The Strait of Hormuz is the only major commercial artery on earth named after a god. The name derives from Hormoz, the Middle Persian rendering of Ahura Mazda – the Zoroastrian deity of wisdom, light, and cosmic order. This is not poetic licence; it is an etymological fact. The ancient Persians did not simply build a trade route here. They consecrated it.
A place named after the god of order has become the single point where global order faces its greatest vulnerability. Through these waters – 167km (104 miles) long, 39km (24 miles) wide at their narrowest point – pass an estimated 30,000 vessels per year. In the eleventh century, an Arab chief named Muhammad Diramku – Dirhem Kub, “Dirham minter” – left Oman and crossed the Gulf to found the Kingdom of Hormuz on the Iranian coast. He was a merchant-prince, not a warrior, and he understood that power in this geography flowed from controlling the gap between civilisations.
By the 15th century, Hormuz had become one of the great emporium-states of the medieval world. Merchants from Egypt, China, Java, Bengal, Zanzibar, and Yemen converged on a single island port. Venetian explorer Marco Polo visited twice. During the Ming Dynasty, Chinese admiral Zheng made it the final destination of his treasure fleet. Every civilisation that understood maritime trade eventually found its way there. Each arrived at the same insight: Control the gate, collect the toll. The standard characterisation of the Strait of Hormuz as an energy corridor is flawed. The transportation of oil and liquefied natural gas accounts for about 60 percent of its regular traffic.
A closure inevitably triggers cascading failures across a number of industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, construction, and semiconductor production.
More than 30 percent of the world’s trade in ammonia, nearly 50 percent of urea, and 20 percent of diammonium phosphate – all key for the fertiliser and agriculture sectors – are transported through the strait. Some 50 percent of global sulphur, a key component of metal processing, is also exported through this narrow passage.
Vessels carrying a third of the world’s helium, used in various technologies from semiconductors to MRIs, go through the strait as well. Nearly 10 percent of global aluminium and a significant chunk of plastic produced in the Gulf also pass through. The international community must recognise Hormuz as global critical infrastructure, requiring multilateral security guarantees extending beyond energy, strategic reserves covering fertilisers and metals alongside petroleum, and infrastructure dispersal to reduce the concentration of critical flows in a single 39km passage.
The world has now seen what happens when Hormuz fails. The next closure will not be a surprise; it will be a test of whether the system has adapted. A single geographic point, named for a god of order, still holds the power to disrupt it.
Source: Here