Once the great port of the Gulf, from which ships sailed to India and China.
The earthquake of 977 did serious damage; after the fall of the Buyids traffic went straight to Basra and to the island of Kish, whose island was settled from Siraf by tradition and whose rulers preyed on Siraf's ships. The decline was relative at first: the Sirafi merchant Abu'l-Qasim Ramisht (d. 1140) still traded as far as China. By 1200 Siraf is a small, decayed port: Yaqut, a generation later, calls it a little place of wretched people among ruined buildings, its name corrupted to Shilaw.
It survives on a smaller scale as the outlet of the Khunj and Fal country (into the fifteenth century).
Who holds it
- Name
- Nominally the atabeg of Fars; local chiefs; the lords of Kish command the sea
- Title
- Not pinned
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Not pinned: nominally the atabeg of Fars; in the early twelfth century a tribal chief, Abu'l-Qasim, held Siraf and its districts (English Wikipedia, after Christensen and Piacentini); the island lords of Kish dominate its sea.
How things stand that morning
Decayed, under weak and uncertain lordship.
Charter
None known: the towns of the atabegs have no charters; the governor, the judge (qadi) and the market inspector (muhtasib) answer to the ruler.
Council
Not recorded.
Communities
Persian and Arab sailors and townsmen; the merchant colonies of the tenth century are gone.
Fairs and markets
Daily or weekly markets; no fair dates recorded.
Militia
Not recorded for 1199-1200.
Walls and castle
Ruined; the great mosque and merchant houses of the tenth century largely abandoned.
Trade and crafts
Coastal trade and fishing; the outlet of the inland districts of Khunj and Fal.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The decline is well documented (Muqaddasi, Ibn al-Balkhi, Yaqut; Aubin); the lord in 1200 is not.
Primary sources for Salghurids
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Comfort of Hearts and Sign of Joy: a History of the Seljuks, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rawandi (Ravandi) (1203 to 1204, dedicated to Kaykhusraw I of Rum). A history of the Great Seljuks from their origins to the death of the last sultan Toghril III in 1194, begun at Hamadan and finished for Kaykhusraw of Rum when the author moved to Anatolia. Read online
- Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online
Sources and studies
- 'Siraf', English Wikipedia (after Bosworth, EI2 'Siraf'; Christensen, The Decline of Iranshahr; Piacentini)
- 'Kish Island', Encyclopaedia Iranica (after Aubin, Goitein, Piacentini, Whitehouse, Yaqut, Ibn al-Mujawir, Benjamin of Tudela)
- G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905), chapters XVII-XXIV (Fars, Kirman, Makran) after Istakhri, Muqaddasi, Ibn al-Balkhi, Yaqut and Mustawfi
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.