نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [و‎‎٧‎٩‎٣] (١٨١٤/١٦٠٢)

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THE PERSIAN GULF ~ , v .
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and complete the circumnavigation of the Gulf. The sole place of >*/
any interest on the coast-line between El Katif and Fao is the \/A<
■excellent and flourishing harbour of Grane, or Koweit. 1 Here an L . ;
Arab tribe, expelled from Busrah in the seventeenth century, came U /
and settled, and by dint of sagacious policy and commercial y
aptitudes raised the population of the town to a total of 20,000
souls, and converted the harbour into one of the most prosperous
and best managed ports of the Gulf. The stability of Koweit has
also been greatly assisted by the phenomenal longevity of its chief
tains, five only having ruled in the course of two and a half cen
turies. The best Arab horses are commonly brought down hither
from the interior for shipment to India. In 1821-2 it was for a
short time the headquarters of the British Resident at Busrah, who
moved here in consequence of the insolent attitude of the Pasha of
Baghdad. Koweit now nominally forms part of the vilayet of Busrah,
to which it pays tribute; but it is not greatly interfered with by
the central power, who have never attempted to place a garrison
here. To English readers the name, in its alternative rendering of
Grane, is more familiar as the suggested maritime terminus of the
Euphrates Valley Railway, projected by General Chesney and ad
vocated by Sir W. P. Andrew, the Duke of Sutherland, and others.
If such a railway, as to the wisdom and chances of which I have
spoken elsewhere, were to terminate in the Persian Gulf, Koweit
would probably afford the best available harbour in the neighbour
hood of the Tigris and Euphrates delta. On the other hand, were
it to be continued by a line running, in whatever direction, through
Persian territory, it would be absurd to locate the maritime ter
minus at a point so far to the west.
Eao is a quarantine and telegraph station of the Turkish
Government, situated at the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab. The
Indo-European Telegraph Department maintain a staff*
and occupy a building within the same precincts, Fao
the terminus of the submarine cable from Kurrachi via
Jask and Bushire, and the point of junction with the overland
wires from Baghdad. The place, which is otherwise insignificant,
has lately developed a sudden, if somewhat spurious, importance
from the steps that have been taken by the Turkish Government
1 Rrane is a corruption of the Arabic ghern or him = ‘ horn,’ from the curving
outline of the bay. Koweit, pronounced Quoit, is an Arab diminutive of hot, or
hut, a fort.
Fao
beino;
a