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'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎27] (64/733)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (364 folios). It was created in 1856. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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BAHREIN.
27
fetch it are commonly five or six, in a bark, from which one or two of
them dive to the bottom of the sea, having a bottle or two hang at their
girdles, which they fill with water, and then cork them tight; for at
about two or three feet from the bottom of the sea the water is sweet,
and of the very best quality. When those who are let down have filled
their bottles, they pull a small cord, which has one end fastened to some
person in the boat, and it serves as a signal for their comrades to draw
them up.
"While the Portuguese were in possession of Ormus and Muskat,
every Terate or bark that went out to fish was obliged to have a pass
port, which cost fifteen Abbasees, and they continually employed
several brigantines to sink those that had not got them ; but since the
Arabs have retaken Muskat, and the Portuguese have no strength in
the Gulf, every man that goes a fishing pays to the King of Persia
five Abbasees only, whether his success be good or bad. The merchant
also pays some small trifle to the king, on every thousand oysters.
" The second pearl fishery is over against that of Bahrein, on the
coast of Arabia the Happy, near the city of Katifa, which, as well as
ihe surrounding country, belongs to an Arabian Prince. All the pearls
that are fished in these places are generally sold in the Indies, because
the Indians are not so difficult as we, and buy indifferently the rough
ones as well as the smooth, taking the whole at a fixed price. They
also carry some to Balsora, while those that are carried to Persia and
Muscovy are sold at Bunder Congo, two days 5 journey from Ormus.
In all these places I have mentioned, as well as in other parts of Asia,,
they like better to see the water of a yellow cast than white, because
thev say that those pearls in which the water is a little tinged like gold
always retain their brightness, and never alter, while those that are
white seldom last longer than thirty years without; when, owing as
well to the warmth of the country as the heat of the body, they take a
dull yellow colour."
Notwithstanding the pearls found at Bahrein and Kateef approach a
little upon the yellow, they are yet in as much esteem as those of
Manaar (Ceylon) ; and throughout all the East they say they are ripe,
and never change their colour.
The history, according to Native tradition, may now be resumed from
the point at which it was relinquished.
The last, or Uttoobee conquerors, of Bahrein, who reduced it in
a. h . 1194 ( a. d . 1779), came originally from Koweit or Grane. They
were formed by the intermarriage of three large tribes of Arabs,^ the
Beni Sabah, under Shaikh Sulaiman bin Ahmed; the Bern Yalahimah
under Shaikh Jabir bin Uttoobee, and the Beni Khalifah, under Shaikh
Khalifah bin Mahomed.

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Content

The volume is Selections from the records of the Bombay Government , compiled and edited by Robert Hughes Thomas, Assistant Secretary, Political Department, New Series: 24 (Bombay: Printed for Government at the Bombay Education Society's Press, 1856).

Extent and format
1 volume (364 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains an abstract of contents on p. iii, a detailed list of contents on pp. vii-xx, an alphabetical index on pp. xxi-xxvii, and a list of maps etc on p. xviii.

Physical characteristics

Pagination: two separate pagination sequences are present in the volume. The first sequence (pp. i-xviii) commences at the first page and terminates at the list of maps (p. xviii). A second pagination sequence then takes over (pp. 1-688), commencing at the title page and terminating at the final page. Both these pagination sequences are printed, with additions in pencil, and the numbers are found at the top (left, right or centre) of each page.

The fold-outs in this volume were not paginated by the publisher. As a result, these have been foliated using the nearest page number. For example, the fold-out attached to p.51 has been numbered as 51A.

Pagination anomalies: pp. 15, 15A; 45, 45A; 49, 49A; 51, 51A; 531, 531A.

The following pages need to be folded out to be read: 15A, 45A, 51A, 327-328, 531A.

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English in Latin script
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'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎27] (64/733), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/732, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100022870191.0x000041> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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