SHAPOUR. 
375 
" they are of no estimation in my opinion, in that of their owners, or 
“ of their country. In truth then war is bitter; and a fool only 
“ engages in it, as a poet has said.” 
The want of timber has always been felt so much by the people of 
the two Gulphs, and of the Western coast of the Indian ocean, that a 
check on their supplies from the Malabar coast, which Brigadier- 
General Malcolm very seasonably suggested, will probably keep 
down the future growth of the pirate power. The fleet of the Soldan 
of Egypt, which was destined to relieve Diu, was formed of Dalma¬ 
tian timber, transported overland to the arsenals of Suez ;* and even 
some of the houses at SirafF, on the Gulph of Persia,-f were formed 
of European wood. In the seventeenth century, the Arabs of Muscat , 
who subsequently formed connections on the Malabar coast to procure 
timber, obtained permission from the King of Pegu to build ships in 
the ports of his country. J If therefore the importation of foreign wood 
were cut off, the Arabs could hardly, without extreme difficulty, main¬ 
tain a naval force. 
SHAPOUR. 
I>86.] . 
The city of * Sha-pour derived its name from the monarch who 
founded it,§ Sapor, the son of Artaxerxes, and the second Prince 
of the Sassanian family. In his reign it was probably one of the 
capitals of Persia; and for some ages continued to be the chief city 
of that district of Persis Proper, which was connected with his name, 
* Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, by Stevens, vol. i. p. 135. 
t See Renaudot’s “ Anciens Relations.” 
J Bruce’s Annals of the East India Company, vol. iii. p. 649. 
^ Ebn Haukal, p. 82. 
5 
