Starting Points: The Persian Gulf

I hope the book helps readers grasp the bigger picture of this extraordinary place. The Gulf is part of a global story that is more than 5000 years old, a story of Africans, South Asians, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Baluchis, Sufis, Nestorians, Mandaeans and Buddhists. Understanding the diversity of its people, and the long history of mutual interactions reveals that the conflict between Shia/Sunni, Iran and Arabia in the news today was not always the norm. Bridging the Gulf can help us build a bridge at the center of history.—Allen James Fromherz

Books

Fromherz, Allen James. The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present. University of California Press, 2024.

Kamrava, Mehran. Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics. 1st edition. Vol. 1, with Mehran Kamrava. Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429201981.

Keshavarzian, Arang. Making Space for the Gulf: Histories of Regionalism and the Middle East. 1st ed.

Ulrich, Brian. The Medieval Persian Gulf. First edition. Past Imperfect Series. Arc Humanities Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781802701517.

Articles

Arc Humanities Press. “Q&A on The Medieval Persian Gulf with Brian Ulrich.” Arc Humanities, December 13, 2023. https://www.arc-humanities.org/blog/2023/12/13/qa-on-the-medieval-persian-gulf-with-brian-ulrich/.

John Curry. “Curry on Fromherz, ‘The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present’ | H-Net.” H-Net Reviews, H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online, March 2025. https://networks.h-net.org/group/reviews/20062114/curry-fromherz-center-world-global-history-persian-gulf-stone-age-present.

Jones, Toby Craig. “Arang Keshavarzian. Making Space For the Gulf: Histories of Regionalism and the Middle East.” The American Historical Review 130, no. 2 (2025): 852–53. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhaf169.

UC Press. “Q&A with Allen James Fromherz, Author of ‘The Center of the World.’” University of California Press, November 4, 2024. https://www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/q-a-with-allen-james-fromherz-author-of-the-center-of-the-world.

Wikipedia. “Carter Doctrine.” In Wikipedia. January 23, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carter_Doctrine&oldid=1334435867.