[5] According to legend, Siraf was an ancient Sassanid port, destroyed around 970 CE, which was located on the north shore of the Persian Gulf in what is now the Iranian province of Bushehr.

[9] The port was known as Taheri or Tahiri until in 2008 the government of Iran changed the official name of the city back to Bandar Siraf.

Several episodes of massive earthquakes and tsunamis damaged and drowned much of the port city, where its ancient quays, moorages, administrative structures, and even boat remains are found today on the sea floor of the Persian Gulf via marine archaeology.

Discovered there in past archaeological excavations are ivory objects from east Africa, pieces of stone from India, and lapis from Afghanistan.

[15] The mosque was "a huge rectangular structure with a central courtyard set on a raised podium", with a single entrance on the east side (opposite from the qibla).

[16] The earliest Muslim writer to mention Siraf is Ibn al-Faqih, who wrote around 850 that Sirafi ships traded with India.

[7] Around the same time, Sulayman the Merchant wrote that Middle Eastern goods bound for China were first shipped from Basra to Siraf, then on to Muscat in Oman and Kollam in India.

[7] Around 900, Abu Zayd Hasan - himself a merchant from Siraf - wrote that Sirafi ships were engaged in commerce with both Jeddah on the Red Sea and Zanzibar in East Africa.

[7] Abu Zayd also wrote that trade between the Persian Gulf and China had decreased after the Guangzhou massacre in 878 killed many foreign merchants, although Chinese coins were still circulating in Siraf at the time he was writing.

[7] He listed some of the goods that were traded here: ebony, ivory, sandalwood and other aromatics, bamboo, spices, paper, aloe, camphor, ambergris, and precious stones.

[17] Merchants and ship captains from Siraf amassed huge fortunes off all this maritime trade,[17] and they lived in "richly decorated, multi-story houses" built from teak wood, imported from East Africa, and fired brick.

[7] The "rather puritanical" 10th-century author al-Maqdisi regarded Siraf as a nest of corruption and wrote that adultery, usury, and general extravagance were rampant here.

[7] According to al-Maqdisi, Siraf's decline began with the Buyid dynasty gaining power in Fars; many Sirafis relocated to Oman at this point according to him.

[17] However, this decline "can only have been relative" - in the early 12th century, the wealthy ship-owner and merchant tycoon Abu'l-Qasim Ramisht (died 1140) is known to have operated a prosperous commercial enterprise based out of Siraf that did business as far as China.

[12] By the 13th century, though, Yaqut al-Hamawi left a less than sanguine description of Siraf - he called it a small place (bulayd) inhabited by "wretched people", with its buildings in ruins.

[12] Ibn Battuta knew of "Shilaw" and may have visited in 1347 when he crossed the Persian Gulf from "Khunju Pal" over to the Arabian Peninsula.

[7] In 1933, Aurel Stein visited Siraf and left a description of a massive "sea wall", which extended for some 400 m along the beach and was reinforced with buttresses but has since disappeared.

[7] The core of the modern settlement of Taheri is on the east side of this spur, while the ruins of historical Siraf are to the west, extending for 2 km along the seashore.

[7] Today, the Kunarak valley is where the main road passes through to connect Taheri with the Jam plain further inland, and the same was probably true in historical times when Siraf was at its peak.