BUSHIRE, the chief port of Persia, near the head of the Persian gulf (28° 59' N. and 5o° 49' E.), is situated on the northern part of a peninsula which nowhere exceeds 4oft. in elevation. Bushire is the headquarters of the Persian adminis trative division known as "The Gulf Ports," forming part of the province of Fars and Southern Ports, and as such is the resi dence of the governor of the division and of a director of Persian customs. It is likewise the headquarters of a British consul general. The population of the town is about 18,000 and of the whole peninsula 25,000 ; the natives are more Arab in blood than Persian and are occupied mainly in seafaring, trade and, to a lesser extent, agriculture. The town is poorly built but the bazaars are fairly extensive. The ordinary water-supply is not good, being slightly brackish, but a limited supply of drinking water is now obtainable from a condensing-plant erected by the British author ities at Rishire. There is a quarantine-station on the small island of Abbasek on the north side of the inner harbour, but apart from occasional outbreaks of plague the town is comparatively healthy.
Bushire has an outer and an inner anchorage; the former dis tant about 41m. from the landing-stage, is open to the winds ; but the latter, or so-called harbour of Khor Deira, is a channel from 31 to 5 cables wide and 31 fathoms deep, extending for II miles. Being the terminus of an important trade-route to Shiraz, Isfahan and Tehran, 18om. of which (as far as Shiraz) is passable by motor-car in I2 days, Bushire is a busy place of direct trade with Basra, India, Great Britain, Egypt and various Euro pean ports. The articles of export are chiefly opium, woollen carpets, dates and nuts, hides, drugs, gum, raw cotton, wool and cereals. The total trade in 1925-26 amounted to 52,00o tons, valued at about 31 million sterling of which 44,000 tons were imports. Of 492 vessels calling in that year 329 were British. Vessels of the British India Steam Navigation company's fast mail service between Bombay and Basra call weekly and the ships of other companies occasionally. There are cables to Fao, Hanjam and Jask; a wireless station; and Bushire is the land terminus of the Indo-European telegraph via Tehran.
Bushire has arisen only in comparatively modern times—at the expense of older sites. Its forerunner was Rishire, which had a very ancient history and, even until comparatively modern times, it was a busy maritime town, of 2,000 houses, in the i6th century. Portuguese maps of the i6th and 17th centuries show it as the chief emporium of the Persian coast. But Rishire gradually de clined as Bushire arose and became the quarry which supplied the material for the greater part of Bushire. The foundations of the modern town were laid by Nadir Shah who in 1736 destined it to be the base for his Persian navy. Though his scheme came to naught, his interest in the town had the effect of concentrating the trade of the Persian gulf there, more and more, so that Bandar Abbas lost its commercial supremacy. The British East India company finally transferred their trading activities in Persia from Bandar Abbas to Bushire in 1759 and since then Bushire has be come increasingly important.
During the war with Persia (1856-57) Bushire surrendered to a British force and remained in British occupation for some months. Again in Aug. 1915 during the World War the peninsula was again occupied for a short time by British troops.
See G. N. Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question (1892) ; A. T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, An Historical Sketch (1928).