‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the years 1876-77.’ [55v] (109/125)
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
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96 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF 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.
Part V.
MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF MUSCAT BY SURGEON A. S. G. JAYAKAR.
Situated at the foot o£ an almost circular range of hills, Muscat
presents a picturesque appearance from the sea. Hie hills which rise and
fall in different places, and vary in height from 100 to 500 feet, are
crowned at important points with small circular and square towers,
which, together with the two forts on either side of the town with their
imposing aspect, add not a little to the beauty of the picture. Oman, of
which Muscat is the modern capital, and which extends from Ras
Mesandum to Ras-al-Hudd, is principally a maritime province present
ing an extensive tract of sea-coast with several little indentations serving
as harbours. Of these, Muscat, which occupies almost a central position,
is the most important one, both politically and physically.
Geology. —Mr. H. J. Carter, than whom nobody has better studied
the geology of the south-east coast of Arabia, has so ably and well
described the geology of Muscat and the surrounding country in his
geological papers on Western India, and other papers contributed to the
Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, that it will not be
necessary for me to do more than glance at the composition and struc
ture of tue rocks, surface soil and subsoil, in their relation to climate
and to the influence they exert in the causation of disease.
The rocks which surround Muscat on all sides but the small portion
exposed to the sea, and which form as it were a high wall round the
town, present a branched appearance, the ramifications in two places being
so marked and prolonged as to give an appearance of the whole valley
being divided into three minor ones. One of them is occupied by the walled
town, the one to the south leads to Sadab, and the one to the south-west
contains patches of fertile ground and the wells which supply water to
the town. Ihe shape of these rocks is mostly conical, and their elevation
varies fiom 100 to 500 feet. Mr. Carter considers them to have an igne
ous origin, and to belong to the nummulitic series. They are composed
prmcipa y o a dark brown coloured serpentine, everywhere bounded
and overcapped with a yellow limestone formation. Mr. Carter has thus
summed up his description of this limestone formation—
i " Tl vr th ? } i ™ stone formation, limiting the group of igneous
wiflf 1 1' U £ fi' 1 110r ^ 1 sou th, commences (from below upwards)
^ ^ ^md of pebbles lying in both places on the
siliVn-pnU n)C V 0 i loGahty, passing into a sandy grit, then into
rn „i„ fi ' ^rcous eposit, then presenting the remains of marine ani-
increasincr 1 nurn ^ or the calcareous material; the
a T)inl colonel t 1 J 1 ™ 8 * 0116 interrupted in each instance by
coWini of tt ? 0S ^ ^ 1 ? aS GhisSa ( SOuth o£ Muscat ) Chiefl - V
tion at Dei'zit (north'of MusS f " f ram, . , ; 1 . fera ' a . nd the fo ™ a -
and arpnappnnc! cfmfn . +i " ' a ^ m seri es of gypseous, marly,
stone (presenting a varietToVsTr^ y f l0Wi f\ 0r fawn - coloured lirne '
at both ulaces arir! nlm I I s an< ^ corals) terminating the series
of the polythalmous animals!" 1 ' 0 7 COmposed of the accumulated remains
inwards anfltav^ ^WgeTacfon f0Urtee " mi i es fl0m Muscat
^e wact ot low sandy plain called Batna, which
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.
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- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- 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