The Gulf referenced over time in books 17, December 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Random.Tags: Arabian Gulf, Google book search, Ngram book viewer, Persian Gulf
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Apologies for the clunky title, but I can’t think of a better one.
The ever wonderful google has made searchable 5.2 million books from 1800 to today. You can go and search for whatever you want.
I looked first – sorry my angry Iranian friends – for Persian Gulf and Arabian Gulf. Though you easily irascible fellows ought to be pleased by the results:
Here is a search for a selection of Gulf countries.
It’s interesting and curious to see that Kuwait – in this selection of books at least – has far and away the most ‘hits’. Its advancement early on in comparison to other neighbouring countries clearly garnering it significantly more attention. Dubai and Abu Dhabi, despite their recent headline grabbing antics, still hasn’t remotely caught up.
And here is terrorism. Seems something happened in the late 70s…
The Gulf blog 
Did I calculate correctly, that the “amount” of books published which had the word “Qatar” in them moves continuously between zero and eight? And is now less than five? 0.0001% from 5 million? This is, well, preposterous.
But wait for next year!
Relatedly, Al-Jazeera has a story on this very subject. Perhaps your inspiration?
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/12/12/persian-gulf-or-arabian-gulf