Accounts of Ormus Society
Situated between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, Ormus was a "by-word for wealth and luxury", perhaps best captured in the Arab saying: ‘If all the world were a golden ring, Ormus would be the jewel in it’. The city was also known for its licentiousness according to accounts by Portuguese visitors; Duarte Barbosa, one of the first Portuguese to travel to Ormuz in the late 14th century found:
| “ | The merchants of this isle and city are Persians and Arabs. The Persians ], are tall and well-looking, and a fine and up-standing folk, both men and women; they are stout and comfortable. They hold the creed of Mafamede in great honour. They indulge themselves greatly, so much so that they keep among them youths for the purpose of abominable wickedness. They are musicians, and have instruments of diverse kinds. The Arabs are blacker and swarthier than they. | ” |
This theme is also strong in Henry James Coleridge’s account of Ormus in his life of the Navarrese missionary, St Francis Xavier, who visited Ormus on his way to Japan:
| “ | Its moral state was enormously and infamously bad. It was the home of the foulest sensuality, and of all the most corrupted forms of every religion in the East. The Christians were as bad as the rest in the extreme license of their lives. There were few priests, but they were a disgrace to their name.
The Arabs and the Persians had introduced and made common the most detestable forms of vice. Ormuz was said to be a Babel for its confusion of tongues, and for its moral abominations to match the cities of the Plain. A lawful marriage was a rare exception. Foreigners, soldiers and merchants, threw off all restraint in the indulgence of their passions...Avarice was made a science: it was studied and practiced, not for gain, but for its own sake, and for the pleasure of cheating. Evil had become good, and it was thought good trade to break promises and think nothing of engagements... |
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