'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.' [‎368] (399/582)

368
DESCRIPTION OF BUSSORAH.
Seraia of the Mutesellim, one or two of the principal mosques,
and perhaps half a dozen mansions of rich men in different parts
of the town. The scarcity and consequent high price of wood,
occasions the trunk of the date-tree to be almost the only sort
employed in building; and this, from its fibrous nature, cannot
be wrought into a regular shape by all the art of carpentry.
Stone and wood are therefore rarely seen, and the buildings, from
the necessary confinement to such materials as are used in them,
are all of the meanest appearance.
In assigning an etymology to Bussorah, Dr. Vincent says,
'Basra, Bozra, and Bosara, is a name applicable to any town in
the Desert, as it signifies rough or stony ground; and thus we
have a Bosara in Ptolemy near Muskat, and a Bozra, familiar
in Scripture, denoting an Arabian town in the neighbourhood of
Judea, taken by the Maccabees.' # The Hebrew signification, as
applied to the Bozra of the Scriptures, is consistent and appro
priate, since that town is really seated on rough and stony
ground, and so probably was the Bosara of Ptolemy near Muskat,
judging from the general character of the country there. The
Arabic Bussra, (for that is the nearest pronunciation of the name
yaj) though allied perhaps to the Hebrew Bozra or Botzra, has
yet some distinguishing features of difference, yw is interpreted,
1st. Whitish stones. 2d. A kind of earth, out of which they dig
such stones. 3d. The city of Basra or Bassora, as seated on such
ground. The whitish stones cannot be the meaning of the name
either of Bozra in Syria, or of Bussorah on the Euphrates, as the
former is on a bed of black basaltic rock ; and in the latter there
are no stones of any description at all. Although this name is
applied equally to the earth, out of which such stones are dug, 1
could not learn, during my stay here, that the earth of Bussorah at
* Golius ad Alfrag. p. 120. Terra crassa et lapidosa. But see mm under tyn. Botsrath
desertum a Batzar clausit, quia clauduntur aquse. From hence, adds the Dean, Bazar for an
emporium, and urbs munita, quia circumclauditur, to which the Bursa of Carthage is allied.—
Vincent's Commerce of the Ancients, fyc. vol. i. p. 436, note.