IOR/L/PS/9/63

The volume consists of despatches to the Marquis of Salisbury, HM Principal Secretary of State for India, from Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Ross, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and Captain William Francis Prideaux, Officiating Political Resident from April 1876. The despatches are dated 26 January to 15 December 1876, and enclose copies of the Political Resident’s (and Officiating Political Resident’s) letters to the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, dated 17 December 1875 to 15 December 1876.

The despatches are grouped by date and are separated by India Office Political Department Minute Papers which record the date the despatches were received (16 March 1876 to 30 January 1877) and the principal subjects covered. The dividers are often annotated with comments, some fairly detailed, by India Office officials. The Minute Papers also record the date the groups of despatches have been seen by the Under-Secretary of State for India, the Secretary of State, and the Committee.

The letters from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf to the Government of India, Foreign Department include enclosures, mostly copies of letters and telegrams (including translated copies in English of Arabic letters which are not included in the volume) sent and received by Ross and Prideaux, relating to Persian Gulf affairs.

Much of the correspondence concerns affairs in Muscat and Oman, including:

• The request of the Sultan of Muscat (also spelled Maskat in this volume), Seyyid Toorkee [Sayyid Turkī bin Saʿīd Āl Bū Saʿīd], that the payments of the Zanzibar subsidy be made quarterly instead of half yearly as at present
• Relations between the Sultan of Muscat and his brother Seyyid Abdool Azeez [Sayyid ‘Abd al-ʿAzīz bin Saʿīd Āl Bū Saʿīd, also spelled Syud Abdul Azeez], and the latter’s request that Miles mediate in the settlement of the disagreement between them
• Ross’s instructions to Miles to refrain from any interference in the dispute between Seyyid Toorkee and Seyyid Abdool Azeez unless British interests are directly affected
• A letter from the Sultan of Zanzibar, Syud Barghash [Sayyid Barghash bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], to the Sultan of Muscat, expressing disapprobation at the behaviour of Seyyid Abdool Azeez
• The desire of the Sultan of Muscat to obtain a lease of Bunder Abbass [Bandar Abbas] from the Persian [Iranian] Government
• The attempt of (the former Sultan of Muscat) Seyyed Salim bin Thoweynee [Sālim bin Thuwaynī Āl Bū Sa‘īd] to induce his uncle Seyyed Toorkee to intercede with the Government of India for his release from detention
• The Sultan of Muscat arresting and imprisoning three of the Bedouin shaikhs who had caused the ‘most trouble and annoyance … by their sedition and intrigues’: Sheikh Amir bin Salim [Shaikh Amīr bin Sālim] and Sheikh Raschid bin Jumeea [Shaikh Rāshid bin Jum‘ah, also spelled Raschid bin Jimeah] of the Bu Hassan [Banī Bū Ḥasan] tribe, and Sheikh Hamood bin Said El Jahafee [Shaikh Ḥammūd bin Sa‘īd al-Jaḥāfī] of the Al Wahibeh [Āl Wahībah] tribe; and their subsequent release
• The attempted sale of five enslaved women to the nakhoda [nakhuda] of a Persian Gulf buglah [baghlah] at Muttrah, and the action taken by Seyyed Toorkee in dismissing the Wali of Muttrah from his post due to his apparent complicity in the affair
• The importation of an enslaved man into Muscat by a French vessel, who was released by Miles after taking refuge at the British Consulate, and the punishment and imprisonment of the seller and purchaser on the orders of the Sultan of Muscat at Miles’s request
• The Sultan of Muscat replacing the Beni Ruweyeh [Banī Ruwāḥah] garrison in the fort at Nakhl by a Baloch (also spelled Belooch) force
• The movements and actions of Seyyid Abdool Azeez
• Seyyid Fadhl ben Alawee [Sayyid Faḍl bin ‘Alawī, also spelled Syud Fadhl bin Alowi] taking possession of the district of Dhofar (also spelled Zofar) in the name of the Turkish Government, and the Sultan of Muscat seeking the intervention of the British Government in recovering possession of it from the Porte [the Sublime Porte, the Government of the Ottoman Empire], as it is a dependency of Oman
• The movements and actions of Sheikh Hamood bin Said following his release by the Sultan of Muscat, including his attempts to organise a tribal coalition against the Sultan, and the plunder of ‘banian’ traders at Saham in Batinah [Al Batinah]
• Conflict between the Maawal [al-Ma‘āwil] tribe and the people of the Nakhl Valley.

The volume also includes correspondence relating to affairs elsewhere in the Gulf, including:

• Translated copies of précises of intelligence received from the British Government Agent at Shiraz, reporting such matters as robberies committed and punishments ordered for them by the Firman Firma [Farmānfarmā], the Governor-General of Fars
• Financial claims made by the Governor of Busrah [Basra], Nasir Pasha al Sadoon [Nāṣir Pāshā al-Sa‘dūn], on behalf of inhabitants of the Guttur or El Katr [Qatar] district against the ‘Chief’ of Bahrein [Hakim or Ruler of Bahrain], Esau bin Ali Al Khalifah [Shaikh ‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah]
• The case of two British Indian Hindu traders of El Bidaa [Al Bidda], Rama and Cheylah, who were compelled to proceed to Lahsa [Al Ahsa] in Nejd [Najd] by the Turkish [Ottoman] Governor of Lahsa
• The plunder of a British Indian vessel while the boat was at anchor off the Persian coast
• Objections of the Persian authorities at Bushire [Busehr] to the erection of a signal staff (a flag staff, for communication with vessels in the harbour) in the premises occupied by the agent of the British India Steam Navigation Company, and the subsequent removal of the objections
• The Persian authorities at Bushire compelling ‘native merchants’ to bind themselves not to act as agents to British or British Indian mercantile houses.

Other than the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the main correspondents are: the Political Agent and Consul at Muscat, Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles; the Sultan of Muscat; Seyyid Abdool Azeez; Sheikh Saleh bin Ali El Harithee [Shaikh Ṣālih bin ‘Alī al-Hārithī]; Sheikh Hamood bin Said; the ‘Chief’ of Bahrein; the two British Indian traders of El Bidaa, Rama and Cheylah; and the ‘News Agent’ at Bahrein [Bahrain], Agha Ahmed [Āghā Aḥmad].