Abstract: Enclosure nos. 2-3 to a despatch from the Secret Department, Government of Bombay [Mumbai], dated 29 November 1844. The enclosures are dated 16 June-31 October 1844.The enclosures consist of copies of correspondence relating to affairs in, and relating to, Persia [Iran], including:The release of Persian diplomat Abbas Koolee Khan [‘Abbās Qulī Khān] from imprisonment in Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara] and his attempts to also secure the release of German missionary Dr Joseph WolffReported fighting and disturbances in Sheeraz [Shiraz] and other parts of FarsReports suggesting an undue level of influence held by the Russian Minister in Tehran over the Government of PersiaActivities in Bussorah [Basra] of Sheikh Thamir [Chief of the Banū Ka‘ab], and Persian fears he may be planning an attack on Mohemmera [Khorramshahr].The correspondents are: HM Chargé d’Affaires, Tehran; Dr Wolff; the Political Agent, Turkish Arabia; the British Consul, Shiraz; the British Consul, Tabriz; the Russian Minister in Tehran; and the Ambassador of Persia to the Ottoman Empire.Physical description: 1 item (44 folios)
Abstract: The item consists of letters discussing an uprising in Bussorah [Basra] and Bagdad [Baghdad] involving the Bani Tamim.The correspondents are Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia, Bagdad; I M Dalrymple, Under-Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department, Calcutta [Kolkata]; Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, HM Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul]; E Hammond, the Foreign Office, London; the Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London.Physical description: 1 item (10 folios)
Abstract: This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay, Secret Department, to the Secret Committee, Number 28 of 1850, dated 11 May 1850.The enclosed papers, dated 27 February to 15 March 1850, consist of copies of despatches sent by Lieutenant Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Acting Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] in Bagdad [Baghdad], to the Government of Bombay and the Government of India, Foreign Department, enclosing copies of his letters to Sir Stratford Canning, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople [Istanbul]. The letters concern the appointment by the Ottoman authorities of Ismail Pasha as Governor of Sulimanieh [Sulaymaniyah, also written as Sulimonieh in this item] and the consequent unrest among the inhabitants of the Kurdish region.Physical description: 1 item (11 folios)
Abstract: This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 87 of 1847, dated 13 October 1847. The enclosure is dated 26 August 1847.The primary document is a despatch from Lieutenant Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Acting Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] (acting for Henry Creswicke Rawlinson who had taken a leave of absence), forwarding for the information of the Secretary to the Government of India and the Secretary to the Government, Bombay, copies of his despatches to Lord Cowley, HM Minister Plenipotentiary at Constantinople [Istanbul], with relevant enclosures, on the ‘affairs of the Baghdad Pachalic [Pashalik]’.The documents notably cover the following matters:British attempts to verify the authenticity of the communication from the Mootsellim [Mutasallim] of Bussorah [Governor of Basra] to Sheikh Mahomed ben Khaleefa [Shaikh Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah, Shaikh of Bahrain] inviting him to place himself under the protection of the Turkish [Ottoman] flag, including a corroborative document forwarded to Rawlinson by Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian GulfReactions of the independent Arab rulers of the Gulf regarding the appearance of an Ottoman brig of war [in the Gulf] and the alleged the claims by the Turkish officers on board of the intention to replace British influence in the Gulf with Turkish influence. Included are reports by John Croft Hawkins, Commodore Commandant Indian Navy, Squadron in the Persian Gulf, on the HC [Honourable Company] steam frigate
