IOR/R/15/1/19

The volume contains letters sent to the British Resident at Bushire. The subject matter of the correspondence centres around the administration of the Bushire Residency, and company operations in the area. It therefore covers the wider commercial and political interests of the East India Company in the Persian Gulf, alongside those of the British Government during this period. This includes international relations between the British and the principal powers of the region; e.g. Persia, the Ottoman Empire, Muscat and Oman. It also concerns itself with piracy (as defined by British authorities) in the Persian Gulf; details of a British expedition which attacked Ra's al-Khaymah in 1819, and aimed to suppress 'piratical acts' in the region, can be found within.

The volume does not cover the full time span indicated by the date range with the majority of the correspondence being from the period between 20 November 1816 to 29 December 1819. There are also a few letters inserted into the back of the volume of a much later date — January and February 1874 — sent to the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf via the office of the Assistant Resident. This correspondence concerns the financial affairs of the bin Rejubs [Bin Rajab] in Bahrain. The period from 1820 and 1873 is therefore not represented in this volume.

The majority of the correspondence is in English with only a few items in Arabic towards the end of the volume.