IOR/R/15/1/10-37

The volumes contain transcribed copies of letters received and sent by the Residency at Bushire, arranged separately in roughly annual volumes. There is almost complete coverage of both inward and outward correspondence for the years 1806-1826, but a number of volumes are incomplete. The correspondence is mainly on general matters, but Volume 23, Reports to the Government of Bombay respecting a British military expedition to the Persian Gulf (IOR/R/15/1/23), is a compilation covering the years 1820-21. The correspondence is mainly between the Resident (or Acting Resident) at Bushire and other British officials in India and the Persian Gulf (notably the Government of Bombay, the Political Agent at Basra, the Resident at Muscat, and British representatives at the Court of Persia). There is also correspondence (some of it in Arabic and Persian) with local rulers and Persian officials. The principal Residents at Bushire during the period covered by the volumes were Lieutenant William Bruce and Lieutenant-Colonel Ephraim Gerrish Stannus.

The main subjects of the correspondence are financial and administrative matters relating to the Residency; trade; relations with local rulers and tribes, international relations between the British and the principal powers of the region - Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Muscat and Oman; the transmission of letters and packets between India and the Persian Gulf; the movements of East India Company naval vessels; and piracy (as defined by the British authorities), especially on the part of the Quwāsim at Ra's al-Khaymah.

Other matters of note include the Napoleonic Wars and the presence of the French in the Persian Gulf; the procurement of sulphur for gunpowder; the Wahhabis; the British expedition against Ra's al-Khaymah in 1819; the claims of the Imam of Muscat (Sa‘īd bin Sultān Āl Sa‘īd) to Bahrain; the effects of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820; operations against the Banī Bū ‘Alī tribe in Oman, 1820-21; and the slave trade.