'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎115] (224/258)

ON THE HYDROGRAPHY OF THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
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APPENDIX.
If I take a cursory glance at some ruins of old places along the Persian and
Arabian Coasts of the Gulf, it will be seen that there is much that might
well excite the curiosity of the antiquaiy and historian to investigate these
interesting shores.
The ruins of Gerra or Gerrha, the great ancient emporium of the Persian
Gulf, perhaps the most famous emporium of antiquity, are situated at the
inmost recess of the deep and narrow bay, at the mouth of which are situated
the islands of Bahreyn.*
About four miles south of Bushire, on the edge of the sea cliff, are the
mounds of Risher, encircled by a wide and deep ditch. The Persian geo
grapher, Hamdallah Cazvini, who wrote in the fourteenth century, dates its
foundation above 500 years B. C. At Risher, earthen urns have been dug up,
of the same description as those found in the banks of the Tigris. Sepulchral
urns have also been found at Bushire
At Tahrie, on the Persian Coast, in Latitude 27° 39' N., are very extensive
ruins and sculptures, with the Persepolitan character.! These ruins were
visited and described by Lieutenant Kempthorne, I. N., who suggests that
they may be the ruins of Siraf.J In 1841 some officers of the “ Elphinstone”
sounded one of the wells there; it was 222 feet deep, with 78 feet water in it,
and cut through the rock.
Siraf was a considerable port and seat of commerce during the 9th an 1
10th centuries,§ and it seems, in that early age, carried on a trade with China.
Tahrie may be the ancient Siraf, but I should look for the remains of Siraf at,
or near, Charack, or near Jilla el Abed (Jilla Abade of the chart.)
Khais, Keish, or Kese (Kenn of the chart) was a flourishing city in the
thirteenth century.|| All the islands in the Gulf belonged to it. Harmozia
was the appellation of a state situated on the northern shore of the Gulf, the
inhabitants of which, when the Moguls invaded their country in the thirteenth
century, determined on quitting the main land, and having obtained a grant of
the desert island, then called Gerun, from the King of Khais, they removed
thither and gave it the name of the country they had quitted. These settlers
on the new Hormuz, or Ormuz, became so powerful, that in 1330 they con- * * * §
* Historical Geography of Arabia; by the Rev. C. Foster, B. D.
•j’ Morier’s First Journey. Loudon, 1812.
J Vide Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, vol. 1st, p. 291.
§ Trade of Siraf. See the Oriental Geography of Ebn Haukal, Translated by Sir W illia m
Ouseley.
II Vincent’s Perriplus, p, 476.