Kharg Island

Middle Ages

Kharg is mentioned in the Hudud al-'Alam as a good source for pearls around 982 CE. It was regarded as part of the district of Ardašir-ḵorra by Abu Esḥāq Eṣṭaḵri, and served as a key stopover point for trading ships sailing between India and the southern port of Basra. In 1218, geographer and bibliographer Šehāb-al-Din Abu ʿAbd-Allāh Yāqut visited the island. Alongside pearling and trade, Kharg's economy was based on fruit and date palm cultivation.^[8]

Early modern era

During the colonial expansion of European powers, the Portuguese were the first to claim the island, along with other islands in the Persian Gulf, under the command of Afonso De Albuquerque and Tristão da Cunha in 1507. The Portuguese used the Strait of Hormuz as a trading, vassal outpost state until 1622. They built the fortress known as the Portuguese Castle to ensure military control of the strait against the Persians and other European powers with interests in Asia.^[1][9][10]

In 1645, Dutch sailors on a passing fleet named the island "Delft” after the seat of one of the Dutch East India Company offices. In 1665, Kharg was visited by French traveller Jean de Thévenot, who recorded trade at the time with Isfahan and Basra.^[8]

In the 18th century, Kharg retained a reputation as the place to engage the best pilots for ships sailing to Basra. In 1751, the island was raided by Ḥuwala Arabs. In 1753, Dutch East India Company agent Baron Tiddo Frederik van Kniphausen paid 2,000 rupees to Mir Nasáir, the Arab ruler of the city of Bandar Rig, to secure perpetual ownership of the island, and he turned the island into a free port, open to all nationalities. Kniphausen built houses in the northeast corner of the island. As part of the Dutch colonial empire, the Dutch established both a trading post and Fort Mosselstein.^[11] The Dutch East India Company used it as a trading station.^[2]

In 1757, a church was constructed, and a Carmelite priest ministered to the largest Catholic community in Persia; the Bishop of Isfahan moved from Isfahan to Kharg.^[8] In January 1766, following worsening relations between the Dutch and local peoples, Mir Muhanna, governor of Bandar Rig, seized the fortress and forced the Dutch out for good.^[1]

In 1837, the island was briefly occupied by the British to block the Siege of Herat but was soon returned to its previous owners. The Persians abandoned it before the 1856 Anglo-Persian War, and British forces occupied it in December 1856. Around 1900, the population of the island was subject to the ruler of the Hayat-Dawudi people, based at Bandar Rig.^[8]

20th century

Reza Shah Pahlavi repurposed Kharg as a place of exile for political opponents, which prevented any broader development.^[1]

In 1956, work began to build oil reservoirs on Kharg to hold oil piped from the Gachsaran oil field.^[8] In 1959, a 159-kilometre (99 mi) long 660–710–760 millimetres (26–28–30 in) pipeline was completed;^[12][13] the terminal allowed loading of 100,000 dwt tankers and was inaugurated on 8 November 1960.^[14]

In 1964, a 27-mile 30-inch submarine loop was completed from Bandar Ganaveh and with additional pumping engines along the onshore portion, the capacity of the line was increased from 330,000 to 500,000bpd.^[15][16] In 1965, a 106-mile 42-inch line was completed from the Aghajari oil field to Ganaveh and two additional 27-mile 30-inch submarine loops were laid.^[17] At this point, Kharg was considered the largest oil shipment terminal in the world.^[18]

Upon visiting the island in 1960, Iranian writer Jalal Al-e-Ahmad called it "the orphan pearl of the Persian Gulf.”^[1][19][20] During the 1960s, Iran entered into negotiations with Saudi Arabia over the territorial extent of the two countries on the continental shelf in the gulf. They agreed on a modified equidistant line, which allowed Kharg to fall under Iranian jurisdiction.^[4]

In 1969, under the Shah, the island was developed into an oil terminal in a partnership between the National Iranian Oil Company and the US company Amoco.^[2][4] By around 1975, there were three major oil terminals on the island – Kharg Terminal and its long T-shaped jetty on the east coast, Sea Island Terminal off the west coast, and Darius Terminal in the south – and the Kharg Chemical Complex or Khemco Terminal, a gas terminal.^[8] Kharg Island became the world's largest offshore crude oil terminal and the principal sea terminal for Iranian oil.^[21]

