Feb. 9, 1857.] RAWLINSON ON SOUTHERN PERSIA. 283 



the Marches/ a Magian chief, held all this part of the country ; and 

 the Arab historians describe his conquest by El Hakam el Thakafi, 

 who was sent by Omar from Bahrein, to reduce the sea coast of 

 Persia. The two battles, by which Shahrek lost Toug and Eishir, 

 are described in detail ; and the latter engagement is said to have 

 been not less bloody than the famous field of Kadissieh." 



Now, that is the history of Rishir in antiquity — of a ruin which 

 has passed almost unnoticed up to the present day, and has only been 

 called into prominence by the recent operations. I have given you a 

 brief, though continued history of it from the time of Tirhakeh, the 

 great ^Ethiopian King, down to the Mahommedan conquest. After 

 that period, the place fell into ruin, and it is rarely mentioned by 

 geographers, until about the year 1500. In 1520, I believe, it 

 was repaired and rebuilt by the Portuguese. The fort which the 

 enemy occupied on the recent occasion, and which is called the 

 Portuguese fort by us, is, I believe, one of the very old works. It 

 is called in the country, generally, " the Fort of Nebuchadnezzar," 

 and it is always noticed in the Persian gazettes as the " Fort of 

 Bahmen," who was a King of the old Dynasty.* The Portuguese 

 restored this fort, but the name they gave to it, I have never been 

 able to discover ; it was probably, however, a real Portuguese name ; 

 at the present day it has recovered its old name of Eishir (or Eiv 

 Ardeshir), and perhaps dates from the time of Tirhakeh, the ^Ethiopian 

 King. 



I must now return to the more important subject of the actual 

 geography of the gulf. From the earliest times, the Persian Gulf 

 has been of much consequence, owing to its position upon the 

 great line of communication between the east and west; that is 

 between India and Europe. There have thus been in the Persian 

 Gulf, a succession of emporia, places where the commerce of the gulf 

 was concentrated, and which varied in situation according to cir- 

 cumstances. The earliest port, as far as I have been able to discover, 

 was situated at the mouth of the Euphrates. That was probably 

 anterior to the Persian Empire, before, I mean, the Empire of Cyrus 

 the Great. When the empire of Cyrus was instituted, and Persepolis 

 became a great capital, then the city at the mouth of the river 



* By the name of Bahmen the Persians indicate Bahmen Ardeshir, or Artaxerxes 

 Longimanus ; but it is probable that in adopting this nomenclature they have con- 

 founded the two Ardeshirs, referring the tradition of Ardeshir Babegan, who really 

 rebuilt Eishir in about a.d. 240, and named it Biv-Ardeshir, to the more ancient 

 Bahmen Ardeshir or Artaxerxes Longimanus, who lived in the fifth century b.c. 

 An instance of the very same confusion occurs in the vicinity of Mohamrah, where 

 the city known to the Greeks as Xa^a^ 2?ra(r/v8, and rebuilt by Ardeshir Babegan, 

 who gave it the name of Asterabad, or Kerkh-i-Misdn, received after the Arab 

 conquest, the title of Bakmen Ardeshir, now corrupted to Bahmishir. 



