1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arabian Sea

ARABIAN SEA (anc. Mare Erythraeum), the name applied to the portion of the Indian Ocean bounded E. by India, N. by Baluchistan and part of the southern Persian littoral, W. by Arabia, and S., approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somaliland, and Cape Comorin in India. It has two important branches—at the south-west the Gulf of Aden, connecting with the Red Sea through the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb; and at the north-west the Gulf of Oman, connecting with the Persian Gulf. Besides these larger ramifications, there are the Gulfs of Cambay and Kach on the Indian coast. An interest and importance belong to this sea as forming part of the chief highway between Europe and India. Its islands are few and insignificant, the chief being Sokotra, off the African, and the Laccadives, off the Indian coast.