'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎122v] (249/862)

COASTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
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miles east-south-east, is low and mostly swampy, with mangroves in
the east. It is fringed by tidal mud-flats. There are high mountains
about 25 miles inland. The salt Shur river and the Rud-i-Jamugh
enter the sea along this coast. The road from Bandar Abbas to Minab
keeps about 15 miles inland, but there is a track, passable only in dry
weather, about 5 miles from the coast. The Minab river irrigates a
fertile cultivated district, with date-groves and orchards, to which
many people from Bandar Abbas migrate in the summer. Khor
Minab, a salt creek 7 miles north-west of the river, is used by native
craft trading in grain and fruit, and has tracks to Minab from its head.
The town of Minab is 15 miles inland. Near by are the ruins of
Old Hormuz, the chief port of south-east Persia until the thirteenth
century: at the beginning of the fourteenth century the inhabitants
abandoned the city and founded a new one on Hormuz island (p. 165).
South-east of the Minab river the coast forms the shore of the gulf
of Oman.
Qishm, the largest island in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , lies parallel to the
coast between Lingeh and Bandar Abbas, and is separated from it by
Clarence strait (p. 162). The island is 67 miles long from north-east
to south-west, and contains irregular flat-topped hills, with several
peaks over 900 feet high; the highest peak (1,331 ft.) is 18 miles from
the south-west end. Laft point and Ras Khargu project from the
middle of the north-west and south-east coasts respectively. The
south-east and west coasts have sandy bays backed by the irregular
coastal hills; the north-west coast, which forms the south-east shore
of Clarence strait, is flatter and is fringed by tidal mud-flats. The
island is mostly barren and in parts encrusted with salt, but cereals,
vegetables, melons, and dates are grown on fertile black loam in the
north. There are many goats, antelopes, and wild-fowl, and cattle
and poultry are reared. Salt is mined on the south-east coast, providing
the bulk of the revenues, and there are naphtha springs. Severe
earthquakes occurred at the end of the nineteenth century. The chief
towns are the small ports of Qishm at the east and Basidu at the south
west entrances to Clarence strait: each in turn was a British naval
station during part of the nineteenth century but was abandoned
because of the summer heat and malaria. There are numerous small
villages in the fertile north part and round the coasts. Qishm changed
hands several times from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries,
between the Portuguese, English, Arabs, and Persians.
Henjam island lies off Qishm island: it is separated from Ras Khargu
by Henjam sound, 1 mile wide. The island is 5^ miles long and 3