'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.' [‎374] (405/582)

374
INHABITANTS OF BUSSORAH.
families, though formerly they were much more numerous. They
are here, as throughout all the rest of the Turkish Empire, a
sober, industrious, and intelligent race of people, engaged in occu
pations of trust as brokers, and doing business also for themselves
as merchants. Their dress differs in nothing from that of the rich
natives of the place, except that they confine themselves to dark-
coloured cloths for their garments, and wear blue, black, and brown
Cashmeer shawls for turbans, never assuming the gay tints reserved
for the adorning of the faithful; though at this place there seems
more laxity in the execution of the law enforcing distinctions of
dress and colours to be worn by people of different faiths, than in
most other Turkish towns that I have seen. The Armenians
communicate with each other in their own language; but in
general they speak Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, equally well; and
some few add to these, English, Portuguese, and Hindostanee,
which gives them great advantages in their mercantile trans
actions. They have a small church, and two or three priests
attached to it, and their community is respectable and happy.
An instance was related to me of their strict attention to the
reputation of their body, which deserves to be recorded : A
young widow, who had been left without a protector, and was
sufficiently handsome to have snares laid for her virtue, yielded
to temptation, and lived for a short time as the mistress of a rich
person, but without further prostitution. The circumstance be
coming known, it was decided by the Armenians that their nation
was scandalized by such an occurrence; and their influence was
sufficient to get this fair sinner banished from the town, and sent
to Bagdad, where they furnished her with a maintenance from
their body, to prevent a recurrence of the necessity which she
pleaded as an excuse for her past transgressions.
1 he Jews of Bussorah are also less numerous than they for
merly were, though at present they are thought to amount to
more than one hundred families. The heads of these are all mer
chants and traders; and as they add to the sobriety, industry, and