21st century

In 2009, Iran exported and swapped 950 million bbl (151 million m³) of crude oil via the southern Kharg oil terminal.^[21] In 2015, the terminal facilities on the island were operated by the National Iranian Oil Company.^[8]

Achaemenid inscription

In November 2007, an Achaemenid-era (550–330 BCE) cuneiform inscription in Old Persian was discovered on Kharg Island. The inscription is carved on a coral rock in Old Persian semi-syllabic cuneiform signs. Despite the usually well-ordered regular system of Achaemenid inscriptions, this one is in an unusual order, written in five lines.^[34][35] It is estimated to be around 2,400 years old.^[36] The inscription has been variously translated to mean something like "[This] land was wilderness and without water [and] I brought happiness and welfare to it",^[36] or "The not irrigated land was happy [with] me bringing out [water]".^[37]

Linguist Habib Borjian explains that if the inscription is authentic, combined with the island's known history of qanat usage,^[a] which developed under the Achaemenid rule, it can be suggested that there was a Persian colonisation of Kharg under the Achaemenids. The Iranian dialect of the Persian settlers of the Achaemenid era may have been the ancestor of the Khargi language, with Borjian adding that "there is no contradicting evidence to make this hypothesis implausible".^[37]

The inscription became a contentious matter in the Persian Gulf naming dispute. Some experts said it was further evidence confirming the Persian name for the Persian Gulf. This led to a "media frenzy" in surrounding Arab countries, where efforts were made to disprove its authenticity.^[34][36] In May 2008, the inscription was seriously damaged by unknown vandal(s) after they climbed a fence to enter the area and inflicted damage deliberately with a sharp object. According to Khark Deputy Governor Ali Jazebi, about 70% of the inscription was seriously damaged. Another source said that around 10–15% was damaged.^[34]

Monastery

There is a ruined Christian church complex or ancient monastery, Kharg Monastery [fa], of some 96 m (315 ft) by 85 m (279 ft), featuring a chapel, 19 monks cells, library and courtyard. American historian and archeologist Daniel T. Potts calls it, "[T]he most important complex of antiquities on Kharg... [it] is the largest single document of Christian archaeology in the Persian Gulf region."^[8] Theories have been offered as to its origins: Potts says "the ceramic evidence suggests a date in the 8th and 9th centuries. [Marie-Joseph] Stève has suggested the complex may have been founded as early as the 7th century.”^[8]

Other notable archaeological sites

The first archaeological evidence of human occupation on Kharg Island was reported by Captain A. W. Stiffe in 1898, with studies of his discoveries published by Friedrich Sarre and Ernst Herzfeld in 1910.^[38][39] They discovered two rock-cut chambered tombs, known as the Eastern and Southern Tombs, which are probably the earliest recorded remains. They feature arched entranceways to a main chamber with a vestibule, from which spawned around twenty smaller chambers. The southern tomb is 13 m (43 ft) deep and features a relief of a reclining man drinking, in the Seleucid and Parthian styles of Palmyra. A damaged relief suggested to feature Nike is on the face of a sphere-topped column. Stève has argued that the architecture of the tombs is more reminiscent of Nabataean architecture at Petra than anything Palmyrene.^{[40][41][42][43][44][45]}

Another 83 rock-cut tombs and 62 megalithic tombs have been studied. The rock-cut tombs fall into four categories: single-chambered tombs, shallow tombs of varying shapes, pit burials, and excavated multi-chambered complexes. The 62 tombs, excavated by Father Marie-Joseph Stève, date from the Abbasid Caliphate, and may have been a Jewish cemetery.^[8] There are also Zoroastrian burial sites, Christian graves, and Sassanid-era tombs. Stève also noticed the presence of several Nestorian style crosses at some of the tombs.^[41] Also on the island are the Mir Mohammad Shrine, built in the late 13th century, and the Mir Aram Shrine, with torches believed to date back to the Achaemenid era.^[1]

There are also ruins of a coarse stone temple measuring around 7.5 m (25 ft) square with a plastered altar for fire in the centre, as documented by Stève.^[8]