IOR/L/PS/9/9

The volume contains letters, mostly to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, and mainly from the Resident at Busssora [Basra, also spelled Bussarah in this volume], Samuel Manesty, and the following, successively in temporary charge of the Bussora Residency (also referred to as the Bussora Factory) during Manesty’s absence: Lieutenant Edward Hutchins Bellasis, John Law, and William Eatwell. There are also letters from John Hine, Assistant in charge of the Bagdad [Baghdad, also spelled Bagdat in this volume] Residency, mostly to William Ramsay, Secretary at the India House. The letters are dated 7 March 1803 to 31 Mar 1810 (not 1811 as incorrectly stated on the spine of the volume), and the date each letter was received is recorded on the back of it.

The letters concern matters including:

• The arrival and departure of ships from Bussora
• The sending of packets of correspondence to the Court of Directors and other recipients
• Manesty’s (unofficial) mission to Persia [Iran], and the political situation in Persia
• Relations between Manesty and the Bacha [Pāshā] of Bagdad
• ‘Piracies’ committed by the Gausemee [al-Qawāsim, also spelled Joassim and Jowassemee in this volume] Arabs against British vessels in the Persian Gulph [Gulf]
• The intentions of the Bacha regarding a potential expedition against the Whahabee Sheik [the Wahhābī Shaikh, the Emir of Diriyah]
• News of the War of the Third Coalition, including the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805)
• Manesty reporting illness and death at the Bussora Residency, including himself being seriously ill
• The assassination of Ali Pacha [‘Alī Pāshā al-Kahyah], the Governor of Bagdad, ‘by a small party of Georgians’ on 18 August 1807
• The conduct of Harford Jones, Resident at Bagdad, and his expulsion from Bagdad by the Bacha.