Bagdad Pachalic Affairs [275v] (12/44)
The record is made up of 1 item (22 folios). It was created in 30 Dec 1847. 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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This part of the volume consists of a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. , Number 105 of 1847, dated 30 December 1847. The enclosure concerns affairs in the Baghdad Pachalic [Pashalik, also spelled Pashalic in this item]. It is numbered 3 and is dated 28 October 1847.
The enclosure consists of a letter from 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 Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. [Ottoman Iraq] and Consul at Baghdad [also spelled Bagdad in this item], Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, to the Secretary to the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. in the Political Department, forwarding copies of two despatches to the Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department. These two despatches enclose a copy of a despatch from Lord Cowley, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. at Constantinople [Istanbul] to Rawlinson, and copies of despatches to Cowley from Rawlinson and from Lieutenant Arnold Burrowes Kemball as Acting Consul at Baghdad. The despatches to Cowley include an enclosed letter from Rawlinson to HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. at the Court of Tehran, Colonel Justin Sheil, and a letter to Rawlinson from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Palmerston.
The despatches report on matters including:
- Instructions reaching Baghdad from the Sublime Porte [the Government of the Ottoman Empire] exempting British Indian subjects from the passport regulations instituted by the Turkish [Ottoman] Government, and Lord Cowley reporting that he has obtained an assurance from the Porte that it is not their intention to enforce the orders recently promulgated for the compulsory sale of properties belonging to foreigners
- The progress of the cholera epidemic in the Baghdad Pashalic
- Suffrok [Ṣufūq bin Fāris al-Jarbā’, also spelled Suffook in this item], the ‘de jure Chief’ of the Shammar tribe and his son Ferhan [Farḥān bin Ṣufūq al-Jarbā’] having so far complied with the summons of Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. to present themselves at Baghdad, with Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. [Gürcü Mehmet Necip Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , or Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā, also spelled Negib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. in this item, Wali of Baghdad] investing Ferhan as Sheikh [Shaikh] in lieu of his father, rather than their rival Ayudeh [‘Ūdah?]
- The state of the Turco-Persian frontier, including Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. complaining to Rawlinson about the dangers to which Turkish subjects are exposed by the ‘incapacity’ of the Governors of Kermanshah and Senna [Sanandaj] to control the ‘Koordish’ [Kurdish] tribes residing within the Persian [Iranian] line
- Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. issuing orders directing that the Turkish guard ship be withdrawn from its position at the mouth of the Haffar Canal, a position remonstrated against by Sheil as a breach of engagement, and that it be moved to the Bussorah [Basra] roads
- The conduct of Suffook, the Chief of the Shammar, after he had been restored to favour by Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , being (in Rawlinson’s words) ‘offensive to the dignity and hurtful to the interests of the Government to which he owes allegiance’, leading to him being killed by Gunj Agha [Kunj Āghā], who had been sent by Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. ; and Rawlinson’s view that although Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. strenuously denies it was a premeditated murder, the ‘Arab’ tribes over whom Suffook had ‘extraordinary influence’ will view it as a treacherous murder and resume their 'old habits' of isolation from all contact with the Turkish authorities
- Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. asserting the supremacy of the secular authorities over the ‘fanatical party’ connected with the tomb of the ‘Soonee’ [Sunni] saint Sheikh Abdul Kadir [Shaikh ʿAbd al-Qādir Gīlānī or al-Jīlānī], through actions including the removal of the Mufti of Baghdad from office and the principal men associated with the shrine being arrested and transported to Bussorah, in response to what Rawlinson describes as the threat of imminent insurrection, and Rawlinson’s approval of the actions of Nejib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
- Negib Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. despatching Sadik Beg [Ṣādiq Beg] to Bussorah, for the purpose, Rawlinson believes, of him seeking compensating sources of revenue following the order of the Porte to abolish the Ihtisab duty [a tax on markets in the Ottoman Empire] throughout the Pashalic, with these sources of revenue likely to include the imposition of a twelve per cent duty ad valorem on horses exported to India, which Lord Palmerston has stated to Rawlinson would be disapproved by HM Government
- Rawlinson having a ‘full and very satisfactory’ conversation with Sadik Beg regarding the suppression of the 'slave trade' [trade in enslaved people] between Bussorah and the African Coast, with Sadik Beg appearing prepared to give full effect to the prohibitory instructions issued from Constantinople and Baghdad on the subject
- Rawlinson’s view that it would be advantageous for him to visit Bussorah himself in December 1847, after the convention of 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. , Major Samuel Hennell, with the ‘Arab Chiefs’ [prohibiting the transportation of enslaved African persons on board vessels belonging to Bahrain and the Trucial States A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. ] has come into operation, in order to for him to be able to examine personally the working of the present system.
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Bagdad Pachalic Affairs [275v] (12/44), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/5/452, ff 270-291, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100140092056.0x00009c> [accessed 12 March 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/5/452, ff 270-291
- Title
- Bagdad Pachalic Affairs
- Pages
- 270r:291v
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence