Lār

Lār gives its name to Lārestān, the hot, dry country between the southern Zagros and the Strait of Hormuz. Its position on the road from Shiraz to the Persian Gulf made it a stopping place for merchants and travellers. The old Qaysariyeh bazaar, built before the Safavid period, recalls the town's long commercial life. The region's fruit gardens and flocks sustained communities in a landscape of mountains and arid valleys.

When Ibn Battuta visited in 1347, he described a town with plentiful water, a large bazaar and a lodge where Shafi'i dervishes received visitors. A local dynasty ruled Lārestān for generations, issuing coins and maintaining its position amid stronger neighbours. In 1508 its envoys declared their ruler's allegiance to Shah Ismail at Shiraz. During the following century Lār remained a busy stage on the route between Hormuz and the Iranian interior, frequented by merchants, diplomats and travellers.

This commerce gave the region a reputation that extended well beyond the Persian Gulf. The silver currency called the larin took its name from Lār, although the surviving evidence does not show that it was actually minted there. Bent like a hairpin and stamped with a die, it circulated from Arabia to Sri Lanka in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and was copied at mints far beyond southern Persia.