IOR/F/4/895/23296

This item consists of copies of correspondence, consultations, minutes, and resolutions cited in, or enclosed with, political letters from the Government of Bombay. The principal correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Lieutenant [John] Macleod, British Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Imaum of Muscat [Imam of Muscat, Sayyid Sa‘īd bin Sulṭān Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; the Chief of the Beni Boo Alli [Banī Bū ‘Alī], Muhumud Ibn Ali Jalamee [Muḥammad bin ‘Alī Jaylanī].

The main topic of the item is the concerns from the East India Company Court of Directors about the expedition against the Beni Boo Alli, particularly their doubts about: establishing whether the tribe were pirates; whether it was right to cut down the date groves and turn the watercourses; and whether the prisoners should have been sent to Bombay. The Government of Bombay and Lieutenant Lionel Smith reply to these allegations and justify the attack on the Bani Boo Alli with examples of their piracy, a description the expedition including the Imaum of Muscat’s role in destroying the date groves, and an explanation for bringing the prisoners to Bombay.

The item describes relations between the Beni Boo Alli and the British subsequent to the expedition including representatives from the Beni Boo Alli visiting Bombay, Bombay’s negotiations with Muscat to restore the Beni Boo Alli to their territory, and Bombay’s insistence that they be allowed to rebuild their houses.

The item includes a contents page, and the title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Political No. 7, Draft 293, P.C. 362, [Season] 26/7, Examiner’s Office 1825’.