IOR/P/441/99

This volume contains the Proceedings of the Political Department of the Foreign Department of the Government of Bombay for the months of January-December 1869. These proceedings consist of abstracts of correspondence sent to the Government of Bombay, and the resolutions taken by the Political Department in relation to that correspondence

These Proceedings comprise copies of correspondence of the Government of India Foreign Department (renamed Foreign and Political Department in 1914).

The subjects covered include:

• Affairs in and around Aden including: proposal to place a house at the disposal of the 'Chief' of Lahej
• Affairs in Jedda [Jeddah] including the salary of the British Agent while absent under medical certificate
• Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman including discussion respecting Syud Torkee's [Turkī bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd's] claim to the Imamship
• Affairs in the Sultanate of Zanzibar including: the trade in enslaved people; the Johanna [Anjouan] man named Moosa who deserted Dr Livingstone near Lake Nyassa; the hostile intentions of Syud Torkee towards the Sultan of Muscat; the subsidy due to the Muscat state by the Sultan of Zanzibar; a bill for pilotage out of Bombay Harbour for the Imam of Zanzibar's ship Prince of Wales and the claim of Syed Salim [Sayyid Sālim bin Thuwaynī Āl Bū Sa‘īd, Sulṭān of Muscat] to the ship; intelligence regarding Dr David Livingstone; prohibition of the trade in enslaved people in the Portuguese dominions
• Affairs in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], including the appointment of Surgeon Colville as Civil Surgeon at Bagdad [Baghdad]
• Affairs in the Persian Gulf including: mutiny on the Clyde ; permission to the former ruler of Bahrein [Bahrain] to reside at this former capital; an attack on Bahrein by Mohmed bin Khuleefa [Shaikh Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah]; the appointment of Hassan Ali Khan [Ḥasan ‘Alī Khān] to the Shiraz Agency; the granting of judicial powers to the British authorities in Persia.

The volume notably contains (folio 384) a translation of a proclamation by Majid bin Saeed [Sayyid Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd] prohibiting the storing of gunpowder in Zanzibar town.

The Proceedings also cover political succession in the Indian princely states; public works projects, tribal relations, arrangements for pilgrimage, disturbances and armaments and granting of lands in India. Printed in Calcutta [Kolkata] by J L Kingham, Foreign Department Press, 1869.