Bassora, Balsora, or Basra, a celebrated city of Asia, in the government of Baghdad, situated on the western bank of the Shat-el-Arab, about seventy miles from the mouth of this noble stream, which is navigable to the city for ships of 500 tons burden after passing the bar at its mouth, which however, they can only do at spring-tides. Bussora is surrounded by walls, which are kept in a tolerable state of repair. They have five gates, and are at the lowest computation about seven miles in circuit. Two canals, cut from the river, surround the town on either side, and uniting beyond it on the western side, form a complete ditch to the fortifications. The houses are meanly built, partly of sun-dried and partly of burnt bricks, with flat roofs surrounded by a parapet; and the bazaars, though stocked with the richest merchandise, are miserable structures, not arched as in Baghdad 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. The streets are irregular, narrow, and unpaved, and the town itself is disgustingly filthy. 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, cleansed twice daily by 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 hummum, 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 constitute the principal class; and the Turks, though they are masters of the town, are almost the least numerous.

Bussora is a great emporium of Indian commerce. Six or eight English ships arrive in the course of a year from India; 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 cloths for the clothing of the Arabians, gold and silver stuffs, various metals, sandal-wood, and indigo; pearls from Bahrain, 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 Baghdad, whence the goods are conveyed to Constantinople. The returns are made in Indian goods, bullion, pearls, dates, copper, raw silk, gall-nuts; and the horses, which are very strong and beautiful, are exported in large numbers by the English.

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 dates of different species, a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as apricots, 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 purpose of making attar. The liquorice plant also grows amidst the palm groves on the borders of the river.

The city of Bussora was originally founded by Omar, A.D. 636, on a canal eight miles S.W. from its present site, where the town of Zobeir now stands; and its situation was so favourable for commerce that in a few years it became a large and flourishing city. The canal, however, soon be- came useless, and the city was abandoned. The present city was conquered by the Turks in 1668, and since that period has been the scene of many revolutions. It was taken in 1777, after a siege of eight months, by the Persians under Sadick Khan. In about a year it fell again into the hands of the Turks; who were again deprived of it by the sultan of the Montefik Arabs. The town was in October following recovered by Solyman Pasha, who encountered the sultan on the banks of the Euphrates, and put him to flight; and it has since remained in the hands of the Turks. The population is estimated at 60,000. Long. 47° 34'. E. Lat. 30° 32'. N.