IOR/R/15/1/81

The volume consists of a few letters addressed to Samuel Hennell, the British Resident in the Persian Gulf. The main authors being Justin Sheil, HM Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Persia, based at Erzeroom; George Barnes Brucks, Commander of the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf; Thomas Edmunds, Assistant Resident in the Persian Gulf; and Robert Taylor, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia, Baghdad.

The correspondence concerns the consolidation of the conquest of Nejd [Najd] by Khorshid Pasha [Khūrshid Pāshā], and British efforts to prevent him from extending Egyptian influence — through submission or conquest — to Baghdad, Bussora [Basra], Bharein [Bahrain], and Oman. It also concerns the diplomatic rupture between the British Residency and the Persian authorities at Bushire, which results in the withdrawal of the Residency on 29 March 1839 to the island of Karrack [Khārk, Jazīreh-ye].

Included within is a report from Thomas Edmunds on his visit to Bharein (to attempt to settle the dispute between Shaikh Abdollah bin Ahmed [‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad Āl Khalīfah] and his former dependant Esa bin Tareef [‘Isá bin Ṭarīf]), and another report from him on Sir Frederick Maitland's tour of the Arabian Coast. A number of reports from John Croft Hawkins (Commander of the Clive) to George Barnes Brucks are also enclosed; these concern the state of Bushire subsequent to the removal of the Residency, provisions for the Clive, and a report on his visit to Koweit [Kuwait].