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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Section ii—BY THE COAST TO TĀHIRĪ

After protracted delays due largely to the difficulty experienced in securing
camel transport such as might be expected to take us at least as far as the port
of Lingeh, we were able at last to leave Bandar Abbās by December 16th. My
intention was to follow the coast-line as close as practicable up to Tāhirī, the site
of the old port of Sīrāf, which had played a very important part in the history
of Persia's maritime trade during the early Islamic period. There remains of
interest, as yet imperfectly surveyed, invited examination. It was easy to fore-
see that this long journey of more than 300 miles along a barren coast, devoid
of local resources and uninviting climatically even at this the most favourable
season, was likely to be attended by more difficulties than usual in consequence
of the prevailing famine conditions. But against this was to be set the oppor-
tunity it might offer of looking for relics of a maritime intercourse down the
Persian Gulf more ancient than that which had so far been attested by historical
or archaeological evidence. From Tāhirī I proposed to turn north-eastwards
into the hill tracts of Lāristān, through which important trade routes from inner
Persia had passed in the Middle Ages and later, but which in modern times had
become difficult of access and remained in various respects unexplored.

On the initial portion of our journey progress towards Lingeh was greatly
delayed by the rain so long vainly hoped for. It set in on the very first march,
which took us along the narrow coastal flat beyond Bandar Abbās. Renewed at
intervals it made the soft alluvial soil along the foot of the low hills skirting the
coast troublesome ground for the camels. More serious was the risk of the two
considerable river-beds which descend to that coast from the higher valleys on
the north, being rendered altogether unfordable where they debouch into the
sea. Fortunately the rain-bursts did not last sufficiently long to fill the wide beds
and to inundate their deltas. All the same it took us seven marches before the
second of those rivers, both salt in their lower courses and hence useless for
irrigation, was safely crossed. Beyond this the higher hill range of the Band-i-
Lingeh runs down with steep spurs of sandstone close to the shore, and here
easier going is afforded, except at certain points where the passage at the foot of
precipitous cliffs is practicable only at low tide.

The series of villages encountered along this portion of the coast are all small
with the exception of Khamīr, where mining and burning of gypsum along the
foot of the hills provides some trade. The groves of date-palms and other scant
cultivation depend on the chances of rainfall. Drinking-water is collected here,
as everywhere else along this arid coast, in domed reservoirs (birkeb; Fig. 75).
Fortunately the recent rain had filled these and thus protected us from the more
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