IOR/L/PS/9/12

The volume contains letters to the Secret Committee of the East India Company from: Lieutenant-Colonel Davies, in charge of the Residency in the Persian Gulf; the Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Dundas Robertson; HM’s Consuls and East India Company’s Agents in Syria, Richard Wood and H Moore; and the East India Company’s Agent with the Imaum [Imām] of Muscat (also spelled Muskat in this volume), Captain Atkins Hamerton. The letters to the Secret Committee are dated 10 January 1842 to 13 April 1844.

Letters from the Residency in the Persian Gulf discuss affairs at Karrak [Kharg Island], in particular: the evacuation of Karrak by British troops; the apparent apprehension of the island’s inhabitants at the prospect of the island being delivered up to the Governor of Bushire [Bushehr], Sheikh Nasser [Shaikh Nāṣir, also spelled Nassir in this volume]; the proceedings of a man who had arrived on Karrack as a deweish [dervish], claiming to be Jehan Loz Mirza [Jahānsūz Mīrzā], a son of the late Futtih Allee Shah [Fatḥ-‘Alī Shāh Qājār] of Persia [Iran], and stating that he had opposed the accession of the present King [Shāh] of Persia.

The letters from the Residency also discuss affairs in Persia including: the Residency moving back to Bushire; the visit of the Prince of Sheeraz [Shiraz] to Bushire; and the King of Persia having expressed ‘a real or pretended jealousy’ at Robertson choosing staying at Karrack after he had received a firman from the King permitting him to reside at Khoormooj [Khormoj] during the summer.

Other matters discussed in the letters from the Residency include:

• Affairs in Nedjd [Najd, also spelled Nedgd in this volume], including Abdoolla bin Sooneyaun [Amīr ‘Abdullāh bin Thunayān Āl Sa‘ūd, also spelled Abdoolah bin Sooneyan] declaring himself Ruler of Nedjd
• A French corvette, La Favourite, visiting the Persian Gulf on a roving cruise
• Robertson’s attempts to suppress the traffic in ‘slaves’ [trade in enslaved people] between Africa and the Gulf
• The dispute between the ‘Chief’ of Aboothabee [Ruler of Abu Dhabi], Khuleefa ben Shackboot [Shaikh Khalīfah bin Shakhbūṭ Āl Nahyān], and Sultan ben Suggur of Sharga [Shaikh Sulṭān I bin Ṣaqr al-Qāsimī, Ruler of Ra’s al-Khaymah and Sharjah]
• The renewal of the annual maritime truce
• Robertson reporting the apparently wide-spread belief amongst inhabitants of the Persian Gulf that Britain intends to acquire territory in the Gulf
• Affairs in Bahrein [Bahrain], including murders committed by parties contending against each other.

There is also an enclosed memorandum from Robertson to the Secretary to the Government of Bombay on British influence in the Persian Gulf (ff 23-26).

Letters from HM’s Consuls and East India Company’s Agents in Syria relate to matters including:

• The cessation of the hostilities which had broken out between the different sects which inhabit the district of Mount Lebanon (following the intervention of the Seraskier Mustafa Pasha [Muṣṭafá Pāshā] at the head of a commission from Constantinople [Istanbul])
• Transmission of mail, including the local government at Damascus having established a post from Damascus to Beyrout [Beirut], and their apparent intention of establishing one from Damascus to Bagdad [Baghdad], in competition with the East India Company’s line of communication between the Persian Gulf and Beyrout through Syria
• Negib (or Nejib) Pasha [Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā] being removed from the Pashalic [Pashalik, or Eyalet] of Damascus to the Government of Bagdad and Ally (or Aly) Pasha [‘Alī Riḍā Pāshā] of Baghdad being appointed to the Pashalic of Damascus
• Insurrection in the ‘districts’ of Orfa [Urfa or Rakka] and Mesopotamia [Iraq].

Letters from the East India Company’s Agent with the Imaum of Muscat discuss matters including:

• The intention of the Imaum of Muscat, Saeid bin Sultan [Sayyid Sa‘īd bin Sulṭān Āl Bū Sa‘īd], to send his ship Sultaneh to London with letters of petition to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, the Earl of Aberdeen (British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), and Lord Palmerston (enclosed), in an effort to modify in his favour the position of the British Government on the suppression of the ‘slave trade’
• Hamerton reporting attempts by the American Consul and ‘the American party’ at Zanzibar to negatively influence the Imaum’s views against Hamerton and the East India Company
• The Imaum requiring the principal ‘native’ merchants at Zanzibar, who are Indian British subjects, to sign a declaration making themselves citizens of Zanzibar, foregoing their British subject status and British protection
• The fears of the Imaum of Muscat about French encroachments on his African possessions, following the inhabitants of the island of Nos Beh [Nosy Be] being induced to end their allegiance to the Imaum and place themselves under French protection.

Letters from Robertson include some enclosed letters: translated copies of letters from Abdoolah bin Sooneyan and Sayd bin Mootluck [Sa‘d bin Muṭlaq] to Sultan bin Suggur; and letters from Robertson to the Secretary to the Government of Bombay and HM Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of Persia, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil.

Enclosures in letters from Richard Wood include a letter from Wood to HM Consul and East India Company Agent at Bagdad Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Taylor.

Enclosures in letters from Hamerton include: letters from Hamerton to the Secretary to the Government of Bombay; translated copies of letters from Queen Smeko [Tsiomeko] of the Sackalavee [Sakalava] tribe on the island of Nos Beh to the Imaum of Muscat; a memorandum by Hamerton on the extent to which the ‘slave trade’ is carried on by subjects of the Imaum of Muscat at Zanzibar and the coast of Africa under the dominion of the Imaum of Muscat (ff 127-132); and a report on French proceedings in the territories of the Imaum of Muscat (ff 133-140).