IOR/F/4/2550/149209

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, political letters from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors. These political letters appear in IOR/F/4/2550/149197. It is the thirteenth in a series of sixteen items on the Persian Gulf.

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf; Commodore George Robinson, Commanding Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf; and Sheikh Mahomed bin Khuleefa, Chief of Bahrein [Shaikh Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah, Ruler of Bahrain].

The item concerns an incident in which an inhabitant of Shargah [Sharjah] named Mahomed ben Fullah [Muḥammad bin Falāḥ] attacked a vessel from Smaysmah [Sumaysimah], on the coast of Guttur [Qatar], capturing two enslaved persons and other property, and injuring two of the crew. In response, the people of Smaysmah captured a vessel from Russul Khymah [Ra’s al-Khaymah]. Kemball instructs Robinson to obtain restitution for both incidents from the responsible rulers, Sheikh Sultan ben Sugger [Shaikh Sulṭān I bin Ṣaqr al-Qāsimī], Chief of Russul Khymah, and Sheikh Mahomed bin Khuleefa, Chief of Bahrein. Sheikh Mahomed pays what is demanded of him, but protests at being held directly responsible for the actions of his dependents at Smaysmah.

The item includes a list of the articles held by the vessel from Russul Khymah captured by the people of Smaysmah (f 587).

The item contains a table of contents (f 575), and the title page (f 574) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘358 - 1854’, ‘Collection No. 10 of No. 109 of 1853. Vol. 13’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’. The collection number was originally given as ‘1’ but this has been crossed out and replaced with ‘10’.