'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III. PART I: A to K' [‎158v] (321/1278)

152
BAS—BAS
District .—The district contains 15,000 inhabitants and is said to be able
to muster 3,000 fighting men—the town of Bastak alone supplying 800 of
these.
Wheat and barley form the bulk of the crops, the harvest for the former
being in April. There are also large date plantations, which extend to the
west of the town for a distance of 2| miles. Cattle, sheep and goats are
scarce.
The mdlidt is 40,000 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. , and is paid to Lar.— (Vaughan, April 1890.)
BASTAK DISTRICT—
A Persian district belonging to the Laristan division of the province of
Pars ; the town of Bastak, from which the district takes its name, is situ
ated at least 40 (?) miles from the nearest point on the sea-coast, and not
less than 60 (?) miles north-west of the town of Lingeh. Bastak has never
theless an indirect connection with the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and is held, in a sense,
to extend to the shore of the Gulf on both sides of the Lingeh district.
To the west of the Lingeh district the revenue of the villages of Charak
and Tavaneh in Shib Kuh and part of Dun wan in Lingeh, for all of which the
Shaikh of Charak is responsible, and similarly the revenue of the villages
of Mughu and Hasineh in Shib Kuh and of part of Bustaneh in Lingeh,
collected by the Shaikh of Mughu, have now for some time been payable
to the Governor of Bastak. To the east of the Lingeh district again, the
town of Khamir, together with the coast from the border of the Lingeh dis
trict at Pulghar to the frontier of the Khamir district ot the mouth of the
Rud-i-Kul, is recognised as belonging geographically to Bastak. This re
cognition, however, is of no practical significance, for Khamir, the only place
of importance, is actually subject, for administrative purposes, to the
Governor of the Gulf Ports, while its revenues are farmed by the Mu’in
ut-Tujjar of Tehran : locus standi of the Governor of Bastak in relation
to this part of his territories is consequently difficult to understand.
The coast of the district from Pul Ghar to the mouth of the Rud-i-Kul
is about 34 miles in extent ; its average direction is from west-south-west
to east-north-east, and it forms the north shore of Clarence Strait between
Qishm Island and the main land ; it is a low coast, and the greater part of it
has not as yet been satisfactorily examined. The village of Khamir, situated
14 or 15 miles west of the Rud-i-Kul, divides the coast into two portions,
of which the western appears to be the exit of a great valley from the west,
possibly of the long trough which lies behind the maritime range of the
Shib Kuh and Lingeh districts, and contains Galleh-Dar, Ishkanan and Tara-
kimeh. Off this part of the coast line lie miles of swamp, from which
most of the firewood used in the lower part of the Gulf is obtained ; the
marshes are intersected by numerous creeks, difficult of passage except for
small boats.
The maritime range which forms the northern boundary of the Lingeh
district and which has already been described in the articles on that dis
trict and on Shib Kuh, encloses this part of Bastak on the south ; and the
district appears to be intersected by a higher range, similar in direction,
which leaves the coast at Khamir village. This last range has two principal
summits near Khamir ; one, which is 9 miles north-east of the village and