Gamrūn

Gamrun stands on the Persian mainland opposite Hormuz Island, at the entrance to the Gulf. Its anchorage faces the sea routes of Arabia and India, while roads lead inland towards Kerman and Fars. Once a modest coastal settlement, it became known as Bandar Abbas after the Safavid shah who made it a principal port of his empire.

Shah Abbas I took the Portuguese fort at Gamrun in 1615. Seven years later his forces, assisted by English East India Company ships, captured Hormuz and displaced the Portuguese from the island. Trade shifted to the mainland harbour, where the shah granted the English a share of customs revenue in return for their assistance. The Dutch established themselves at the port in 1623, joining merchants from across the Indian Ocean and the Iranian interior. In 1628 the traveller Thomas Herbert found a remarkably mixed community of English, Dutch, Armenian, Georgian, Arab, Indian and other merchants. Silk and other Iranian goods passed through the port in exchange for textiles, spices and precious metal. Gamrun's rise transformed the coast opposite the older island emporium into a meeting place of Safavid and overseas commerce.