IOR/L/PS/9/76/40

A copy of a letter from Harford Jones, newly appointed Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], to Henry Dundas, Secretary of State for War, sent from Constantinople [Istanbul] en route to Bagdad and dated 24 August 1798.

The letter reports Jones’s arrival in Constantinople and dispatch of correspondence. It also covers subjects including:

• Reports from Egypt following the French invasion led by General Napoleon Bonaparte
• The reaction of the Sultan [Selim III, Sulṭān of the Ottoman Empire] and the population in Constantinople to the French invasion of Egypt
• Jones’s speculations on the Porte’s [Government of the Ottoman Empire] likely response to the French invasion, arguing that the only resistance to Bonaparte is likely to come from the ‘Arabs’ [tribes] and Pashaws [Pāshās, governors] on the frontiers of the Empire
• Jones’s appeals to the Bacha of Bagdad [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] to protect access to the Persian Gulph [Gulf] via the Euphrates from a possible French advance
• Reports from Smyrna [Izmir] that firmans [edicts] have been issued by the Porte ordering assistance to be given to British warships and declaring Bonaparte a ‘rebel’.