Queen, and the Agent at Shargah [Sharjah], regarding: the brig’s movements; the concerns expressed by Shaikh Mucktoom [Maktūm I bin Buṭṭī Āl Bū Falāsah of Dubai]; and the alleged ‘exultation’ of Sultan Ben Suggur [Shaikh Sulṭān I bin Ṣaqr al-Qāsimī, Ruler of Sharjah and Ra’s al-Khaymah, Al Jazirah Al Hamra and Ar Rams, variously] at the potential loss of British influence (ff 263-268)Reports that Nejib Pasha [Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] plans to survey ‘the old and ruined canals’ of Abooghraib [Abu Ghraib], Scindreeah [Sindria?] and Mahmoodiah [Mahmudiyah?], in order to repair them and bring the adjoining land back into cultivation and improve irrigationThe disturbed state of the country in Moosul [Mosul] due ‘principally to the internal dissensions in the large tribe of the Shammar [Šammar] Arabs’ (f 269)The question of whether British and Russian subjects travelling in the Turkish [Ottoman] dominions will be subject to new passport regulation fees, and Kemball’s scepticism, in communications with Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Minister at Tehran, regarding Nejib Pasha’s intention to exempt ‘native Englishmen’, taking into consideration the passport fees recently levied on Rawlinson and his party for the latter’s leave of absenceKemball’s scepticism, communicated to Sheil, regarding Nejib Pasha’s intentions of fulfilling instructions from the Turkish Government for the removal of a Turkish guard vessel from her anchorage off the mouth of the Haffer [Haffar] Canal to a station higher up the stream, and intention to escalate his dissatisfaction to the Porte via HM Minister at Constantinople (ff 272-273).Physical description: 1 item (20 folios)
Abstract: This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 154 of 1846, dated 31 December 1846. The enclosures are dated 14 September-21 November 1846.The enclosures concern events following the recent murder of Shaik Saadoon [Shaikh Sa‘dūn, also spelled Sadoon in this item], Governor of the Districts of Roodhilla [Dehrud-e Olya], also spelled Rodhilla in this item], by two of his relatives with assistance from members of the Beni Hajir [Banū Hājir] tribe, including: the consequent fierce conflict between the Beni Hajirs and the forces of Bakir Khan, Chief of Tungistoon [Bāqir Khān Tangistani] who was connected with Shaik Saadoon; the fear of Sheik Nasir [Shaikh Nāṣir II Āl Madhkūr], Governor of Bushire [Bushehr], and the inhabitants of that town, of being attacked and plundered by the neighbouring tribes of Tungistan [Tangestan]; and the general ‘disturbed state of the district in the vicinity of Bushire’.The principal correspondent is Major Samuel Hennell, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf.Physical description: 1 file (10 folios)
Abstract: This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay, Secret Department, to the Secret Committee, Number 21 of 1850, dated 15 April 1850.The enclosed papers, dated 1 December 1849 to 14 February 1850, concern affairs in Persia [Iran]. They comprise despatches from Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, British Envoy and Minister to the Court of Persia, to Viscount Palmerston [Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston], Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Copies of these despatches are sent to the Government of Bombay and the Government of India.Several matters are covered by the papers, including:News of British officers Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly, imprisoned at Bokara [Bukhara, also spelled Bokhara in this item], rumours of their execution, and diplomatic efforts to secure their releaseInsecurity and disorder in Yezd [Yazd] and Ispahan [Isfahan]Russian demands to build a naval hospital on Persian territory and relations between Russia and Persia more generallyThe treatment of Armenians in Tabreez [Tabriz]Civil war in Khorassan [Khorasan]The state of the country around Bushire [Bushehr] following the lifting of the siege of that townMeasures taken to protect the Nestorian Christian community in Azerbijan [Azerbaijan]A request for war vessels to be sent to either Bussorah [Basra] or Mohemmera [Khorramshahr] to support the work of the Turco [Ottoman Iraq]-Persian Boundary CommissionA proposal to appoint a British Consul at Asterabad [Gorgan]The trafficking of enslaved peoples into Persia via Bushire.Physical description: 1 item (43 folios)
Abstract: Correspondence discusses the rising of the Bohtan Kurds against the Turkish [Ottoman] Government and its impact on British imperial communications. Letters discuss the leadership of the insurgents led by Yezdisheer Bey (nephew of Beder Khan Bey) and how they obtained money from the Mosul Treasury on pretence of forming a unit of mountaineers against the Russians on the Armenian front. Also discussed is how the Bohtan Kurds took the town of Jezireh [Jezireh, Syria], laid waste the Turkish garrison, and linked up with disaffected Kurds from the Taurus mountains to Bagdad [Baghdad]. The impact on Christian communities, Nestorian Kurds and Chaldean villagers of Mosul is mentioned as well as the revolt of the Anezeh and Shammar Arab tribes.The correspondents include: Lieutenant Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia; H L Anderson, Secretary to the Government of Bombay [Mumbai]; G F Edmonstone, Secretary to the Government of India; and the Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Office, London.Physical description: 1 item (7 folios)
