National Geographic's name for Persian Gulf riles Iranians

Tehran -- They were just two small words, a parenthetical aside on a National Geographic map. But that's all it took to get fiercely proud Iranians to rise up this week against what they saw as an attack on their history.

In its latest world atlas, National Geographic added the name "Arabian Gulf" in parentheses beneath "Persian Gulf" on a map to label the body of water that cuts along the coasts of Iran and its Arab neighbors.

The use of "Arabian Gulf," and the implication that Iran may somehow be losing its historical claims to dominance of the ancient seas, pierced the cultural pride that pervades the land once known as Persia. It gave fresh life to the long and often bloody tensions between Iranians and Arabs and added fuel to a widely held Iranian suspicion that Arabs have been quietly lobbying for years to change the name of the gulf.

So keen was the perceived slight that it brought a fleeting unity to Iran's far-flung political spectrum. From the left to the right to the disaffected, Iranians blamed the "Zionists," accused the Arabs and lambasted the Americans.

The government banned National Geographic from selling its publications here or sending journalists into the country.

Even computer techies were stirred to action and pulled off a "Google bomb," manipulating the search engine to obtain a high ranking. Type "Arabian Gulf" on Google, and the first link is to a Web site that announces, "The gulf you are looking for does not exist. Try Persian Gulf."

National Geographic remains unapologetic. The publication recognizes "Persian Gulf" as the primary name, but "we want people searching for 'Arabian Gulf' to be able to find what they're looking for and not confuse it with the nearby Arabian Sea," said Allen Carroll, chief cartographer on the National Geographic Web site.