IOR/F/4/2314/119864

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, memoranda, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, political letters from the Government of Bombay. The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Captain Lynch, Officiating Superintendent of the Indian Navy; and Commander Felix Jones. It is the first in a series of two items on Jones’s travels.

The item concerns Jones’s account of his travels accompanying Major Henry Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] from Baghdad to Sulemaneyeh [Sulaymaniyah] via Kirmanshah [Kermanshah] and their separate return to Baghdad, to investigate the border between the Persian [Iranian] and Ottoman Empires prior to the Second Treaty of Erzroum [Erzurum]. The account includes frequent latitude and longitude bearings, observations of the temperature, and exact timings, as well as remarks on local history, the people Jones met, and descriptions of ancient ruins and inscriptions with etymological and historical conjectures. A detailed description of the Behistan [Behistun] Inscription appears on folios 670-675, and the Tak-i-Bostan [Taq-e Bostan] sculptures are described on folios 679-681. The item does not contain a copy of the map which Jones created.

The places visited include:

• The River Diyleh [Diyala]
• Village of Bakuba [Baqubah]
• Shehraban [Al Miqdadiyah]
• The Holwan River [Nahr Alwand]
• Kasri Shirim [Qasr-e Shirin]
• Sar-puli-Zohab [Sarpol-e Zahab]
• Sar-mil [Sarmil]
• Kirrind [Kerend-e Gharb]
• Kirmanshah [Kermanshah]
• Mahidasht [Mahi Dasht]
• Halebjah [Halabja]
• Sulemaneyeh [Sulaymaniyah].

The item contains a contents page and the title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Draft no 586/49’, ‘Coll[ection]: 3’, and ‘Collection No 1 of No 139’.