IOR/G/29/16

Two volumes in one slipcase containing a collection of letters and enclosures dispatched from Gombroon [Bandar-e ʻAbbas] Factory to ‘the Court of Directors for affairs of the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies’. Almost every letter includes the date it was received overland via Aleppo and Marseilles. At some point these letters were assigned numbers from 2386 to 2486, in red (turned to purplish) ink. Any missing numbers in between indicate that the letter is missing. The letters cover a variety of issues and topics including:

• Accounts received from the East India Company (EIC)’s Factories at Spahaun [Esfahan, also written as Spahaune] and Carmenia [Kerman also written as Carmania], and checked at Gombroon
• Records of rogoms [raqams or ruqums: royal grants confirming specific trading privileges], and talligaws [ta‘liqas: official orders] granted or to be granted to the EIC’s establishments in Persia [Iran]. Examples of authentic translated copies of rogoms can be found in folios 25, 28, 89, 182 and 188
• Records of the EIC’s servants in Persia covering their names, stations, positions, date of commencing in the service, salaries, death, misbehaviours, complaints, and investigations
• Proposal to settle a Factory at Mushat [Mashhad]
• The activities of local Arab, Armenian, Ballooches [Baluch] and Persian merchants in the region
• Records of Dutch, French, Portuguese and Russian [written as muscovite] activities in the region
• The status of the wool trade at Carmenia
• Lists of woollen goods proper for Persian market
• Lists of commodities traded with including: broadcloth, sugar candy, spices, copper, iron, cotton, nuts, dates, coffee, silk, and rice
• The rebellion of the Arabs and the agwaans [Afghans?] led by ‘the noted pyrate’ Shaik Ahmud Medannah [Shaikh Aḥmad Madanī, also written as Medanna]
• The Ophgoon [Afghan]-Persian wars
• The Persian-Ottoman [Turks] wars
• British-Persian relations
• British-Ottoman relations
• Dispute between the Arabs and the Bashaw of Bussorah [Pāshā of Basra]
• Reports of the Arabs plundering British ships
• Records of the accession of, three months old, Abbas III after the imprisonment of his father by Tahmasp Qoli Khan [Ṭahmāsb Qulī Khān, i.e. Nādir Shāh, Shāh of Persia 1732-1747]
• Dutch seizing the vessels of Shaik Russhett [Shaikh Rāshid al-Qāsimī, also written as Rachid] at Bassidore [Basidu, also written as Bassidoore]
• Persian navy assisting the Hoveyza Arabs [Huwayza Arabs of Khuzistan, also written as Havizah] in their siege of Bussorah
• News of the Hoola [Hawala/ Huwala] Arabs revolting against the Persian
• The Imaum of Muscat [Imam of Muscat, also written as Muscatt] asking for Persian help against his rebellious subjects
• Nādir Shāh claiming himself the master of Muscat and Julfar [also written as Julphar]
• Nādir Shāh's invasion of the Mogull Empire [Mughal]
• Detailed accounts of the state of affairs and inland military operations in a number of provinces in Persia and the names of local governors and generals involved.

The volumes contain records of letters from the Resident at Bussorah covering: the relations with Ottoman officials, letters from the British Consul at Aleppo, the state of affairs in the region, and the status of the EIC’s trade at Bussorah.

The volumes include detailed reports of the state of the Company’s trade in Persia covering the following: shipping; goods from Europe or India; investments; the Factory’s accounts and charges; customs and revenues; the trade in Persia in general and any transactions with the Persian Government; buildings and fortifications; and the EIC’s covenant servants, soldiers, and their accounts.

The volumes also include lists recording the arrival and departure of ships, their names, staff, tons, guns, from where, when sailed, and where bound. Among the recorded ships are the Victoria, the Success, the Tellicherry, the Fame, the Prince George, the Queen Carolina, the Britannia [also written as Brittania], the Drake, the Robert, the Prince of Wales, the Richmond, the Jenny, and the Wilmington. Ships sailed mainly to and from Gombroon, Bombay [Mumbai], Surat [also written as Suratt], Bengall [Bengal], Bassidore, Bussorah, Boucheir [Bushehr], Mocha, Mallabar Coast [Malabar], Madrass [Madras, i.e. Chennai], Muscat, and China.

The volumes include some duplications, and some faded letters/enclosures.