'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎349] (380/582)

ITS POPULATION.
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acquainted with the shoals; but it is always preferred as the safest
and best landing-place.
The population of Bushire has been variously estimated, and
has no doubt been at a very different standard at different periods.
At present, the most favourable accounts do not make it more than
ten thousand, and the true number is perhaps still less. The
Ahl-el-Bushire, or the race of Bushire, as they are emphatically
called, present a disagreeable mixture of the Arab and the Persian;
in which, whatever is amiable in either character seems totally re
jected, and whatever is vicious in both is retained and even
cherished. These form the great body of the people; and their
dress, their language, their manners, and their general appearance,
all bespeak their mongrel breed. The chief occupations of these
are trade and commerce on a confined scale, fishing, pilotage, and
the navigation of their own vessels of the port. In person, they
are neither so meagre nor so swarthy as the real Arabs of the op
posite coast; but they are equally ill-featured and dirty, and desti
tute of the high spirit, the feeling of honour, and the warm hospi
tality which distinguish these : they retain, however, all their
meanness in bargains, and their disposition for robbery and plunder
of property not attainable by better means. Their dress is equally
a combination of the Arab and Persian garments, without being
purely the costume of either. The shirt, trowsers, and zuboon, or
outer garment, are Persian ; but the turban and the abba, or cloak,
are Arabic,—the one is formed of the blue checked cloth of Mus
cat, or the brown cloth of Shooster ; and the other of the manufac
ture of Lahsa, Kateef, and Coete, on the opposite shore. The
black sheepskin cap, the most peculiar feature of the Persian dress,
is worn only by such as come down from the higher country and
remain as sojourners here, and is in no instance used by a native
of Bushire. The common language is Persian, but of so harsh
and corrupt a kind, that the natives of Shiraz, who pride them
selves on the purity of their tongue, affect to treat it as almost