IOR/R/15/1/38-118

The records consist of separate volumes of letters inward and outward; secret letters inward and outward; and 'native letters' inward and outward (also referred to as 'translation books': letters from Native Agents at Bahrain, Shiraz, Sharjah, Muscat, and elsewhere, and local rulers and officials, together with draft despatches from the Residency to the same class of recipients). The letters in the last category are mostly translations or summaries into English.

The period covered by the records saw the tenures of a number of holders of the office of Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the most notable of whom was Captain (later Major) Samuel Hennell.

The other main correspondents are officials of the Government of Bombay, the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, officials of the British Government, other British officials in the Persian Gulf and Middle East, and commanders and officers of the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf, notably Commander George Barnes Brucks. Amongst local rulers, the Imam of Muscat occurs most frequently, both as correspondent and subject.

The volumes cover a wide variety of political and administrative matters, but the most frequently recurring topics are:

• general administrative business;
• the transmission of correspondence packets;
• financial and accounting matters;
• the maintenance of buildings;
• Agency staffing matters;
• Resident's annual tours;
• other official visits;
• temporary relocation of the Residency to Karrack [Khārk, Jazīreh-ye];
• Persian affairs;
• political relations between Arab littoral rulers;
• tribal affairs;
• extension of truces and treaties;
• arms tafficking;
• naval matters;
• general shipping matters;
• trade;
• piracy;
• the pearl trade;
• slavery;
• the Joasmees [Qawāsim];
• the Wahhabis;
• Najd affairs;
• East Africa and Zanzibar;
• the status of Mombasa as a British protectorate, 1824-26;
• Russia;
• Egypt;
• the Ottoman Empire;
• French influence in the region;
• outbreaks of cholera and plague;
• reports on events in the Crimean War (1853-56);
• reports on events in the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845-46 and 1848-49).