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‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the years 1876-77.’ [47v] (93/125)
The record is made up of 57 folios. It was created in 1877. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
80 ADMINISTRATION HEPOJIT OP THE
PERSIAN GULF
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
POLITICAL
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.
universally, tliong-h not of course exclusively, the case, as fields and small
patches of cane and grain are to be seen in places. I have never seen
a broad cultivated expanse of grain in Oman, though in the plains behind
Jebel Akhdhar and in El Dhahireh grain is said to be raised more ex
tensively than in other parts. The state of agriculture is decidedly low.
I do not think wheat under the most favorable circumstances gives more
than twenty-fold ; there is a white variety called lllas much cultivated.
Jowaree and bailey are the two next principal grains. Sugar-cane is also
a good deal grown, and a coarse sugar or goor is made from it. The
neighbourhoods of Zikki and Nezira produce most. As the annual
rainfall in Oman is extremely scanty, probably not exceeding in general
three to six inches, the inhabitants are unable to depend on it entirely,
and are necessitated to have recourse to artificial irrigation by means of
wells and felejes. In the Batinah especially, and to some extent over
all Oman, wells supply the water which is raised by means of the bullock
and leathern bucket similarly to the system in Western India, but in Oman
and other parts are to be found those valuable conduits called "felej" by
the Arabs, which are exactly similar to the well-known Karezes of Persia
and were doubtless introduced by the Persians during their occupation of
the country. These felejes are sometimes the property of the Ruler,
but generally belong to some wealthy individual or to a company.
Industries. —The industries of Oman are, as might be expected, few
and unimportant, and are almost exclusively carried on by foreigners. The
textile fabrics of the country are colored turbans and loongies of silk
and cotton, worn by the Arabs, and largely exported to Yemen and
Zanzibar. Cameleens made at Nezwa. Brown cloth made of the brown
cotton called here Khodranj, and greatly worn and prized in the country;
this is also largely exported. The weavers are of Persian descent, and
come from the neighbourhood of Sohar, chiefly being the descendants of
the old Persian conquerors and settlers. Coarse canvas for sails is also
extensively made on the Batinah Coast, and is even exported to Cutch.
Another industry is the preparation of dried dates called by the Arabs
Bisir. The export of these to India, where under the name"^ of Kharak
they are a necessary ingredient at certain Hindoo festivities, exceeds even
that of pressed dates, ihe variety from which they are chiefly prepared
is the Maseybili, but the Khameyzi is also sometimes emploved. The
process observed is as follows: the dates are picked before they are quite
lipe, and put into copper cauldrons of boiling water, where they are
allowed to simmer for half an hour until a good deal of juice is extracted.
On being taken out they are put in the sun for two or three days, and
continually turned until they are found to be quite dry and hard, when
ey are packed for export in peesh bags. The water in the boilers is
removed from time to time, as it inspissates by extraction of the juice
and evaporation and put aside to be fermented into liquor. The earthen-
^\aic use in man is made in the country, and potteries are to
e ound m many places. The porous vessels or cooiahs for cooling
wa er come 011 y iom Nakhl, the clay used being a bluish marl
rmxe wi i saiu • iesc porous vessels however are inferior to those
brought from Baghdad. The potters wheel is the same as that used in
a a^es an coun nes. ISczwa is famous for its manufacture of copper
vessels, and it appears to supply nearly all Oman with these articles. In
About this item
- Content
Administration report of 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 1876-77, published by Authority at the Foreign Department Press, Calcutta [Kolkata], 1877, and forming part of the Selections from the Records of the Government of India, Foreign Department (no. 138). The administration report is based on reports sent by the 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. (Lieutenant-Colonel William Francis Prideaux) and the 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. at Muscat (Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles) to the Government of India. The report is preceded by a copy of a letter sent by Prideaux to Thomas Henry Thornton, Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, dated 15 June 1877, which enclosed the submission of the original reports to the Government of India (folio 8).
The report is organised in a number of sections and subsections, as follows:
Part I: Administration Report for 1876-77 – General (folios 8-10) signed by Prideaux, and arranged under subheadings as follows: 1. Oman; Petty independent chiefdoms (2. Oman Coast); 3. Bahrain [referred to as Bahrein throughout]; 4. Nejd [Najd]; 5. Bassidore [Bāsa‘īdū]; 6. Persian Coast; 7. Government of Fars; Bushire (Dashtee, Bunder Abbass [Bandar-e ʻAbbās], postal, judicial); Establishment (political, medical, naval); slave trade.
Part II: Administration Report for 1876-77 – Memorandum showing the number of Returns accompanying the Trade Report of the 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. , Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (folios 11-45), comprising thirty statistical tables containing data on the import and export of commodities into and out of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. during the official year 1875-76. The tables contain data for Arabia, Persia and Turkey in Asia, and specifically data on vessels and trade at Bushire, Bandar-e ʻAbbās, Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh], Bahrain and the Arab coast. There is an index of the statistical tables on folio 11.
Part III: Administration report of the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Muscat, for the year 1876-76 (folios 45-48), prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles, 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. The report is arranged under the following headings: political; resources and trade (production, agriculture, industries, fisheries, trade).
Part IV, prepared by Miles (folios 49-55) comprises six statistical tables containing trade data relating to Muscat: average tonnage of vessels entering and leaving the port of Muscat; imports and exports, listed by commodity; and contrasted statements on vessels and imported goods.
Part V, Medical Topography of Muscat (folios 55-62), by the Muscat Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. Surgeon, Atmarim Sadashiv Jayakar. Jayakar’s report is arranged under the following headings: geology; climate; water supply; food; sanitation; population; dwellings and streets; prevailing diseases; malaria and malarial fevers; typhoid fever; smallpox and measles; cholera; dysentery; scurvy; rheumatism; phthisis pulmonalis; bronchitis; purumonia; organic diseases of the heart; dyspepsia, colic and diarrhoea; hoemorrhoides [haemorrhoids]; diseases of the liver; hypertrophy; diseases of the kidney and bladder; diseases of the brain and insanity; diseases of the eye; diseases of the skin; leprosy; ulcers; dracunculus; venereal diseases; syphilis.
- Extent and format
- 57 folios
- Arrangement
The report is arranged into five parts (I-V). Part I is arranged into numbered sections (1-7) and numbered paragraphs (1-35). Part II is arranged into numbered tables (1-30). Part III is arranged by subject headings and subheadings, part IV by lettered tables (A-F), and part V by suhheadings. There is a contents page at the front of the report (folios 6-7), which lists the report’s contents by part and major headings, and refers to the report’s internal pagination sequence.
- 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 1, and ends on the last folio on number 62.
Pagination: The volume contains an original typed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/V/23/29, No 138
- Title
- ‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the years 1876-77.’
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2v:62v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence