IOR/L/PS/9/71/30

Copy of dispatch No. 55 from the East India Company Envoy to Persia [Iran], Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir, at the Royal Camp at Khoee [Khoy], to the Chief Secretary to the Government of India, George Swinton, of 19 July 1827. The letter concerns military operations in the ongoing war between Russia and Persia in the Caucasus [Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828]. The letter gives details of the evacuation of Russian troops from the Province of Erivan [Yerevan] due to disease and lack of supplies, and the Russian siege of the fortress of Abbas-Abad ['Abbasabad], including a failed attempt by the besieging army to scale the fortress walls. Macdonald Kinneir also gives a detailed account of a battle between Persian forces led by Abbas Meerza [ʿAbbās Mīrzā Qājār, Crown Prince of Persia], Hussan Khan [Ḥasan Qulī Khān Qājār] and the Aussef ed Dowleh [Allāh Yār Khān Qājār Davallū, Āṣaf al-Dawlah, the Grand Vizier of the Shāh of Persia], and Russian troops from the besieging army, led by General Paskevitch [General Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich-Erivansky, Governor-General of Georgia] on the River Arras [Aras].

This document was originally enclosed, numbered 1, in Macdonald Kinneir’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 22 July 1827 (IOR/L/PS/9/71/29).