BANDAR ABBAS, a port of Persia on the Strait of Ormuz, 2 7 ° I I' N. and 56° 17' E., being one of the "Gulf ports" which form an administrative division of the Persian province of Fars and Southern Ports. The town is the seat of the Persian dep uty governor who is subordinate to the governor of the Gulf ports whose headquarters are at Bushire. Estimated population about Io,000. It stands on the beach with a frontage of I4m. and is a place of considerable trade, being the entrepot for goods destined for the south-eastern part of Persia the two chief towns of which are Kerman and Yazd, to which former place four caravan routes lead. The shallow roadstead is not well sheltered from the south east winds ; and large vessels have to lie as much as four miles out. The total trade in 1925-26 amounted to 20,000 tons (of which 16,000 tons were British) exports being valued at £350,00o and imports at about £I,000,000. The principal articles of export were carpets, fresh and dried fruits, raw cotton, wool, gum, and assafoetida. The vessels of the British Indian Steam Navigation company's subsidiary mail service between Bombay and Basra call weekly on their passages both up and down the gulf ; and there is an occasional service by other lines. A British consulate has been established there since 1902. Bandar Abbas has tele graphic communication by cable, but there is no land line, messages for places in the interior being sent through Bushire. There is telephonic communication with Hanjam island, where a radio-station has been erected to maintain communication with ships. The climate though hot is not unhealthy and from October to April is pleasant.
Bandar Abbas (the port of Abbas) was founded by Shah Abbas I., who gave this name to the village of Gumrun or Gombrun, and planned to make his foundation the centre of a foreign trade which was to be gradually developed. As the successor of Hormuz (q.v.)—which was abandoned after that island was wrested from the Portuguese and the town destroyed in 1622—Bandar Abbas inherited and filled for over a century the role of premier maritime city of Persia. The English were permitted to build a factory there and about 162o the Dutch obtained a like privilege. But a rival arose in the port of Bushire, called into being by Nadir Shah, which soon obtained the commercial supremacy of the Persian gulf. In 1759 the English factory was destroyed by the French and eventually the trading activities of the East India company were transferred to Basra and then to Bushire. During a period from about 1 7 8o the town and surrounding district were in the hands of the rulers of Muscat but, in 1868, the then sultan was expelled by a successful revolt and the Persian Government has retained complete possession of the place ever since.
See G. N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question (1892) ; P. M. Sykes, xo,000 miles in Persia (1902) ; A. T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, An Historical Sketch (1928) .