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‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for 1885-86.’ [‎56r] (25/120)

The record is made up of 1 volume (57 folios). It was created in 1886. 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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RESIDENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. AND MUSCAT POLITICAL AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. FOR 1885-86.
23
Bedouins. After a halt of two hours we started for Jzz, a village in the direction of Adam and
about 5 miles from Manh, where we camped for the night.
On the following day, the 16th, leaving Izz at 7-30, we rode over a level but gently
descending plain, at a good pace, to Adam, which we reached at 1-30 j direction nearly due
south, a little east. At half an hour we passed the Wady Kalbuh, a fine stream of water
which rises above Nezwa, and after running almost parallel to Wady Halfain, falls into the
Ghubbet Hashish. The plain we are crossing is quite uninhabited, and we met not a single
traveller on the road. There is plenty of game, however—houbara, partridge, and sandgrouse
rise up on all sides, while gazelles and hares start up occasionally from the dwarf mimosas and
bunches of desert grass about. As we approach Adam two low hills rise up in front, one on
each hand of the road. The one to our right is Jebel Sulakh and the other Jebel Mushmar;
they are both perfectly arid, and appear to be about 800 or 1,000 feet in height. As one approaches
it the appearance of Adam with the dark lines of its extensive date groves is very refreshing
to the eye after the glare and monotonous aspect of the plain we had traversed : it is a true
oasis in the desert. I was greeted very civilly here by all parties, and having been invited to
visit the town and forts I spent the whole afternoon in seeing what was to be seen. A
cousin of our leader Say id Hamood took us first to the quarter of the Al-bu-Saidis, a walled
enclosure named the Jami, inhabited by about 150 families. The chief object of interest here
was the house in which the Imam Ahmad, the founder of the present dynasty, was born. He
was of low origin, being a camel driver like his father before him ; being a man of energy and
courage, however, he rose to be Jemadar of the garrison and then Wali of Sohar. He was
subsequently elected Imam by the people in gratitude for his expulsion of the Persians.
Taking leave of the Al-bu-Saidis at Jami I went over to the quarters of the town
occupied by their enemies, the Moharik, which are five in number, and over which I was
shown successively by their Shaikh, Hamid-bin-Khamis, and by the Temimeh of the Jenebeh,
Saif-bin-Hamud. There are two other quarters occupied by the Shaibani and Beni Wail
tribes, making eight in all. As I visited one section after another, I was somewhat surprised
and amused at the intense curiosity exhibited by the Arabs here. They not only lined each
side of the road in great numbers as I walked through the date grove from one quarter to
another and blocked my path to stare at me, but after I had passed them would scamper round
another way to get in front again and so gain another gaze at the stranger. They were all
perfectly well behaved and did not attempt to offer the slightest rudeness, but I never saw
the like of their open-mouthed curiosity. There is a large fort here originally built by the
Imam Ahmad and repaired by the Imam Azzan in 1869, but it is hardly cared for and weakly
e-arrisoned, for in truth the Adamites are too distant from other tribes to be concerned in
the usual intestinal wars of Oman, and reserve their powder and lead for each other. The
population as near as I can guess numbers 4,500, composed of five tribes, the Moharik, Al-bu-
Saidis, Sheyabina, Majabera, and Beni Wail, of which the most important is the Moharik.
The elevation of Adam above the sea is 850 feet, being 500 feet lower than Manh and 1,300,
lower than Zikki, which is '2,150. No other town of Oman lies nearly so far south as this
the outlying picket, as it were, towards the great sand desert which stretches away to the
Yeman and the Hejaz, and which is known here, as well as to all the Bedouins of Southern
Arabia, as the Roba-el-Khali. Looking towards the south and east, neither hill nor habi
tation meets the eye, the line of horizon is as unbroken as the sea; while northward in the
distance rises the grand pile of Jebel Akhdar which towers up to a height of 10,000 feet.
Most of the Bedouin tribes, which inhabit the border of the huge wilderness on the edge
of which we are standing, contribute contingents who roam over it with their camels, but
the number of these wanderers is necessarily very small, for the only water found is that
left in pools in the water-courses after rainfall and some springs of brackish water welling
up here and there. Animal life is not entirely absent,—the oryx, the wild ass, and two species
of gazelle are found everywhere, and the ostrich is met with in the northern and western
part of the desert: it does not approach Oman. The soil is said to be everywhere saltish
or nitrous,
17th. —I returned to Manh during the day and encamped here in one of the gardens
near the fort. Manh is rather a scattered town with a population of some 2,01)0 souls
of mixed tribes. It has been well described by Wellsted, who cannot suppress a cry of admi
ration at the extent and luxuriance of the diversified cultivation around. He says
" Minna differs from the other towns in having its cultivation in the open fields. As we crossed these, with lofty
almond, citron, and orange trees, yielding a delicious fragrance on either hand, exclamations of astonishment and
admiration burst from us. Is this Arabia ? We said, this is the country we have looked on heretofore as a desert ?
Verdant fields of grain and sugar-cane stretching along for miles are before us; streams of water flowing in all
directions intersect our path, and the happy and contented appearance of the peasants agreeably helps to fill up the
smiling picture."
D 1

