'Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf. Vol I. Historical. Part IA & IB. J G Lorimer. 1915' [‎173] (316/1782)

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was induced to issue an edict for the arrest of any Frenchmen who might
be found in his dominions.
The mission of Mehdi ; Ali Khan was immediately followed by
another under Captain J. Malcolm of the Indian political service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47. ^ of
which the scope and objects were almost precisely similar : its despatch
was due to the initiative of Lord Mornington, Governor-General of
India. On the 17th January 1800^ Captain Malcolm obtained a renewal
of the agreement given by the Sultan of''Oman in 1798, as also a further
concession for the establishment of a political agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in charge of a
European officer at Masqat, to which Dr. Bogle was immediately
appointed ; and, very shortly after, the political representative of the late
Mysore Government disappeared from Masqat. In January 1801
Captain Malcolm concluded a political treaty with Persia of which the
effect, so far as the French were concerned, was to deny them a footing in
the country and to provide for joint operations against them by the
British and the Persians in case they should succeed in establishing
themselves there by force or fraud. A commercial treaty arranged by
Captain Malcolm at the same time contained no articles of note; and,
though he returned to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. by way of Turkish ■'Iraq, his
dealings with the Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. of Baghdad did not go beyond an exchange of
formal courtesies.
In 1802 a Persian merchant named Haji Khalil Khan proceeded to
India on the part of the Shah of Persia to obtain the ratification by the
Governor-General, which was still required, of the treaties made with
Captain Malcolm in the previous year. This Persian Envoy was
accidentally and most unfortunately killed at Bombay in a brawl between
his own servants and a native guard of honour supplied by the Bombay
Government; and the negotiations, though the Envoy^s death was very
calmly received by the Persian Government, were interrupted.
In 1805, another Persian merchant, Muhammad Nabi Khan, was sent
to India as the successor of his relative the deceased Envoy ; but the
Government of India, of which the head had changed, were no longer
possessed by the sentiments which had inspired the mission of Captain
Malcolm; and in 1807, His Majesty^s Government to whom the matter
had been referred having shown themselves equally apathetic, the second
Persian Envoy returned home leaving the treaties still unratified.
Meanwhile a correspondence, which ended in the establishment of
regular diplomatic intercourse, had been opened between France and
Persia. The first overtures, which proceeded from the French Govern
ment,. seem to have been mado through agents of doubtful respectability
and to have been regarded in consequence with some degree of suspicion
First mission
of (Captain)
Malcolm to
the Persian
Gulf and
Persia, and
location of a
British
Political
Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. at
Masqat,
1799-1801.
Missions of
Haji KhaKl
Khan and
Muhammad
Nabi Khan to
India, 1802
and 1805-
1807.
'! (
I III
Intrigues of
the Freach in
Persia;
M issions of
Colonel
Eomieu,
M. Jaubert,