'A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809, in which is included some account of the proceedings of his Majesty's Mission, under Sir Harford Jones, Bart., to the Court of the King of Persia. With twenty-five engravings from the designs of the author; a plate of inscriptions; and three maps.' [‎375] (458/524)

5
lit
SHAPOUR. 375
" they are of no estimation in my opinion, in that of their owners, or
"of their country. In truth then war is bitter; and a fool only
" engages in it, as a poet has said/'
The want of timber has always been felt so much by the people of
the two Gulphs, and of the Western coast of the Indian ocean, that a
check on their supplies from the Malabar coast, which Brigadier-
General M alcolm very seasonably suggested, will probably keep
down the future growth of the pirate power. The fleet of the Soldan
of Egypt, which was destined to relieve Diu, was formed of Dalma
tian timber, transported overland to the arsenals of Suez ;* and even
some of the houses at SirafF, on the Gulph of Persia,*^ were formed
of European wood. In the seventeenth century, the Arabs of Muscat,
who subsequently formed connections on the Malabar coast to procure
timber, obtained permission from the King of Fegu to build ships in
the ports of his country.,]: If therefore the importation of foreign wood
were cut off, the Arabs could hardly, without extreme difficulty, main
tain a naval force.
shapour.
LP- 86.]
T he city of Shapour derived its name from the monarch who
founded it,^ S apor, the son of A rtaxerxes, and the second Prince
of the Sassanian family. In his reign it was probably one of the
capitals of Persia; and for some ages continued to be the chief city
of that district of Persis Proper, which was connected with his name,.
* F aria y SovsAyAsia Portuguesa,hy S tevens , vol. i. p. 135.
t See R enaudot's " Anciens Relations."
| B ruce's Annals of the East India Company, vol. iii. p. 649..
^ E bn H aural , p. 82.