Sīraf

Sīrāf was once among the great ports of the Persian Gulf, squeezed between the sea and the mountains of southern Fars. Its wealthy shipowners traded across the Indian Ocean, and Chinese ceramics reached its quays by the early ninth century. The remains of fine merchant houses and a large congregational mosque speak of the riches that passed through the harbour. Sirafi vessels sailed to India, East Africa and the Red Sea as well as to other ports of the Gulf.

An earthquake in 977 damaged much of the town, and the rise of Kish and later Hormuz drew away its primacy in Gulf commerce. Yet the harbour did not disappear. In the later medieval period it continued to serve inland settlements and routes across the Gulf. European travellers António Tenreiro and Gasparo Balbi visited in 1528 and 1590 respectively, recording a port much diminished from the great emporium described by earlier geographers. The smaller settlement of Taheri grew among the remains, preserving a maritime community on the site of Sīrāf's former wealth.