Levinson disappeared on Kish Island where he was meeting with an American fugitive known as Dawud Salahuddin. In March 2007, the retired FBI agent turned private eye Robert A. After the Islamic Revolution, Kish Island became a duty-free shopping center. Kish Airport was designed to handle the Concorde. In the 1970s, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, turned the island into a luxury resort for the international elite and a tourism hotspot, complete with a Grand Casino (renamed as the Shayan International Hotel after the Iranian Revolution). Throughout much of its history, it was ruled by Arab merchants, when it was known as Qeys. When Marco Polo visited the Imperial court in China, he commented on the Emperor's wife's pearls he was told that they were from Kish.

Nearchus's writings on Arakata contain the first known mention of Kish Island in antiquity. In 325 BC, Alexander the Great commissioned Nearchus to set off on an expeditionary voyage to the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf. Navigational aids, including lighthouses, were set up to facilitate navigation in the Persian Gulf. In the shadow of the empire, the islands in the Gulf became prosperous, navigation in the Persian Gulf was expanded, and better vessels were used to carry passengers and goods. Kish was, in particular, economically and politically linked with the civilization of the Medes and Persians when they were at the height of their power. With the establishment of the Achaemenid dynasty, the Persian Gulf was profoundly affected. When these civilizations vanished, Kish Island's advantageous position was lost and for a period it was subjected to turmoil and the tyranny of local potentates and other vendors. Kish Island's strategic geographic location served as a way-station and link for the ancient Assyrian and Elamite civilizations when their sailboats navigated from Susa through the Karun River into the Persian Gulf along the southern coastline, passing Kish, Qeshm, and Hormoz islands.

Kish Island has been mentioned in history variously as Kamtina, Arakia ( Ancient Greek: Αρακία), Arakata, and Ghiss.

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