Abstract
Although Bushehr remained the most important Iranian port in the Persian Gulf during the Qajar period (1794–1925) the reason for his was not obvious nor did it go unchallenged.1 Bushehr was not a better port than its competitors; in fact in some ways it was worse, while Bandar Abbas and later in the nineteenth century Muhammara tried to dislodge Bushehr from its position. However, a combination of political, demographic, logistical, and commercial factors enabled Bushehr to stave off its competitors until the 1930s, when these same factors worked to its disadvantage and resulted in the loss of its preeminent position.
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Notes
For the situation before 1800 see Willem Floor, The Persian Gulf: The Rise of the Gulf Arabs—The Politics of Trade on the Persian Littoral 1747–1792 (Washington, DC: Mage, 2007).
H. J. Whigham, The Persian Problem: An examination of the rival positions of Russia and Great Britain in Persia with Some Account of the Persian Gulf and the Bagdad Railway (New York: Scribner’s, 1903), 147.
Government of India, Report on the Trade of Bushire, in The Persian Gulf Trade Reports 1905–1940 (Bushire), 2 vols. (Gerards Cross: Archive Editions, 1987). Report 1912–13, 6.
A. H. Gleadowe-Newcomen, Report on the British-Indian Commercial Mission to South-Eastern Persia during 1904–1905 (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1906), 33.
Whigham, Persian Problem, 156. For more details, see Willem Floor, Bandar Abbas, the Natural Gateway of Southeast Iran (Washington, DC: Mage, 2010).
Lewis Pelly, “Visit to Lingah, Kishm, and Bunder Abbass,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. 34 (1864): 251.
Whigham, Persian Problem, 156. For more details, see Willem Floor, The Persian Gulf: The Rise and Fall of Bandar-e Lengeh—The Distribution Center for the Arabian Coast, 1750–1930 (Washington, DC: Mage, 2010).
Government of India, Report 1912–13, 7; Lewis Pelly, “Remarks on the Tribes, Trade, and Resources around the Shore Line of the Persian Gulf,” in Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society 17 (1865): 59.
For the development of Muhammara, see Shahbaz Shahnavaz, Britain and the Opening up of South-West Persia 1880–1914: a Study in Imperialism and Economic Dependence (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005).
Edward Stack, Six months in Persia, 2 vols. (London, 1882), vol. 1, 24.
Ibid., 25, 60, 64; Government of India, Report 1910–11, 7; J. G. Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia, 2 vols. (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1908 and 1915), vol. II, 339–40.
See Willem Floor, “Borazjan: A Rural Market Town in Bushehr’s Hinterland,” in The Persian Gulf: Links with the Hinterland, 25–63. Also Gleadowe-Newcomen, Report on the British-Indian Commercial Mission, 42; Government of India, Report 1912–13, 7. Indeed, the first caravanserai was only in Daliki, until a new one was built in Borazjan in 1872. Edward Stirling, The Journals of Edward Stirling in Persia and Afganistan 1828–1829: From Manuscripts in the Archives of the Royal Geographical Society, ed. Jonathan Lee (Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1991).
For the same situation in the Safavid period see Willem Floor, The Economy of Safavid Persia (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2000)
and Floor, The Persian Gulf: A Political and Economic History of Five Port Cities 1500–1730 (Washington, DC: Mage, 2006).
Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. II, 1955; Charles Issawi, The Economic History of Iran 1800–1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), 90–91.
Heinrich Brugsch, Reise der K. preussischen Gesandtschaft nach Persien 1860 und 1861, 2 vols. (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1862–63), vol. 2, 244.
Buckingham, Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, 351; George N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, 2 vols. (London: Longmans, Green, 1892), vol. 2, 232–33.
See Grummon, “Rise and Fall of the Arab Shaykhdom of Bushire,” 120–69; Willem Floor, “The Rise and Fall of Bushehr (1560–1940),” in Floor, The Persian Gulf: Links with the Hinterland: Bushehr, Borazjan, Kazerun, Banu Ka‘b & Bandar Abbas (Washington, DC: Mage, 2011), 3–24.
John M. Kinneir, A Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire (London: J. Murray, 1813; repr. New York: Arno Press, 1973), 70.
Vanessa Martin and Morteza Nouraei, “The Role of the Karguzar in the Foreign Relations of State and Society of Iran from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to 1921,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 15/3 (2005): 261–77; 16/1 (2006): 29–41; and 16/2 (2006): 151–63.
G.H. Ebtehaj, Guide Book on Persia (Tehran: Parliament Press, [1931?]), 183.
Mohammad Ali Sadid al-Saltana, Safarnameh, ed. Ahmad Iqtedari (Tehran: Behnashr, 1362/1983), 6.
Walther Küss, Handelsratgeber für Persien (Berlin, 1911), part III, 12.
Government of India, Report 1912–13, 6; Wm. Perry Fogg, The Land of “The Arabian Nights” (New York: Belford, Clarke & Company, 1875), 167.
Colonel Forester, Economic Conditions in the Persian Gulf April 1929, Department of Overseas Trade (London, 1939), 14
E H. Gamble, Economic Conditions in the Persian Gulf October 1934, Department of Overseas Trade (London: HMSO 1935), 14
F. H. Todd, Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in the Persian Gulf 1936, Department of Overseas Trade (London: HMSO 1917), 5
Roger Stevens, The Land of the Great Sophy, 3rd ed. (New York: Taplinger, 1979), 284–85 (the British Resident was the last of the consuls to depart in 1947).
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© 2014 Lawrence G. Potter
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Floor, W. (2014). Bushehr: Southern Gateway to Iran. In: Potter, L.G. (eds) The Persian Gulf in Modern Times. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485779_8
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