April 11, 1008 Tsunami: Persian Gulf, Iran

1008, April 11 - May 09. An earthquake caused an inundation at Siraf wrecking many ships at sea and killing many people. (reference #1217)

1008, April 11 - May 9 (AH 398 Sha'ban ). An earthquake at Dainawar did great damage. At Shiraz an inundation occurred and many ships were wrecked at sea. (reference #1098)

1008 Siraf. In the Spring of 398 H. there was an earthquake at Siraf and along the coast of the Persian Gulf. Many people were killed and a number of ships were sunk, probably by a seismic sea-wave (tsunami)... The earliest case [tsunami] appears to be associated with the 1008 earthquake at Siraf in the Persian Gulf. According to al-'Umari houses were destroyed and about 10,000 people were killed; the sea produced a wave which sank a number of ships from which no-one survived. Al'Umari quite clearly attributes the sinking of the ships to a tsunami generated by the shock, but there is no evidence that the seawave flooded the coast. Moreover, it should be mentioned that it may simply have been storms that were responsible. High winds affected the Tigris valley and southern Persia that year and some sources refer to the sinkings without mentioning the earthquake. (reference #1117 which references Al-'Umari, Yasin al-Khafib , at-Athar al-jAliya fi l-hawadith al-ardiya, Iraq Academy Baghdad, ms).

Ambraseys and Melville (1982) concur on the loss of several ships, they state that there is no evidence of waves inundating the land. Other records show that high winds affected the region during the same time period, thus the reported flooding and destruction of ships could have been caused by storm surge[...]It is therefore, possible that the reported waves may have been generated by an earthquake triggered coastal landslide. (reference #12755)

definite tsunami (reference #12789)

Large earthquake with reports of ships sinking, but ships likely sank due to a concurrent storm, not tsunami [...] It is possible that the reported waves may have been generated by an earthquake-triggered coastal landslide – although the historical records do not indicate that one occurred in conjunction with this particular event, or any other earthquake in the Persian Gulf region. (reference #4083)