This article is about an aspect of the Ottoman-Rashidi partnership in the late Ottoman Empire that deeply influenced the order of things in Arabia and resulted in both the Ottomans and the Rashidis becoming more significant actors in regional politics. The main argument is that this partnership made a great contribution to the visibly increasing Ottoman influence in Najd (i.e., central Arabia) and the Persian Gulf in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the same time, the Rashidi family’s alliance with the Ottoman Empire paved the way for their emergence as a regional power. Since scholarship on the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century history of Najd and the Arab lands has tended to neglect the importance of this collaboration, the article sets out to analyze it from its inception until its end, drawing on documents from Ottoman, British, German, and Austrian archives.

Marine debris is a major challenge threatening ocean and coastal environment with no easy solution in coming years. The problem is totally manmade and extendeds to coastal areas around the world. The accumulation of marine debris is largely due to lack of awareness and environmental education among the public reinforced with mismanagement of municipal litter in coastal cities. Iran has about 2415 km of coastlines in the north and south of the country that suffer severely from a marine debris problem. Despite the great scale of the problem that leads to the shutdown of some beaches to beachgoers, there are no documented data on the abundance, composition and sources of marine debris dispersed on beaches. With the cooperation of marine biology student volunteers, we surveyed beaches at two scales, 100 m and 1 km searching for litter in varying ranges. The results revealed that the most common items are made of plastic/polystyrene. Tourism and recreational activities are responsible for more than 90% of litter production on the study beach. Fisheries and aquaculture are the second source of most abundant marine litter found on the beach with considerable distance from tourism activities. We conclude that lack of education about the consequences of marine litter is the main reason for marine debris at the study beach. Another reason is related to rapid construction of coastal areas and development of coastal cities with no proper infrastructure to manage municipal littering.

Echinoderm samples were collected from Hormuz Island in 2010–2011. The sampling was based on a qualitative survey, conducted in intertidal areas. The collected specimens were transferred to a laboratory for identification according to the valid literature. In this study, ten species of echinoderms were collected, including: six Asteroidea (Astropecten monoacanthus, Luidia hardwicki, Aquilonastra iranica, Aquilonastra samyni, Astropecten polyacanthus pheragmorus, Astropecten polyacanthus polyacanthus); two Ophiuroidea (Macrophiothrix elongate, Ophiocoma scalopendarina); and three Echinoidea (Echinometra mathaei, Echinodiscus bisperforatus, Echinodiscus auritus).

The occurrence of pinnotherid crab Arcotheres tivelae in the bivalve mollusc Amiantis umbonella was investigated for one year on the Bandar Abbas coast (Persian Gulf, Iran). Specimens of A. umbonella were collected monthly from two transects from April 2007 to March 2008 and were investigated for presence of the Arcotheres tivelae. Infestation frequency of A. tivelae was 9.18% in a sample of 893 clams. From a total of 89 specimens of crabs, only eight were male. They were observed in late February and early March, all of them but one in association with female crabs. There was no significant difference between the sexes of the infested clams that pea crabs choose as a host. The mean carapace width of the crab A. tivelae was 7.7 ± 1.7 mm and the mean length of the Amiantis umbonella was 39.84 ± 8.93 mm. Clams in the mid and low tidal zones were more infested. There was no significant relationship between clam length–crab width (R2 = 0.28). The mean fecundity of crabs was 2517 ± 864 eggs. Infection caused a reduction of flesh weight of clams. There was no significant correlation between the frequency of crabs' occurrence and the temporal variability of water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and pH in different months. This study provides the first report of the distribution of pea crabs A. tivelae in A. umbonella, a new clam host record in Iran.

Solen dactylus is a razor clam distributed throughout the coast of the northern Persian Gulf. Study on biology of razor clams in this area is important for an essential management where these clams are overfished without any control. This study provides the first estimate of growth rate and an interpretation of the reproductive cycle of S. dactylus on the coast of the Persian Gulf (Bandar Abbas). In this study, 945 razor clams were collected from April 2007 to March 2008 along two transects of Golshahr coast in Bandar Abbas. Von Bertalanffy growth parameters for transects 1 and 2 ranged from 101–108 mm for asymptotic length (L∞), 0.27–0.28 year−1 for growth constant (k), and −0.99–0.94 for age at length zero (t0), respectively. Gonads were stained with haematoxylin and eosin and gametogenic stages were based on seven stages: (Stage 0) sexual rest; (Stage I) proliferation of gonad and start of gametogenesis; (Stage II) advanced gametogenesis; (Stage IIIA) ripeness; (Stage IIIB) start of spawning; (Stage IIIC) restoration; and (Stage IV) emission. The result showed that S. dactylus is a gonochoric clam and both males and females demonstrated synchronism in gonadal development. The gametogenic cycle began in late August and ended in late February. After several minor spawnings, plus a major one in January, the razor clams entered to the sexual rest stage in March.