IOR/G/29/32, ff 1-478

Copies of dispatches from Sir Harford Jones, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Persian Court, to the Secret Committee of the East India Company, in London. Dispatches are sent from Bombay [Mumbai], Schyras [Shiraz], Teehran [Tehran, also written Tahran in the present volume], Tabreze [Tabriz, also referred to as Tauris in the present volume], and Sultania [Soltaniyeh] and his letters relate to his diplomatic mission to the Persian Court. Some of the correspondence constitutes an outline of, and defence against, charges made by the Governor-General at Fort William, Lord Minto [Gilbert Elliot Murray Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto], against Jones’s conduct during his mission, including letters from British and Persian [Iranian] officials in support of his case. Other matters connected to the mission are also discussed, such as: its scale and style; its successes; the treaty (Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, 12 March 1809) and subsidy (paid by Britain to Persia) that resulted from it; and the difficulties caused by the simultaneous of Brigadier-General John Malcolm, East India Company Envoy to Persia.

Other matters covered include:

• Relations between the Ottoman Empire and Persia
• News from Europe, particularly in connection to the Napoleonic Wars
• The Russo-Persian War, including unsuccessful attempts to negotiate an armistice
• Intelligence regarding Captain William George Keith Elphinstone’s mission to Caboul [Kabul]
• French influence in Persia and the presence of French diplomatic agents in the region
• The appearance of Jean Robbio, a French agent, in Muscat and Bushire [Būshehr], and the seizure of his correspondence in September 1810 (folios 329-336)
• The potential for trade with Persia, including a memorandum on the subject written by Jones (folios 65-66)
• Routine matters relating to finance and personnel.

Some of the papers are included as enclosures to Jones’s dispatches. The correspondents include: John Malcolm; Lord Minto; Robert Dundas, President of the Board of Control for India; Robert Adair, Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, Constantinople; George Canning (and his successors, Earl Henry Bathurst and Marquess Richard Colley Wellesley), Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; Hajee Mahammed Hossein Khan [Hajji Muhammad Hossein Isfahani], Persian Minister; Meerza Mahammed Sheffea [Mirza Mohammed Shafi Mazanderani], Grand Vizier of Persia; Meerza Bozurg [Mirza 'Isa Khan Farahani], Minister to the Crown Prince of Persia; Fath Ali Shah [Fatḥ ʻAlī Shāh], Shah of Persia; Charles Pasley, Political Agent of the Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William and Assistant to Brigadier-General John Malcolm; Askar Khan Afshar, Persian Ambassador to Paris; Abbas Meerza ['Abbās Mīrza Qājār], Crown Prince of Persia; Stephen Babington, Assistant-in-Charge, Bushire [Būshehr]; Claudius James Rich, Resident at Bagdad [Baghdad]; Henry Rudland, Resident and Agent at Mocha.