Since ancient times, those who knew the world have called ‘Persian Gulf’ the water passageway which separates the Arabian Peninsula from the land of Iran. ‘Sinus Persicus’, ‘Persischer Golf’, and ‘Golfo di Persia’ were some of the other terms used to refer to this passageway. But when Arab nationalists took power in Egypt in early 1950s, some began to use the term ‘Arabian Gulf’. Iran has expressed its opposition since.