IOR/L/PS/9/71/1

Letter from the East India Company Envoy to Persia [Iran], Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir, in camp at Oojan [Ujan], to the Secret Committee of the East India Company, of 22 June 1827, which was received from the Foreign Office on 29 August 1827. The letter originally enclosed copies of Macdonald Kinneir’s dispatch No. 49 to the Chief Secretary to the Government of India, George Swinton, and its enclosures, and six other enclosures numbered 1-6 (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/71/2-10, and IOR/L/PS/9/71/11-16). The letter concerns the ongoing war between Russia and Persia in the Caucasus [Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828], including:

• A Persian victory over Russian troops in battle near Erivan [Yerevan], and the movements of Russian and Persian forces
• Peace overtures by the Prince Royal, Abbas Meerza [Crown Prince of Persia, ʿAbbās Mīrzā Qājār], and the respective circumstances under which Russia and Persia would settle for peace
• The possibility of Persia being successful in the war by pursuing a ‘war of detail’, and Macdonald Kinneir’s fear that Abbas Meerza might risk open battle against Russia
• The peace deal agreed between the Chief of Karabaug, Mehdi Khouli Khan [Governor of Qarabagh or Karabakh, Mahdī Qulī Khān Javānshīr], and Russia, and similar offers made to other ‘disaffected Chiefs’.

The letter also refers to the appointment of Meerza Saleh [Mīrzā Ṣāliḥ Shīrāzī] as Chargé d'Affaires to the Sublime Porte [Ottoman Empire], and the return to Europe of the former Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Ephriam Gerrish Stannus.