IOR/L/PS/9/70/132

Copies of letters from the East India Company Envoy to Persia [Iran], Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir, to the Government of India, dating from June 1826 to August 1826. Contained within are copies of six letters, numbered 7-9, 12, 14 and 15, from Macdonald Kinneir to the Chief Secretary to the Government of India, George Swinton, and two letters, one of which is numbered 11, from Macdonald-Kinneir to the Governor-General of India, Lord Amherst. The letters concern the journey of Macdonald Kinneir’s mission to the Court of the Shah of Persia and the outbreak of war between Russia and Persia over a territorial dispute in the Caucasus [Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828], covering a period preceding and succeeding the outbreak of war. Included are details of:

• The illness and death of members of Macdonald Kinneir’s entourage
• Macdonald Kinneir’s views on the possible course and outcome of war between Russia and Persia
• The question of Great Britain paying a subsidy to Persia upon the outbreak of war with Russia
• The outbreak of war between Persia and Russia, and Persian military operations against Russia
• The outbreak of rebellions in territories ceded to Russia by the Treaty Gulistan in 1813, including Dagistan [Dagestan], Shirwan [Shirvan], Shekee [Sheki], Karabaugh [Karabakh], and the involvement of the former rulers of these territories
• Reports of the alleged arrest of the Russian envoy sent to Persia to negotiate the territorial dispute, Prince Minchikoff [Prince Aleksandr Sergeevich Menshikov]
• Macdonald Kinneir’s planned intercession on behalf of Russian prisoners of war.

Also detailed is a report of negotiations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and of the rebellion and dissolution of the Ottoman Janissaries.

This document was originally enclosed, numbered 1, in Macdonald Kinneir’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 6 September 1826 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/131).