side of the vast country of Iran, with a length of 1259 kilometers.
Although the Persian Gulf is not mentioned as a geographical name in to module 2 of the Applicant Guidebook, it is still well-known across the world, as is its location.
The Persian Gulf has been a valuable waterway since the beginning of history and as the venue of the collision of great civilizations of the ancient east, it has a background of several millenniums. Since centuries ago, the Ilamites used the Port of Boushehr and the Kharg Island for dwelling, shipping and ruling over the coasts of the Persian Gulf as well as transaction with the West Indies and the Nile Valley. In the Latin American geography books the Persian Gulf has been referred to as More Persicum or the Sea of Pars.
The Latin term ʺSinus Persicusʺ is equivalent to ʺPersicher golfʺ in French, ʺPersico qofʺ in Italian, ʺPersidskizalirʺ in Russian and ʺPerusha Wanʺ that all mean ʺParsʺ.
Prior to the stationing of the Aryan Iranians on Iranʹs Plateau, the Assyrians named the sea in their inscriptions as the ʺbitter seaʺ and this is the oldest name that was used for the Persian Gulf.
An inscription of Darius found in the Suez Canal, used a phrase with a mention of river Pars which points to the same Persian Gulf.
During the years: 559 to 330 B.C. coinciding with the sovereignty of the Pars Empire over the Middle East area, especially the entirety of the Persian Gulf and some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, the name of Pars Sea has been widely written in the compiled texts.
In the travel account of Pythagoras, several chapters are related to description of his travels accompanied by Darioush, a king of Achaemenid, to Shoush and Perspolis, and the area is described. Among other writings from the same period, there is an inscription and an engraving from the fifth century BC installed at the junction of the waters of Arabian Gulf (Ahmar Sea), the Nile River and the ‘Rome River’ (now known as the Mediterranean). In these writings, Darioush - the king of Pars Empire has named the region now know as the Persian Gulf as the Pars Sea. Other historical writings regarding the Persian Gulf include a world map drawn by Hecataeus (472 to 509 B.C.) within which the Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf (Red Sea) have been clearly shown. Another map, drawn by Herodotus (the great historian of Greece (425-484 B.C.)), has survived and introduces Red Sea as the Arabian Gulf. Straben, the Greek historian of the second half of the first century BCE and the first half of the first century AD wrote: Arabs are living between the Arabian Gulf and the Persian Gulf.
Equally, in the world map drawn by Diseark (285-347 B.C.), the Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf can be clearly distinguished. Myriad other maps prepared up to the 8th century by the scientists and geographical researchers such as Hecataeus, Hiparek, Claudius Batlamious, Krats Malous, and in the Islamic period, Mohammad Ibn Mousa Kharazmi, Abou Yousef Eshagh Kandi, Ibn Khardazabeh, Harrani (Batani), Masoudi, Abou Zeyd Balkhi, Estakhri, Ibn Houghal, Aboureyhan Birouni and others, mention that there is a wide sea South of Iran named the Pars Sea, Pars Gulf, Fars Sea, Fars Gulf, Bahre Fars, Sinus Persicus and Mare Persicum and so on.
Today, the most common Arabic works refer to the sea in south Iran as the ʺPersian Gulfʺ, including the world famous Arabic encyclopedia `Al-Monjadʹ which is the most reliable source in this respect.
While the .PERSIANGULF TLD ties back historically and culturally to the Middle Eastern people, it also has the potential to tie together the great number of people across the globe that may have any ties to or business in the region, including businesses, cultural institutions, civil society, NGOs and religious organizations.
A robust gTLD has the power to bring together people across national borders in a free-flowing exchange of information and commerce. There is not a .COM or .ORG equivalent of the .PERSIANGULF--a domain that has wide appeal across a common origin. ICANN is dedicated to creating more competition in the TLD space, and the introduction of those associating with the Persian Gulf through a .PERSIANGULF gTLD does so in one simple stroke.
Asia Green IT System Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti. (AGITSys) was founded by individuals of Persian origin who derive a great sense of honor and pride from their community, history and ancestry. AGITSys’ founders have gathered together a team with extensive experience in Persian language on the Internet, a daunting but critical task. No entity is better suited to manage the .PERSIANGULF gTLD, nor more dedicated to providing new online tools and services to facilitate the implementation and smooth-running of this gTLD. The .PERSIANGULF gTLD will increasingly open up the vast resources of the Internet and the associated global interconnectedness to those with a close affinity to the Persian Gulf, while stimulating the introduction of more online information and resources about Persian Gulf at the same time – and AGITSys will be at the helm of this change.
The proposed TLD is, quite obviously, the name of the Persian Gulf, a region in which many people live, and from which many benefit by way of resources. The total population of the countries in the Persian Gulf region exceeds 120 million people - and all of them have a sense of belonging to Persian Gulf. The .PERSIANGULF gTLD is the perfect way to easily and simply tie together these peoples of various nations, connected geographically and historically to the Persian Gulf. |