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Persian Gulf Administration Reports 1883/84 - 1904/05 [‎40v] (85/602)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (299 folios). It was created in 1884-1906. 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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40
ADMINISTEATION EEPOET OF THE PEESIAN GULF POLITICAL
conjecture, which will not be finally cleared up probably until the archives at Lisbon have been
made to disclose their secrets.
The only two contemporary authors I know o£ who mention a date are the Editor of
Hajji Khalifa's Geography and the Wazeer o£ Sanaa. The former, in his edition of the " Jehan
Nama," says
" The Portuguese had long been in possession of this fortress, Muscat, but towards the year 1070 (1659), a
fakeer with his followers took it from them and made slaves of all the Portuguese in it, and possessed himself
of their ships. Since then the prince of Muscat has been always at war with the Portuguese."
The Wazeer in his Diary says :—
" In the year 1052 (1642) a number of merchants set out on a venture to Hasa, Bahrein, and Basra, and
when they had passed the sea of Fars and had reached Bunder Muscat, which was then in the hands of the
Franks, they were plundered by the latter. People became afraid therefore to pass that way. The Ocean also
became closed to seafarers and remained so until the Omanis possessed themselves of Muscat, as will be recorded
presently. When the Moslems occupied Muscat, trade was re-opened to merchants and they obtained security
against those wretches. And in the year 1054 (1644) the rulers of Om^n, the Kharejites, the Ibadhis, became
possessed of Muscat, which is on the coast of their country, and had been up to that time in the hands of the
Franks. They had no idea they would be able to take it, but they ordered every one in it to be slaughtered
with knives which they had concealed for the purpose. All that were in the forts were accordingly killed."
It will be seen there is a difference of fifteen years between the dates given in these accounts.
In 1672, the French traveller, Dellon, visited Muscat, and remarks that the Portuguese had
lost Muscat by the avarice o£ a Governor who sold provisions to the Arabs at an exorbitant
price, but he mentions no date. Hamilton, who visited Muscat towards the close of the
seventeenth century, says in his new account of the East Indies that Muscat was captured in
1650, and he gives a very circumstantial account of the siege and surrender of the town and
forts, which he states he received from the mouth of one of the survivors, a very old man.
Niebuhr, in his travels, merely observes that Muscat was taken by the Portuguese in 1508 and
held for 150 years, while the Abbe Raynal states that the Portuguese lost it in 1648. Dr.
Badger, author, tells a romantic story about the stratagem of a traitorous banian Merchant of Indian extraction. whose
daughter the Portuguese Governor wished to espouse. One of several objections to this story
is that the banians have never brought their wives to Arabia, much less their unmarried
daughters. Another local tradition, mentioned by Ross in his annals of Oman, is that the
Arabs entered Muscat in the guise of peasants, with their arms concealed in bundles of firewood
and that they took the opportunity of the garrison being at chapel to attack and massacre them!
This account seems to coincide with that given by the Wazeer of Sanaa. It is impossible to
reconcile these conflicting statements or to decide between so many authorities, but I am dis
posed myself to accept the version of Hamilton and to agree with Dr. Badger'in fixim? the
date at 1651. &
The few Portuguese that escaped the massacre that ensued on the capture of the towa
and forts took refuge on board the vessels in the harbour. Two of these, however, were
captured by the Arabs, and the rest retired to Kalbnh, the guns in the forts of Capitan and
St. John, which were now turned against them, preventing their stay in Muscat cove.
Kalbuh, being of no use except as a point from which to annoy the Arabs, was soon after aban-
doned, and with their retirement from this village closed the eventful career of the successors
of the great Albuquerque in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
No expedition to recover Muscat seems ever to have been despatched from Goa or Lisbon,
and its loss after the greater disaster at Hormuz was no donbt viewed with resignation as an
inevitable consequence For many years afterwards vessels continued to be sent occasionally
from Goa to war with the Arabs and destroy their trade; but these efforts were quite desultory
and bad no effect in restoring the prestige of the Portugnesc. Towns and villages on the
?he ArZ b " r ^ and f Saok ^ a nd many were the engagements at sea between the two.
tbev nrofiVd b k I en ta " ght ^ x P erience to increase the size of their ships, and that
they piofited by the lessons they had received in the art of war is shown by the r repeated
""—- ^

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Content

The volume contains printed copies of Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Administration Reports. The Reports are incomplete (according to the introductory letters and lists of contents). Some of the Reports bear manuscript corrections. The following Reports are represented :

The Reports include a general summary by 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. (covering the constituent agencies and consulates that made up 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. , and topics such as the slave trade, piracy, the movements of Royal Navy ships, official appointments, and the weather); meteorological tables; separate reports on Muscat (also referred to as Maskat); reports on trade and commerce; and a number of appendices on special topics, such as supplementary notes on the care and culture of date trees and fruit (Report, 1883-84), historical sketch of the Portuguese in eastern Arabia (Report, 1884-85), notes on a tour through Oman and El-Dhahireh [Al Dhahirah] by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles (Report, 1885-86), notes on cholera in Persia (Report, 1889-90), report on the cholera epidemic in Maskat, Matrah, and Oman (Report, 1899-1900), and information on individuals and tribes.

Extent and format
1 volume (299 folios)
Arrangement

The Reports are arranged in chronological order from the front to the rear of the volume. There is an introductory letter/table of contents at the front of each Report, but these show that the Reports are not complete.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation system in use commences at 3 on the second folio after the front cover, and continues through to 299 on the back cover. The sequence is written in pencil, enclosed in a circle, and appears in the top right hand corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. page of each folio.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Persian Gulf Administration Reports 1883/84 - 1904/05 [‎40v] (85/602), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/709, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023373225.0x000056> [accessed 1 December 2024]

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