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‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the years 1876-77.’ [‎57r] (112/125)

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. .

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AND MUSCAT POLITICAL AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. VOR THE YEAR 1876-77.
99
amount of saturation is not so injurious as it mig-ht be with a lower tem
perature. The hot and dry shumal, although agreeable to some people,
seems to produce so excessive an evaporation as to lead to some physiological
change in the nerves and vessels of the skin and to a sudden cessation
of perspiration, raising the temperature of the body, and inducing
symptoms of insolatio. Chronic and muscular rheumatism seem to
be greatly favored by the moist atmosphere, whilst malarious fevers
prevail to a much less extent during the hot season than at other times
of the year.
The prevailing winds are from the north-west, and south-east,
but it often blows from the north-east and west, the wind gradually
veering to south-east or north-west. In the summer months the
north-west and west are very hot and dry winds, and prevail to a less
extent than during the winter months. From October to March or
April the north-wester is cold, sometimes cutting, and is generally
attended with rain and heavy dark clouds. The south-east wind
generally prevails during the time the Indian south-west monsoon lasts,
and is occasionally accompanied with rain and light clouds; it is very
damp, and is often attended with thick hazy weather and a heavy dew
at night. The north-east wind is always cool, and is neither so moist
as the south-east, nor so dry as the hot season north-west.
The range of barometric pressure is slight, the greatest variation
during the year being 33; and there is generally a permanent depression
during the months of May, June, July and August, the pressure increas
ing again with the setting in of cold weather. The/average barometric
pressure is about 29'95. It seems to be little affected by any sudden
change in the weather, and gives no warning of any approach of a
storm.
The total average rainfall during the year is about 6 inches, but
this quantity is sometimes exceeded, thus in the year 1875-76 the total
rainfall was nearly 121 inches. It generally falls about the middle of
July in summer, when it is slight and rarely exceeds an inch and a half,
and during the months of November, December, January and February
in winter, when it accompanies the north-west monsoon, and is about
4 inches. The rainfall in summer has a very beneficial influence in
clearing the atmosphere and reducing its temperature by some degrees,
whilst it moderates the force and severity of the hot and dry skunml.
The cold weather rainfall is generally followed by malarial fevers;
but there seems to be no direct relation between them, beyond the
probability of the rain being an exciting cause, and reducing the tempera
ture of the body to favor the absorption of malarial poison.
Slight shocks of earthquake are occasionally felt at Muscat. Since
1873 two have occurred, lasting on an average two seconds, the direction
of the wave in both cases being from the north.
From the above general account of the climate of Muscat it may
be seen that there are only two seasons, the cold and the hot/ each
lasting about six months. The cold season, which generally lasts from
October to March, and is attended with rain and heavy stormy weather,
and a cold searching wind from the north and north-west, may be
considered an unhealthy one. During this season malarial fevers

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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
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‘Report on the administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the years 1876-77.’ [‎57r] (112/125), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/23/29, No 138, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023676263.0x000073> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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