IOR/R/15/1/59

This file consists of contemporaneous copies or summaries of letters received by the Resident in the Persian Gulf (usually based at Bushire but temporarily residing on the Island of Corgo, following an outbreak of the plague) from a number of East India Company native agents, including those at Shargah [Sharjah], Muscat, Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh] and Shiraz. Named correspondents include Moollah Houssein [Mullā Husayn], Native Agent at Shargah, and Mirza Ally Ackbar [Mirza Ali Akbar], Native Agent at Shiraz. Most of these letters are in fact summaries (in the file they are referred to as 'substances') of letters, rather than complete copies of letters, which have been produced by a member of the Residency staff.

In addition, there are a number of substances or extracts of letters from local rulers, including: Sultan bin Suggur [Sulṭān bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī, ruler of Ra's al-Khaymah and Sharjah]; Shaik Tahnun [Shaikh Tahnun bin Shakhbut Āl Nahyān] of Aboothabee [Abu Dhabi]; and Saood bin Ally [Saud bin Ali], Governor of Burka [Barkā’, Oman].

Subjects covered in this file include: the imprisonment of the Imam of Muscat's [Sa‘īd bin Sultān Āl Bū Sa‘īd's] son and nephew by Saood bin Ally; relations between Sultan bin Suggur and Shaik Tahnun; an outbreak of plague in Bushire; the British Government's alliance with the Imam of Muscat; the reported seizure by Sultan bin Suggur of three forts on the Batinah [Al-Bāṭinah] coast belonging to the Imam of Muscat.

The file includes one item of outgoing correspondence: a copy of a letter (see ff 8-11), dated 25 May 1832, from Samuel Hennell, Assistant to the Resident in the Persian Gulf, to Charles Norris, Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, in which Hennell recounts his recent visits to Sohar [Ṣuḥār], Sowek [As Suwayq], Burka and Muscat.