BUSSORA, Bassora, Balsora, or Basra, a celebrated city of Asia, in the government of Bagdad, situated on the western bank of the Shut-ul-Arab, about seventy miles from the mouth of this noble stream, which is navigable to the city for ships of 500 tons burden. Bussora is surrounded by walls, which are kept in a tolerable state of repair.
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They have five gates, and arc at the lowest computation about seven miles in circuit. They are washed by the river, which frequently inundates the low-lying plain in which the city is situated, so that it appears like an island in the middle of a lake. It is, without exception, the most filthy town that can be conceived; the streets are exceedingly narrow; and the stench arising from nuisances, everywhere exposed to view, is intolerable. The houses are meanly built, partly of sun-dried, and partly of burnt bricks, with flat roofs, surrounded by a parapet; and the bazars, though stocked with the richest merchandise, are miserable structures, not arched, as in Bagdad and the Persian towns, but covered with mats laid on rafters of date trees, which hardly afford protection from the scorching rays of the sun. Of the vast area within the walls, the greater proportion is occupied with gardens and plantations of palm trees, intersected by a number of little canals, cleaned twice a day, on the ebb and flow of the tide, which rises here about nine feet. The largest of these canals, which approaches the English factory and the palace of the governor, situated about two miles from the river, is continually crowded with small vessels. The town has scarcely any public buildings that deserve notice. It has khans and coffee-houses without number, a wretched hum-mum, and upwards of forty mosques, of which one only is worthy of the name; and this, with the palace of the governor and the English factory, which are all contiguous to one another, are the only decent buildings in the place. The population is a heterogeneous mixture of all the nations in the East, and consists of Turks, Arabs, Indians, Persians, Armenians, Jacobites, and Jews. The Arabs, however, constitute the principal class; and the Turks, though they are masters of the town, are not numerous.

Bussora is a great emporium of Indian commerce. Three or four English ships of about 400 tons burden arrive in the course of a year from Calcutta; but the chief part of the traffic is carried on in Arabian bottoms; and the merchants of Muscat possess some of the finest vessels that navigate the Indian seas. From various parts of Hindustan, Bussora receives silk, muslin, linen, white and blue cloth for the clothing of the Arabians, gold and silver stuffs, various metals, sandal wood, and indigo; pearls from Bahrein, and coffee from Mocha; shawls, fruit, and the precious metals from Persia; spices from Java; and European commodities, which are scarce and dear, from different parts. The trade with the interior is conducted by means of caravans to Aleppo and Bagdad, whence the goods are conveyed to Constantinople. The returns are made in Indian goods, bullion, pearls, dates, copper, raw silk; horses, which being very strong and beautiful, are exported by the English; and gall-nuts. A Turkish fleet was formerly stationed here, which suppressed all piratical adventurers in the Persian Gulf. But it is now reduced to ten or twelve decayed hulks, incapable of unmooring out of the river; and the dignified office of capitan pasha, then held immediately under the Porte, is now one of the most insignificant appointments in the gift of the pasha of Bagdad.

The situation of the town is unhealthy, owing to the inundations of the river, from which noxious exhalations arise, and strangers are commonly attacked by fever after a short residence. The adjoining country is fertile, producing, besides rice, wheat, barley, and elates of different species, a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as apricos, apples, figs, olives, pomegranates, and grapes; and cabbages, broccoli, lettuce, onions, peas, beans, and truffles, in vast quantities. There are whole fields of roses, which the inhabitants cultivate for the purposes of distillation. The licorice plant also grows amidst the date groves on the borders of the river. The wild Arabs from the neighbouring deserts frequently harass the peasants by their predatory incursions. To guard against these, and to protect the farms and country houses, Abdulla Aga has built a wall for sixty miles along the adjoining desert, at all the gates of which guards are placed. But flying parties of Arabs still break through this barrier, and annoy the peaceable inhabitants.

The city of Bussora was founded by Omar, a. d. 636; and its situation was so favourable for commerce, that in a few years it became a large and flourishing city. It was conquered by the Turks in 1668, and since that period has experienced many revolutions. It was taken in 1777, after a siege of eight months, by the Persians under Sa-dick Khan. In about a year it fell again into the hands of the Turks, who were again deprived of it by the scheik of the Montefidge Arabs. The town was in October following recovered by Solyman Pasha, who encountered the scheik on the banks of the Euphrates, and put him to flight. The governor has ever since been sent from Bagdad, and is generally an officer of high rank. The population is estimated at 60,000. It is 210 miles south from Ispahan, and 1815 south-east from Constantinople. Long. 44. 46. E. Lat. 30. 32. N. (Kinneir’s Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire.} (f.)