Острова Тумб в Ормузском проливе: история и современность.

Group of twin islands in the Strait of Hormuz administered by Iran

Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb ( تنب بزرگ و تنب کوچک , Tonb e Bozorg and Tonb e Kuchak, طنب الكبرى و طنب الصغرى , Tunb el Kubra and Tunb el Sughra) are two small islands in the eastern Persian Gulf, close to the Strait of Hormuz. They lie at and , respectively, some from each other and south of the Iranian island of Qeshm. The islands are administered by Iran as part of its Hormozgan Province. Greater Tunb has a surface area of It is known for its red soil. There are conflicting descriptions about its population: While some sources state there are between a few dozen and a few hundred inhabitants, others describe the island as having no native civilian population. There is reported to be an Iranian garrison and naval station, an aircraft runway, a fish storage facility and a red soil mine. Lesser Tunb has a surface of and is uninhabited with the exception of a small airfield, harbour, and entrenched Iranian military unit.

The toponymy of Tonb is in all likelihood of Persian origin. In the local Persian dialect(s) of southern Persia, the noun Tomb andTonb, with its diminutive Tonbu or Tombu, as it applied to Lesser Tonb (Nāmiuh or Nābiuh Tonb), means “hill” or “low elevation” (cfr. Medieval Latin tumba and Ancient Greek tymbos, with the same meaning, roots for "tomb"). The terms have the same meaning in the larger Dari Persian language system; this explains in part the traces of tonb and tonbu in the toponyms found in the Bushehr and Lengeh regions, some 300 miles (480 km) apart. There are other toponyms such as Tonb e Seh in Tangestān and Tonbānu on Qeshm island. Etymologically, the word TNB is also a proper Arabic word, which means to anchor, according to the Medieval Arab linguist Ibn Fares.

Reference to Great Tonb as an Iranian island is found in Ibn Balkhi's 12th century Farsnameh and Hamdallah Mustawfi Kazvini's 14th century Nuzhat al Qulub. The Tonbs were dominions of the Kings of Hormuz from 1330 or so until Hormuz's capitulation to the Portuguese in 1507. The Tonbs remained a part of the Hormuzi Portuguese administration until 1622, when the Portuguese were expelled from the Persian littoral by the Persian central government. During this period, the human geography, commerce, and territorial administration of the Tonbs, along with Abu Musa and Sirri islands, became intimately connected with the Province of Fars, notably the Persian ports of Bandar Lengeh and Bandar Kang, and the nearby Qeshm and Hengam islands. shots came from the Arab resistance which killed four Iranian marines and injured one. In his book Territorial foundations of the Gulf states, Schofield states that according to some sources, the Arab civilian population of Greater Tunb of about 120 was then deported to Ras Al Khaimah, but according to other sources the island had already been uninhabited for some time.

In the following decades, the issue remained a source of friction between the Arab states and Iran. The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf repeatedly declared support for the UAE claims. Bilateral talks between the UAE and Iran in 1992 failed. The UAE have attempted to bring the dispute before the International Court of Justice, but Iran refuses to do so. Tehran says the islands always belonged to it as it had never renounced possession of the islands, and that they are an integral part of Iranian territory. The emirate of Ras al Khaimah argue that the islands were under the control of Qasimi sheikhs, a branch of which administered the port of Bandar Lengeh for the Persian government from ca. 1789 to 1887, The UAE refers to the islands as "occupied". Currently, these two islands are among the territories under the control and government of Iran, and the Iranian government has established naval military bases on these islands to control the Strait of Hormuz.