A number of alleged premodern references to Bushehr, including the first made by an Arab geographer in 1225, have been disputed as perhaps alluding to the modern city of Reishahr, a harbor 10 km to the south, where archaeological evidence points to the presence of a much older settlement.

[5] Reishahr is also most likely equivalent to the town of Mesambria, a place the Greeks knew since the campaign of Nearchus (died 300 BC), and which also has been occasionally identified with Bushehr.

[6] In 1734, the Iranian military commander Nader made Bushehr (then still a minor fishing village) the headquarters of the Persian Gulf fleet that he sought to create.

In order to build a massive warship, Nader even brought heavy wood from Mazandaran's forests, which was 1,000 km away from Bushehr.

The naval aspirations of Nader ended when he was murdered in 1747, but Bushehr continued to serve as a prominent port for at least the following 150 years.

The town and its surrounding area were somewhat shielded by the interior's hilly terrain and narrow gorges, but were still vulnerable to pirate intrusion.

In the 19th century, European ships had to dock around four kilometers offshore and transfer freight and passengers through small boats due to the shallow path to both the shoreline and the bay.