IOR/F/4/2536/147463

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence, minutes, and resolutions cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, dated 30 August 1853, and found at IOR/F/4/2536/147461. It is the third in a series of seven items about the 'slave trade' [trade in enslaved people].

The item concerns a recent visit to Bombay [Mumbai], Muscat and Bahrein [Bahrain] by Bihjut Effendi [Bahjat Āghā Effendī], an agent of Abbas Pasha [‘Abbās Ḥilmī Pāshā I], Viceroy of Egypt. In particular, the item relates to:

• Arrangements made for the transport of Bihjut Effendi from Aden to Bombay
• Assistance provided to Bihjut Effendi by the Government of Bombay, including the chartering of a ship, the Bombay, from the Bombay Steam Navigation Company, and a loan of 25,000 dollars
• Arrangements for the payments to the Bombay Steam Navigation Company and for the repayment of the loan by Bihjut Effendi
• Assistance provided to Murad Bey [Murād Beg] during his visit to Bombay to purchase horses
• Reports by Khoja Hiskel bin Yusoof [Khawājah Ḥizqīl bin Yūsuf], Acting Native Agent at Muscat, and by Hajee Jassem [Ḥājjī Jāsim], Native Agent at Bahrein, on Bihjut Effendi's activities during his visits to those places, including the purchase of horses
• Reports that the women described in passenger lists as being part of Bihjut Effendi's entourage were actually enslaved women offered to Sheikh Mahomed ben Khuleefa [Shaikh Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah], Sheikh of Bahrein, as 'gifts'
• Concern expressed by Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf, that this activity may be seen to have been condoned by the British and the potential political implications of this given their public stance against the 'slave trade'
• Further concern expressed by Kemball that Sheikh Mahomed ben Khuleefa is attempting to approach Abbas Pasha for assistance against Ben Saood [Amīr Fayṣal bin Turkī bin ‘Abdullāh Āl Sa‘ūd, also rendered in text as Ameer Fysul] and the implications of Turkish [Ottoman] intervention in Bahrein affairs
• General updates from Khoja Hiskel bin Yusoof about activity at Muscat.

The item also includes the Government of Bombay's instructions to forward copies of correspondence on the above subjects to Charles Augustus Murray, HM Consul-General in Egypt, and to the Government of India.

Principal correspondents include: Murray; Kemball; Abbas Pasha; Bihjut Effendi; Khoja Hiskel bin Yusoof; Hajee Jassem; Luis Caetano de Menezes, Acting Manager of the Bombay Steam Navigation Company; and the Government of Bombay.

There are multiple spellings for multiple individuals in the item, particularly for Bihjut Effendi, whose name is often rendered including the name Aga [Āghā].

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', Draft Number '161 1854', 'Collection', 'Vol: 3', and 'Examiner's Office'. Originally, the Collection was described as 'No. 1 of No. 85 of 1853' but this has been crossed out.