History
Much of Bushehr’s history lies in the town of Rishahr, 12km to the south, which dates back as far as the Elamite era. Rishahr was one of the chief trading centres of the Persian Gulf from the 7th to 16th centuries, but dwindled in importance after Bandar Abbas was established in the early 17th century.
In 1734 Nader Shah chose the village of Bushehr to become Persia’s principal port and naval station. Its prosperity was assured when, in 1759, the British East India Company, then the power in the Persian Gulf, moved to Bushehr after the French destroyed its factory at Bandar Abbas.
In the mid-19th century Bushehr was important enough to become the seat of the British political residency on the Persian Gulf. However, Bushehr’s long, slow decline began in the 1930s when it was bypassed by the trans-Iranian railway in favour of the ports in Khuzestan province. The British closed their consulate in 1951. Bushehr was an important naval base during the Iran–Iraq War, but most of its commercial activities were relocated to the less-exposed Bandar Abbas.
