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Persian Gulf Administration Reports 1883/84 - 1904/05 [‎250v] (505/602)

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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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ADMINIStliATION REPORT ON THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. POLlTIOAL
Majesty's sliips Perseus and issaye visited His Highness the Sultan officially,
in company with 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. .
Soon after the Darbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). broke up, however, he sent for the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. Surgeon,
who only arrived to see Sayyid Saeed fall down dead after rising to greet him;
apparently from an aneurism of the heart.
It will be useful to record here a short outline of the late Vazir's career,
which, needless to say, was chequered by those vicissitudes of fortune, which are
ever characteristic of service under an oriental Government. Of Al-Bu-Saidi
stock, his forbears had lived in Maskat for several generations, and the deceased
himself, born in tlie reign of Sayyid Saeed-bin-Sultan, the present Sultan's grand
father, received all his teaching and training at the capital, which, except for a
few brief absences, he never quitted during the sixty odd years of his life.
Sayyid Saeed was one of three brothers, the sons of Mahomed-bin-Salimin,
one of whom died young, and the eldest, Thuwaini, became Yazir of his namesake
Sayyid Thuwaini-bin-Saeed, in whose service Sayyid Saeed also first entered
public life, being appointed to the charge of the Sultan's commissariat and trans-
port arrangements. Subsequently, the two Thuwainis, Sultan and Vazir, became
estranged to an extent which ultimately terminated in the deposition of the latter,
w r ho was deported, or at any rate obliged to migrate, to Zanzibar, and was suc
ceeded in his master's favours by his younger brother; and although Thuwaini
returned to Maskat two or three years later, he was never again employed by his
namesake, up to the time of the latter's assassination at Sohar in 1866.
Following upon this event came four stormy years, during which Salim-
bin-Thuw^aini and the Eostak pretender, Azzan-bin-Keis, each in turn held the
reins of Government for a brief period, and Saeed-bin-Mahomed seems to have
served both one and the other. At last, in 1871, Sayyid Turki returning from
exile in India, possessed himself of the Sultanate, and appears at first to have
taken both brothers into his employ ; but a few months after his accession the
elder Ihuwaini was shot dead m the streets of Maskat, in retaliation, it was
believed, for a previous murder in which the ex-Vazir was suspected of com
plicity.
For the next fourteen or fifteen years, Sayyid Saeed's life seems to have been
uneventful, and he continued to pass his days peacefully in the service of Sayyid
Turki. Towards the end of the latter's reign, however, relations between the
Vazir and the Sultan, who w^as at this time a chronic invalid, seem to have under
gone a marked change, and matters gradually went from bad to worse, until in
May 1888 Sayyid Saeed was deposed, and compelled, much against his will, to
leave Maskat; whereupon he took up his temporary abode, first at Kishm and
later at Bunder Abbas.
Meanwhile Sayyid Turki's state of health became suddenly critical, and in
July, information reached the exile of his late liege's death at Barka, on receipt
of which new r s he w r as emboldened to return to M askat in the confident hope
that Sayyid Feisal, w^ho had now succeeded his father and whose interests he has
always supported, w 7 ould welcome him back. In this however he was disap
pointed, for in pursuance of some undertaking given by Sayyid Turki's three
sons to their father on his death-bed, the new Sultan refused to sanction his
remaining in Maskat, and obliged him to return to Kishm or Bunder Abbas.
Later on, and partly owing to the fact that the British authorities exercised
their good offices in his behalf, he was allowed to return to his home and pro
perty in Maskat.
Meanwhile his distant kinsman, Mahomed-bin-Azzan, had become Vazir.
This functionary, having got into disfavour in 1896 for corresponding with the
Sultan's enemies in the interior, was in turn deposed and heavily fined. Then
Sayyid Saeed's chance came again and he was re-appointed. Sinister influences
were at work, however, which brought about his second downfall in October
1898 ; but in May 1900, on the representations of 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. , he was
once more taken into favour and appointed Co-Vazir, and from that date up to
the time of his death he remained in harness.
. A man of masterful disposition and pronounced views which he did not
hesitate to give expression to, it was not within the nature of things that he
should have been a generally popular personality; but while on the one hand it
is doubtful if the present Sultan ever had any personal regard for him, it is none
the less certain that His Highness fully recognised the fact that in all matters

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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 [‎250v] (505/602), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/709, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023373227.0x00006a> [accessed 26 February 2025]

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