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Administration Report on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and Muscat Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. for the year 1885-86, published by Authority by the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta [Kolkata]. A copy of a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles, Officiating Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul-General for Fars, to Henry Mortimer Durand, Secretary to the Government of India (Foreign Department), dated 17 June 1886, is included in the report (folio 46), the original of which submitted the report to Government, under the following headings:

Part 1 ( General Summary, folios 47-54), containing summaries of local political affairs, and incidents or events of particular note for: the ‘Pirate coast of Oman’; Bahrain (spelt as Bahrein throughout); Nejd, El-Hasa [Al-Hasa] and El-Katr [Qatar]; Fars, including Bushire, Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh], Bassidore (mistakenly spelt Rassidore in the heading), and Bunder Abbass [Bandar-e ʻAbbās]; Persian Arabistan; and Persian Baluchistan. The report also records a marked increase in the slave trade to the Gulf from Africa, due to the departure of HMS London from Zanzibar; summaries of changes in official personnel; British naval movements in the Gulf; and a summary of meteorological events observed at the Bushire observatory, including a severe gale which caused extensive damage to ports and towns throughout the Gulf. Appendix A contains tabulated and graphical meteorological data for the year, supplied by the Bushire observatory. Appendix B is a report entitled ‘A résumé of what has been done in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. as regards to the introduction of the Arabian date-palm in India’ written by A. R. Hakim, Assistant to the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .

Part 2 ( Administration Report of the Muscat Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. for the year 1885-86 ), submitted by Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Mockler, Her Britannic Majesty’s Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. and Consul at Muscat, dated 28 June 1886 (folios 55-58), containing a summary of affairs at Muscat, and an additional short report on the seizure of slave traders in Muscat waters during the course of the year. Appendix A is a set of notes written on a tour through Oman and El-Dhahireh [Adh-Dhahirah] in December 1885 by Miles.

Part 3 ( Report on Trade for the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. for 1885 ), written by Miles, dated 17 June 1886 (folios 59-92), comprising a short summary of the year’s trade, with notes on: exports (cereals, opium and tobacco); imports (Manchester goods, copper, sugar, naphtha and asbestos); shipping; exchange; the pearl trade. Appendix A comprises tabulated data on import, exports and revenue, in the Gulf ports of Bushire, Bandar-e Lengeh, Bandar-e ʻAbbās, Bahrain and the Arab (Oman) coast. An index to the trade tables can be found at folio 60.

Part 4 (

[at Muscat]), by Mockler (folios 92-102), comprising a short summary of the year’s trade at Muscat, and also containing tabulated data on imports and exports at Muscat (listed by commodity), and the nationality and average tonnage of vessels visiting Muscat. Appendix A that follows the report is a note on the weights and measures used in the pearl trade of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , written by Mockler.

Extent and format
1 volume (57 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio. It begins on the first folio, on number 45, and ends on the last folio, on number 102.

Pagination: The volume contains an original typed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for 1885-86.’ [‎56r] (25/120), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/23/49, No 220, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023581614.0x00001b> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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