Abstract: This item relates to the seizure of the ‘reins of government’ (f 283) in Suleimaniyeh [As Sulaymaniyah, also spelled Suleman Iyeh in this item], south Kurdistan, 25 May 1919, during an uprising led by Sheikh Mahmud [Shaikh Maḥmūd Barzanjī], and British military operations leading to the British Mesopotamian Army occupying the Suleimaniyeh Valley in June 1919. The papers notably cover:British concerns about the Kurdish independence movement, including the purported influence of the Turkish Committee of Union and Progress and Persian Kurdistan, and the potential of ‘unrest’ to spread to other parts of Kurdistan and into British controlled MesopotamiaThe capture and imprisonment of British officers and staff in Suleimaniyeh, including a list of the missing and interned officers and NCOs [Non-Commissioned Officers] (see ff 251 and 244)British intelligence, regarding the level of Mahmud’s personal as opposed to political ambitions, and casting doubt on the degree of local support for himThe concentration of British forces at Kerkouk [Kirkuk] and Chemchemal [Chamchamal] and the desire of the military and political authorities in Baghdad to ‘crush’ (f 255) Mahmud’s movement, recapture Suleimaniyeh, and occupy the Suleimaniyeh ValleyThe refusal to allow Sheikh Mahmud’s delegates in Aleppo to proceed to Paris to argue the cause of Kurdish independenceThe British forces’ capture of the Bazyan Pass, advance to Suleiman Iyeh, and collapse of the rising including the arrest of Sheikh MahmudDiscussions concerning the extension of the railway from Kizilrobat [Qizil Ribat, also spelled Kizil Robat in this item] northwards towards Suleimaniyah in order to facilitate the British advance and occupationRestoration of the civil administration in Suleimaniyah by the end of August 1919 and British hopes that Kurdish nationalism will dissipate following Sheikh Mahmud’s military trial and imprisonment in India serving a ten-year sentenceDiscussions in 1921 between the Colonial Office, India Office, High Commissioner for Iraq, and Viceroy of India, on the desirability of reducing the penal sanction against Sheikh Mahmud, and the eventual agreement by the High Commissioner of Iraq to arrange his relocation, under surveillance, in Kuwait [also spelled Koweit in this item].The primary correspondents are the: General Officer Commanding in Mesopotamia; War Office; India Office; Office of the High Commissioner for Mesopotamia (later Iraq); Secretary of State for the Colonies; Secretary to the Government of Bombay [Mumbai], Political Department; Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign and Political Department; Political [Agent?], Baghdad; and General [Consul?], Baghdad.Physical description: 1 item (78 folios)
Abstract: The second part of a bulletin written by Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], and dated 20 September 1802.The bulletin describes a struggle for power in Bagdad between Ally Pasha [‘Alī Pāshā al-Kahyah] and the Janissary Aga [Commander of the local Janissary corps], culminating in the assassination of the Janissary Aga.The first part of the bulletin in catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/272.The bulletin was originally enclosed in the letter from Jones to Alexander Stratton, HM Minister Plenipotentiary to the Ottoman Empire, dated 23 September 1802 (IOR/L/PS/9/76/276).Physical description: 1 item (4 folios)
Abstract: The first part of a bulletin written by Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], and dated 20 September 1802.The bulletin describes a struggle for power in Bagdad between Ally Pasha [‘Alī Pāshā al-Kahyah] and the Janissary Aga [Commander of the local Janissary corps], in particular a battle for control of the Citadel.The second part of the bulletin is catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/273.The bulletin was originally enclosed in the letter from Jones to Alexander Stratton, HM Minister Plenipotentiary to the Ottoman Empire, dated 23 September 1802 (IOR/L/PS/9/76/276).Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)