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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [176v] (359/798)
The record is made up of 1 volume (395 folios). It was created in Dec 1869-Dec 1870. 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.
346#
“ on Muscat, and that, if he persists in his intentions, and again
“ violates the maritime peace, the British Government will treat him
u as an enemy.” I think it possible that the de facto Government of
Muscat may have assumed this resolution to he still in force.
Syud Salim has gone to Omulgowein, on the pirate coast.
The Wahabee Ameer is at Lahsa, a cultivated district within his
own territories, situate between his capital and his sea port, Ojair.
It appears that the Aboothabee Chief, after visiting Azan in his
camp at Beraymee, entered into an alliance with the latter, and
returned to his own territory. Azan, after waiting some time at
Beraymee, and after entering into relations with the Aboothabee,
and (as is stated) also with the Shargah Chiefs, left a garrison at
Beraymee, dismissed the remainder of his forces, remitted a portion of
the war tribute, and himself returned to Muscat, where he now is.
Azan’s Agent asked me yesterday concerning the lease of Bunder
Abbas and Gwadur. I at once waived the subject, on the ground of
the Muscat Government being as yet unrecognized by us; but I can
foresee that these questions, and that of the subsidy, may yet give rise
to discussion.
It is probable that the Muscat authorities would prize our recog
nition, principally on the following accounts:—
Firstly, by being recognized by us, the status of the Muscat Go-
vernment would be improved, both abroad and at home, while
the public mind would cease to misapprehend our relations
with other aspirants to power;
Secondly, recognition would probably be considered to imply
restoration of Gwadur and the other outlying Muscat terri
tories in Mekran; also, perhaps, our good offices in respect to
a release of the Bunder Abbas districts; and,
Thirdly, a recognized ruler of Muscat would probably infer that
the arbitrament of the late Earl Canning would secure to him
the Zanzibar subsidy; and this is a question in which the vassal
Chiefs of Oman are interested, for this subsidy is a source
whence those Chiefs are benefited by the Muscat Ruler.
Major Way considers that Azan has subjected all the tribes to
his sway and holds the reins of Government with a tighter hand than
any of the late reigning Sultans; more tolerance is being shown by
him in religious matters, and the country is gradually settling down
under his rule. But at the same time, I think it is obvious that our
po icy in preventing all molestation of the Muscat territories from
seawar , combined with the military qualities of Syud Azan, the
pnest y m of Khuleylee, and the cunning and activity of
* e ’ ^ ave C0I1 t r ihuted to give this triumvirate a strong hold
on the Government of the Muscat territories, and to place them in a
po.i ion w ic it would be difficult for another aspirant to power to
? un ess under some unforeseen and fortuitous combination of
circumstances.
About this item
- Content
Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by 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. from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1870. The letters are dated December 1869-December 1870. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:
- Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Muscat
- Abstracts of Letters received from Aden
- Abstracts of Letters received from Muscat
- Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire [Bushehr]
- Abstracts of Letters received from Aden and Zanzibar
- Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and Aden
- Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Aden.
Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:
- Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
- Public works, including: railways, including a proposed railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; roads; canals; irrigation; docks; and river embankments
- Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
- Land issues, including: the cultivation of cotton, cinchona, and silk; forestry; and coal mining
- Education
- Banking
- Telegraphy, including international telegraphic links to India
- Affairs concerning Princely States, including internal administration, debts, allowances, issues of succession, investment in railways, and territorial claims
- Issues around emigration from India to British and French colonies
- Legislative and judicial affairs, including the question of jurisdiction over British subjects in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- Military affairs, including the organisation and supply of military units and a proposed naval force for the Indian seas and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- Frontier affairs: relations with tribes on the Northwest and Northeast Frontiers and frontier raids
- Affairs in Persia [Iran], including: Persian claims to sovereignty over Bahrein [Bahrain] and objection to British actions in Bahrein; frontier disputes around Khelat [Kalat], Mekran [Makran], and Seistan [Sistan] and proposed arbitration of the Persian-Afghan border; anticipated food shortages and subsequent disturbances involving British subjects exporting grain from Bushire
- Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, including: the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of Syud Azan [Azzān bin Qays Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; debates around British policy towards Syud Azan; confrontation between Muscat and the Wahabees [Waḥabī movement]; the issue of the Zanzibar subsidy; and Syud Azan’s claims to Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], Gwadur [Gwadar], Charbar [Chabahar] and other territories on the Mekran Coast
- Affairs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including: the campaign of Colonel Lewis Pelly in Bahrein and the installation of Esau bin Ali [‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah] as Ruler; trade and shipping in the Gulf; the desire of the Shah of Persia for a naval presence in the Gulf; Dutch and Turkish [Ottoman] activity in the region; and tensions between Bahrein and the Wahabees, including Wahabee inroads in the Guttur peninsula [Qatar]
- Affairs in Affghanistan [Afghanistan], including relations with Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara] and Russia
- Central Asian affairs, including the Russian advance in the region, trade and communication from India to Central Asia via Cashmere [Kashmir] and Ladak [Ladakh], and affairs in Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang]
- Affairs in Zanzibar, including the slave trade, relations with Muscat, the death of Syud Majid [Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], and the accession to the throne of Syud Burgash [Barghash bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
- Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including: relations with neighbouring polities, including Lahej [Laḥij Sultanate], Houshebi [Ḥawshabī Sultanate], Fodtheli [Faḍlī Sultanate], and Kathiree [Kathīrī Sultanate]; the purchase of Little Aden; the defences of Aden; an attack on Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] from Aseer [‘Asir] and the threat to Lahej from the Zaidees [Zaidīs]
- Affairs in the Red Sea, including attempted French, Austrian, Turkish, and Egyptian inroads in the region
- Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar], Bhootan [Bhutan], and Nipal [Nepal].
The primary correspondents are:
- The Government of India
- The Viceroy and Governor-General of India
- The Resident at Aden
- 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.
- 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. in Muscat
- 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. in Zanzibar.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (395 folios)
- Arrangement
The abstracts are arranged in roughly chronological order. A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 384-393.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 395; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers.
Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [176v] (359/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113392.0x0000a0> [accessed 8 August 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/CA10
- Title
- 'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:116v, 119r:395v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence