"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٠‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٥٦٤)

98
1409
The Oudh Bequest, 1849-61.
We come now to the subject of the " Oudh Bequesta valuable trust
of an unusual nature, the administration of which, since it came into
operation in 1849, has been a cause of grave and incessant difficulty to
the British representative at Baghdad.
In 1825, during a period of financial stringency occasioned by a
war in Burma, Lord Amherst, then Governor-General of India, accepted
a~loan, generally known as the third Oudh Loan, from Ghazi-ud-Din
Haidar, King of Oudh. The terms of the loan were defined in an Agree
ment made at Lucknow through Mr. Mordaunt Ricketts, the British
Resident in Oudh. The amount of the loan was ten million rupees, and
fc; character was perpetual. The principal was never to be repaid ; and
the interest, fixed at 5 per cent, per annum, was to be applied by the
Government of India in perpetuity to particular specified purposes.
The Agreement mentioned was concluded at Lucknow, in counterpart,
on the 17th August 1825. One part, written in Persian and bearing the
King of Oudh's seal, was delivered to Mr. Ricketts. The other part,
written in Persian and signed by Mr. Ricketts as the representative of the
Governor-General, was handed to the King under a stipulation, expressed
in both parts, that it should be returned on being replaced by a document in
accordance with it bearing the seal and signature of the Governor-General.
The Agreement was ratified by Lord Amherst on the 30th September
1825. Unfortunately, though the contents of the two original parts and
of the document signed and sealed by the Governor-General, which last
contained an English translation in a column parallel to the Persian text,
were very similar, the wording of all three was different.
The Agreement, among other things, made monthly allowances of
Rs. 10,000, Rs. 2,500, Rs. 1,100 and Rs. 1,000, respectively, payable to
Nawab Mubarak Mahall, Sultan Maryam Begam, Mumtaz Mahall and
Sarfaraz Mahall for life, the first two being wives of the King ; and each
of the said ladies was empowered to bequeath by will one-third of her
allowance, after her death, to whatsoever person or object she desired j but
the remaining two-thirds of each allowance, together with any portion not
bequeathed by will of the one-third, were to be appropriated to benefactions
at Karbala and Najaf. Other allowances, amounting in the aggregate
to Rs. 929 a month, were assigned to servants and dependents of Sarfaraz
Mahall, with a proviso that, if any of the assignees died without heirs,
their allowances should Icq added to the sums devoted to the Karbala and
The Oudh
Bequest,
1849-61.
Agreement
concluded
between the
King of
Oudh and the
Governor-
General of
India, 17th
August 1825.
i Viiil