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Abstract
The East India Company’s presence and ongoing trade in Persia was reliant on the privileges outlined in the Farmān, granted after the capture of Hormuz in 1622. The relationship between these two powers was cemented in the rights enshrined in the Farmān, which was used by both to regulate their varying needs and expectations over the course of 125 years. This article explores the Company’s records of the Farmān and how changes to its terms were viewed from both sides. As a Persian document, the Farmān gives a clear view of the attitudes of native officials and rulers to the Company and how these terms were used as a means of control.
Notes
1 India Office Records: Persian Factory Records (IOR/G/29)/1 ff. 234‒9, Terms of the Company’s Treaty with Shah Abbas I.
2 Ibid.
3 Ferrier, “The Terms and Conditions.”
4 IOR/G/29, East India Company Persian Factory Records, British Library.
5 Hasan, “Conflict and Cooperation,”, 356
6 Brancaforte, “The Italian Connection,” 196.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Couto and Loureiro, Revisiting Hormuz, 12.
10 Foran, “The Making of an External Arena,” 281.
11 Savory, Iran under the Safavids, 125.
12 Inalcik, An Economic and Social History, 194.
13 Ibid.
14 Foster, The English Factories in India, xiii; and Miscellaneous Collection of Farmans and Treaties (IOR/H/628) ff. 49‒53.
15 Foster, The English Factories in India, xix.
16 IOR/H/628 ff. 19‒33v Collection of the Company’s Farmāns in Persia, Farmān from Abbas I to the East India Company.
17 Ibid.
18 The town of Bandar Abbas lies facing Hormuz on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf. After the island was sacked, the inhabitants and trade of the island were moved to the town.
19 See Ferrier, “The Terms and Conditions.”
20 Ibid., 53.
21 Ibid. Rahdari was a tax levied for use of the roads within the Safavid Empire.
22 Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 6 (1986), 297.
23 IOR/G/29/4 f.5 Summary of Business, March 1727.
24 IOR/G/29/1 ff. 189v‒193v Stipulations of the Farmān of Abbas I—Granted Shavval 1036, 42nd Year of the reign of Abbas I (1627).
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.
27 IOR/H/628 ff. 19‒33v Collection of the Company’s Farmāns in Persia, Farmān from Safi to the East India Company.
28 IOR/H/628 f. 31 Privileges from the Company’s Farmān.
29 IOR/H/628 ff. 19‒33v Collection of the Company’s Farmāns in Persia, Farmān from Shah Soltan Husayn to the East India Company.
30 Raqam, a written order or direction.
31 Qāfila, caravan.
32 Two forms of taxation.
33 Urban officials.
34 The poll tax on non-Muslims.
35 Mann-i-Shāh, 14lb.
36 Ibid.
37 IOR/G/29/5 ff. 350‒351 List of Rogums granted to the Company in Consultation on 12 August 1736.
38 Matthee, The Politics of Trade in Safavid, 125‒6.
39 IOR/G/29/5 f.105v, Consultation on Saturday 14 March 1730.
40 IOR/G/29/5 f. 106v Consultation on Thursday 19 March 1730.
41 Nader Shah was the effective ruler of Persia after 1729, however, he installed two Safavid descendants, Shah Tahmasp II and Abbas III, as Shah before finally deposing the old dynasty completely and installing himself as Shah.
42 IOR/G/29/5 ff. 350‒351 List of Rogums granted to the Company in Consultation on 12 August 1736.
43 Ogborn, Indian Ink, 36.
44 See Good, The East India Company.
45 Ferrier, “Terms and Conditions,” 53.
46 Asafoetida is a herb of the genus Ferula; when dried, the root of the plant has a strong, acrid smell, but is used often in South Asian cooking to enhance flavour.
47 IOR/G/29/7 f. 43 Consultation on Wednesday 18 February 1747.
48 IOR/G/29/16 f. 27 List of the Company’s Rogums made in March 1730.
49 IOR/G/29/5 f. 304v Consultation on Monday 20 October 1735.
50 Ibid.
51 Matthee, Politics of Trade, 68.