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Persian Gulf Administration Reports 1883/84 - 1904/05 [‎100v] (205/602)

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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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16 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL
The above History may be considered as that o£ the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. offshoot of the 1863-64
epidemic started from Bengal.
There was another and more important offshoot of the same epidemic, which burst into
life at Mecca and Medina in the end of May or beginning- of June of this year, havino' l) eea
carried to those places by pilgrims from India.
The outbreak was a severe one. Returning pilgrims carried the disease with them
Reyah, the capital of the Wahabi country, suffered heavily, as did Aneyza and other towns
there. The epidemic moved on by Jahr or Jaharah, and on the 25th or 26th August broke out
at Duaseh, on the right bank of the Shat-el-Arab, some 40 miles below Bussorah. On the
8th September cholera appeared at Basra and soon became very severe; it was said 5 pe r
cent, of the population died of it!
Koweit and its neighbourhood suffered severely about the same time as Bussorah.
The epidemic passed up the Euphrates through Syria to Aleppo and up the Tigris to
Diabekr and throughout Turkish Kurdistan.
This is precisely what occurred in the epidemic of 1846.
In October the epidemic became dormant.
i<S££.—The epidemic of last year which ceased in October, broke out in March of this
Entered Persia by Urumia and pro- y ear > an ^ advanced over two routes. One extending over and
bably also by Erivan: this was the Tig- across Europe, brought it to England in Anril from Rnffm.
ris branch of last year's cholera. i jxa • • tit / -r v ™ "ouer-
dam, and to America in May (or June). The other route
followed by the epidemic was from Turkish Kurdistan or from the Baghdad Provinces into
Persia near Urumia and beyond Tabriz. The country all round Tabriz suffered heavily, but the
disease passed no further in an easterly direction.
1867. —The cholera which became dormant in the Tabriz District in October or Novem-
All Persia suffering. ber last y ear broke oufc in the s P rin g of this year and moved
steadily across Northern Persia through Tehran to Meshed.
This epidemic must have extended to Central and Southern Persia also, I think, though
I have no record of its having done so. Notice was sent to 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. at Bushire from
Tehran that fC all Persia has been declared infected."
The great " Hurdwar epidemic" occurred on the 13th and 14th of April of this year and
from Hurdwar was carried by returning pilgrims far and wide.
Entered most probably by the Herat 1868.-—-Iti the spring of this year cholera
and Meshed route as in 1829 and 1845. various parts of Persia.
Up to the middle of 1868 cholera had moved across Persia in a direction from west to east,
This was probably the Hurdwar that is to say that from its entry in 1866 by Urumia aud
cholera of 1867. beyond Tabriz it passed steadily across to Meshed. In July
a reverse movement set in : a body of pilgrims returning westward from Meshed in that
month carried the disease with them and it soon covered all Northern Persia and spread into
the Baghdad Pashalik. Cholera was at the same time prevalent in Northern and Western
India and in Afghanistan.
Faurel and some Russian writers hold that the reversed movement,—that from Meshed
westward above alluded to, was simply a carrying back by pilgrims of the cholera of 1866-67.
The far more probable theory is that this cholera moving from Meshed in July 1868 was
in fact a new invasion. The great outbreak at Hurdwar, where 2 millions of pilgrims had
collected, occurred on the 12th to 15th April (really one might say only on 13th and 14th)
1867; the pilgrims scattered panic-stricken on the 15th April and carried the disease with
them in all directions (Bryden laughs this idea to scorn but, nevertheless, it is widely believed
in).
They carried it into Afghanistan, where it raged from July to September, and it
seems most likely it was the cholera becoming dormant in September 1867 which sprang
into life again in the spring of 1868 and following the usual route via Herat, appeared at
Meshed in July.
Macnamara holds, I think, that the Tehran cholera of 1867 was an offshoot of the Hurd
war epidemic, but an examination of the dates and facts above given seem to me to show he
is mistaken and that the story as above given is the true one.

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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 [‎100v] (205/602), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/709, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023373226.0x000006> [accessed 31 March 2025]

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