Ormus (original) (raw)

Ormus was a kingdom in the 17th century around the Persian Gulf, in particular the Strait of Hormuz. The capital was the fortified port-city of Ormus which was one of the largest in the Middle East at the time and controlled sea-way trading routes to India. The city was probably located at the north shore of the Strait of Hormuz (maybe near the island of Hormoz). The city-state of Ormus is dated back to the 13th century when it controlled the slave market from Africa and Arabia to Khorasan in Persia. The state religion was more likely a branch of Persian Zoroastrianism than of Islam, due to the name which can be afflicted with the Zoroastrianist God Ahura Mazda (later transcription: Ohrmazd).

"The Kingdome of Ormus hath his owne King tributarte vnto the King of Lu∫itania. it containeth the whole shore of Arabia from the paßage of the riuer Euphrates vntil C. Raz. alga ti, likewi∫e part of the Kingdome of Per∫ia w. adioyneth to the Sea Ba∫ora and almo∫t al the Ilands of the per∫ian Gulfe. whose mothe r?itie is Ormus in the Iland Geru a famous mart"
-- John Speed, 1626
Note that some of this text is missing due to printing faults; the ∫ is the letter for s or sh as used in the script.
The underlined words in the text can also be deciphered as

mother Litie

, although there is a distinctive space between mothe and r and the L (marked by ? in the text) looks most like a (.

Compare to Ohrmuzd, Hormuz, Ohrmazd, Ahura Mazda