ORMUZ, Orinaz, or Hormuz, in lat. 27° 5' 55" N., and long. 56° 29' 5"E., a barren, rocky, volcanic •island in the Persian Gulf, about 12 miles off the coast of Kirman, 15 miles N.E. of Kishm. It is the eastern extremity of the chain of volcanic mountains which runs parallel to the coast of Kirwan, and at Ormuz it consists of a number of Isolated hills of rock-salt and sulphur, which com pose a mass of about 15 miles in circumference, destitute of springs and vegetation, but abound ing in copper and iron-ore. The island gave • elter to the Parsees when Muhammadanism was preached in Persia. In an ancient history of Persia it is recorded that Ormuz was once on fire ; and indeed this island, as well as that of Angar, has every appearance indicative of a former volcanic eruption, and it is thought to be an .!xtinct volcano. Ormuz takes its name from a place on the neighbouring continent in Kar mania,—the Harmozia and Armuza or Hannozusa if Greek writers, where Nearchus landed and 'ound one of his countrymen wandering from Alexander's camp, in which, some days after, the idmiral was received with well-merited honours iy his sovereign. But in Alexander's time, the usulated Ormuz is generally supposed to have been Organa of Arrian and Ptolemy, and Tyrina or ;yrena of Strabo. It is said that the prior city this name was taken by the Mongols, A.D. 1290, .nd the inhabitants fled to this barren volcanic .land, which was named Ormuz, in memory of the sicient city. The king of this new Ormuz con idered it prudent to send tribute to Timur. The sty is described by Abdu Rezak, the ambassador ent by Shah Rukh to India in 1442, as a place chich had not its equal on the surface of the globe. 'he merchants of Syria, Egypt, Roum, Fars, Kho asan, Irak, and Mawur-u-Nahar, as well as the nhabitants of Java, Bengal, Socotra, Tenasserim, dalabar, Gujerat, and Arabia, all made their way o this port with rare and precious articles. which the sun and the moon and the rains have coin bined to bring to perfection. The companion*
of Alfonzo do Albuquerque in 1507 took Ormuz, after a combat descnbed with much animation by one of his countrymen,—a few hundred Portuguese having contended, as he assures us, for eight hours against 30,000 Persians and Arabians, valiantly defending a place naturally strong and well forti fied by art.
'High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind ; Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold.' Under the Portuguese it was a place of great trade, but in 1662 (1622?) it was taken by shah Abbas the Great, with the assistance of the Eng lish, and the trade was destroyed. On a plain near the northern extremity of the island are the cisterns and other remains of the once commer cial Ormuz, which, in the time of its prosperity under the Portuguese (a.n. 1515), when it was a great entrepot of Indian trade, had 4000 houses and 40,000 inhabitants. The port and anchorage, which gave such importance to the spot, are within two miles of the town. The present in habitants number about 3000, and are employed in preparing rock-salt, from which the sultan or imam of Muscat as proprietor derives a consider able revenue. The island gives its name to the Straits of Ormuz. The islands of Larrack (or Larek) and Ormuz are 12 miles apart, and Ormuz is about 26 miles north of Has Mussundurn. Larrack is 400, and Ormuz 700 feet high. From Larrack we have specular iron-ore as its charac teristic; and from Ormuz, rock-salt, sulphur, gypsum, iron-ore, and pyrites. The people on the neighbouring coast seem to be identical with the races who are known to have dwelt there 2000 years ago, and known to the ancients as Ichthyo phagi. It was visited by Ralph Fitch. At present a few ruins, scattered amidst wild deserts of salt, on a dreary islet, alone remain of the former wealth of Ormuz.--illarkham's Embassy, p. 44; India in the 15th Century; Clavijo, p. 94; Kinneir's Memoir, p. 12; Palgrave ; MacGregor, p. 354.