National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Arab geographers and later writers clearly show, has to be looked for at some
considerable distance from the present town of Mīnāb. The fort above the latter
with its large ruined structures may, in view of its strong natural position, be
safely assumed to mark Mīnāb town as the place whence the district from medi-
eval down to comparatively modern times was administered. But there is no
reason to assume that it was ever a large town. Iṣtakhrī refers to Hormuz as a
centre for the trade of Kermān and as a marketing-place, but distinctly mentions
that 'there were not many dwellings there. The houses of the traders lie in the
surrounding district: up to a distance of two farsakhs they are scattered in the
villages.'⁷ Muqaddasī in his concise notice of the town states that 'Hurmūz lies
a farsakh from the sea', and elsewhere indicates two postal stages as the distance
from Hurmūz to the harbour.⁸

On my arrival at Mīnāb I had learned through information transmitted by the
Consulate at Bandar Abbās that telegraphic instructions had been received there
from the Governor-General of the Coast Province and sent on to the local
officials at Mīnāb and elsewhere to afford me assistance in my work. It was
probably in consequence of this helpful attitude at head-quarters that my in-
quiries about remains which might lead towards a safe location of the old har-
bour did not fail to secure useful guidance. The uniformly expressed local belief
was that Shāh-bandar near Tiāb, where boats of any draught now unload at the
head of a creek some 13 miles almost due west of Mīnāb town, did not represent
the old harbour, and that the latter was marked by certain remains to be seen to
the south-west at no great distance from a point where the main terminal channel
of the river approaches the sea. Boats of light draught would still come up this
channel for some distance, thus reaching somewhat nearer to Mīnāb. But, owing
to the ground here being more liable to inundation after rain, Tiāb hamlet was
said to be preferred as a landing-place.

In order to test this information, I moved on December 1st from Mīnāb to the
south. For about 8 miles our way led by winding lanes past a continuous stretch
of orchards and palm-groves watered by canals from the river. Its wide stony bed,
dry at this season, was kept by us so far close on our right. Then, where it took a
bend westwards we left it, and continuing south for another two miles and a half
beyond the village of Bilēdī, passed across a wide belt of scrubby waste evidently
liable to inundation at times of flood. Beyond a narrow stretch of date-palm
groves fringing this dry marsh bed, and belonging to the hamlet of Gurāzū,