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‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [300r] (598/949)
The record is made up of 1 file (475 folios). It was created in 7 Nov 1901-23 Aug 1905. 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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Appendix II.
Materials for
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
Gazetteer.
The authorities already at hand or easily available are :
1. Bombay Secretariat Letters, 1630-1786 (65 volumes).
2 . Surat
Factory
An East India Company trading post.
Diaries, 1660-1809 (43 volumes).
3. Bombay Public Department Diaries, 1720-1855 (28 volumes).
4. Bombay Political Department Diaries, 1755-1820 (497 volumes).
5. Bombay Government Records, 1821-1872 (610 volumes).
6 . Bushire Records, 1763 to present day.
7. Government of India Despatches, Records, Administration Reports, Precis, &c.,
down to present time.
8 . Aitchison's “ Treaties
9. Chesney's ‘‘Euphrates Expedition^.
10 . Selection from Bombay Records, XXIV, 1856.
11. Pelly's “ Report on the Tribes, &c., of the Persian Gulf”.
12. Ross’s “ Annals of Oman ”.
13. Povah’s “Gazetteer of Arabia”, 1887.
14. Forrest’s “Selections from Bombay State Papers”, 1887.
15. Gazetteer of Baghdad, 1889.
16. Curzon’s “ Persia ”, 1892.
17. Gazetteer of Persia.
18. Douglas’s “ Journey from India to the Mediterranean”, 1897.
19.
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
Pilot, 1898.
20 . Napier’s “Military Report on Southern Persia”, 1900.
21 . Dowding’s “ Koweit”, 1903.
22. Annual Administration Reports.
23. Periodical Diaries and monthly summaries for past ten years.
Below in tabular form are given the remaining authorities on the Gulf, so far as I have
been able to discover them, in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. As the Gazetteer is to be
for the use of political officers, not of antiquarians, I have omitted authorities of the 17th and
earlier centuries with only one exception, No. 53 of the table. A number of the works might
perhaps be struck out as not likely to repay the trouble of obtaining them : some apparently
of this sort I have indicated by an X in the column of remarks. A good many of the books
should be in the Foreign Office Library, and those cited in “ Koweit”, “ Military Report on
Southern Persia”, “ Gazetteer of Arabia”, and “ Gazetteer of Baghdad”, ought to be found in
the Library of the Intelligence Branch where these official works were compiled. The rest will
have to be ordered from England, I presume, through the
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.
.
The names of a large number of modern writers on Persia generally (without the titles of
their works) are given on pages 17 and 18 of Vol. I of Curzon’s “Persia”, but I take it that
only those again referred to in the notes to the Gulf ChapterinYol.il will help with the
present Gazetteer. It will have to be ascertained whether there are not other works by Fraser
and Buckingham, besides Nos. 50, 41, and 77 in the table below.
The Intelligence Branch and Survey Department should be asked about diaries and reports
of their officers—especially any of recent date—which are not mentioned in the following
table.
About this item
- Content
This part contains papers mostly relating to British interests in Persia [Iran] and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
It includes a copy of the Board of Trade Commercial Intelligence Committee ‘Report received from Mr. H. W. Maclean, the Special Commissioner appointed by the Commercial Intelligence Committee of the Board of Trade, on the conditions and prospects of British trade in Persia.’
A handwritten note at the front of the file, on folio 5, states ‘Spare copy of notes & correspondence of the “Helmand Control” file (with maps)’. Folio 110 consists of handwritten notes, including one dated 27 April 1904, which states ‘The secret Helmand papers have been printed up, and a set, with necessary maps, is submitted for H.E. the Viceroy to take to England.’ Much of the file concerns the question of controlling the water of the Helmand river and irrigating its whole delta, and the work of the Seistan Arbitration Commission to arbitrate between Persia and Afghanistan on the question of rights to the water of the Helmand in Seistan.
The file also includes reports by W A Johns on reconnaissances of potential railway routes made while he was attached to the Seistan Arbitration Commission, and other papers relating to railways and roads in Persia.
In addition, the file includes copies of the following Government of India Foreign Department Proceedings, which reproduce received Foreign Department correspondence on the following subjects: ‘Selection of a British naval base in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .’, November 1901, Nos. 74-83; ‘Visit of His Excellency the Viceroy to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. during November-December 1903.’, February 1904, Nos. 33-127; ‘Establishment of telegraphic communication with Henjam. Question of the selection of a naval base in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Aggressive action of the Persians at Tamb and Abu Musa; their claim to the Islands.’, June 1904, Nos. 300-388; ‘Reports of the Commercial Mission to Persia.’, June 1905, Nos. 45-111; ‘Question of retaining flagstaffs erected in the neighbourhood of the Musandim Promontory’, August 1905, Nos. 288-307.’
The file also includes: brief handwritten notes written by Curzon on headed paper belonging to the Viceregal Lodge, Simla, relating to Seistan and to Lord Kitchener’s planned reforms for the reorganisation and redistribution of the Indian Army; and a printed copy of the report ‘A Note by Major H.L. [Herbert Lionel] Showers, C.I.E., on the present state of affairs in Kelat and a review of the system of Administration now being pursued.’
The file includes four maps: ‘Map of the Tail waters of Helmand River’ (13 July 1903), f 122; ‘Plan Shewing Proposed Routes for a Railway from Nushki to Afghan Frontier near Robat’ (10 April 1903), f 139; ‘Extract from Admiralty Chart No. 753. (Entrance to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ).’ (October 1901), f 219; and ‘Sketch of route Ram Hormuz to Fellahieh.’ (April 1904), f 230.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (475 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in no apparent order, apart from the Government of India Foreign Department Proceedings, folios 231 to 474, which are arranged in chronological order.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [300r] (598/949), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/359/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100093227830.0x0000c7> [accessed 1 July 2026]
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/359/1
- Title
- ‘Persia – especially Seistan’
- Pages
- front, 2r:194v, 195v:196r, 197v:199v, 200v, 201v, 203r:272r, 273v:275v, 277r:405v, 408r:408v, 409v, 411r:413v, 414v:419v, 420v:424v, 425v:432v, 433v:435v, 436v, 437v:443v, 444v:471v, 473r:475v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence