IOR/F/4/2504/142186

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence and minutes cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 31 August 1852, and found at IOR/F/4/2504/142185. It is the second in a series of sixteen items about the Persian Gulf.

The item relates to reports by Hajee Yacoob [Ḥājjī Ya‘qūb], Acting Agent at Shargah [Sharjah], to Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf, about several incidents that recently occurred in the area around Shargah. In particular the incidents concern:

• Numerous disputes between the people of Aboothabee [Abu Dhabi] and Debaie [Dubai, also rendered in text as Debaye] relating to the seizures of vessels, cargo, and enslaved people, as well as an attack on the island of Saadeat [Jazirat as Sa‘diyat]
• Seizure of a Biddah [Al Bid‘] vessel by inhabitants of Aboothabee by order of Sheik Saeed ben Tahnoon [Shaikh Sa‘īd bin Ṭaḥnūn Āl Nahyān, Shaikh of Abu Dhabi], who said he was following orders of Ameer Fysul ben Saood [Amīr Fayṣal bin Turkī bin ‘Abdullāh Āl Sa‘ūd]
• Disputes between the people of Ejmaun [Ajman] and Heera.

The item also contains Kemball's instructions for Commodore John Patterson Porter, Commanding the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf, to dispatch the Company ship Clive to the Arabian Coast to complete enquiries into some of the above incidents. He also gives details on the letters written to Shaik Sultan ben Suggur [Shaikh Sulṭān I bin Ṣaqr al-Qāsimī, Shaikh of Ra’s al-Khaymah and Sharjah], Sheik Saeed ben Butye [Sa‘īd bin Buṭṭī Āl Bū Falāseh, Shaikh of Dubai], and Sheik Saeed ben Tahnoon to persuade them to make restitutions for some of the above incidents.

Kemball forwards on copies of the above correspondence to the Government of Bombay, who in turn order them to be forwarded to the Government of India and the Court of Directors.

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', 'Draft No. 350 of 1853', 'Collection No. 1 of No. 77', 'Vol: 2', and 'Examiner's Office'. Originally, the Collection number was given as '3' but this has been crossed out.