The documents that comprise the Ali Akbar Bushiri collection consist of materials collected by Bushiri from his own family, who were merchants of Iranian ancestry living in Manama, Bahrain; as well as materials he collected about other similar families in the course of his historic research, in particular those of Mohammed Rahim Safar and his family, with an emphasis on Safar's nephews Mohammed Khalil Sharif, who served the British representatives of the region at their residency in Bushire, Iran; and Mohammed Taher Sharif, who worked as a shipping agent for the firm Gray Mackenzie and Company in Bahrain. The collection is grouped by families and by types of records.
The series of records from the Bushiri family focus largely on the activities of Hussain Ali Kazem Bushiri (1901-1973), whose business imported foodstuffs and other grocery items to Bahrain; but whose business dealings also included purchases and sales of property in Bahrain as well as in his family's ancestral home of Bushire, and in other parts of southwestern Iran. Most of the documents date from the 1930s to the 1950s, and are especially strong in correspondence between Hussain Ali Kazim and business contacts in various locations in Iran, such as Bushire, Shiraz, and Tehran; as well as records of properties held or transferred by the Bushiri family and others in Iran and Bahrain.
Personal documents include correspondence among extended family members and associates in Bahrain and Iran, and similar correspondence received by his son, Habib Kazim Bushiri. Business records include financial statements and correspondence with various suppliers of foodstuffs and other products imported by the Bushiris, chiefly from Iran and the United Kingdom.
The Bushiri family's civic activities and property holdings are reflected in another series, which includes property deeds and records of transfer, including transfers of property in Bahrain and Iran among family members as well as to those outside of the family. This series also includes some collected materials, such as reports provided to the British by Persian informants during the Tangaseri Uprising in southwest Iran, near Bushire, in 1914. In addition, this series of documents contains materials from the municipal government of Manama, in whose council Hussein Ali Kazim Busheri served, and documents related to the Matam al 'Ajam, a Shi'ite house of mourning in central Manama in which the Bushiri family acted as patrons.
Related to this latter institution is a separate series of over 250 printed and bound Qur'an texts, which were apparently used in Matam al 'Ajam for memorial activities, and in which information was recorded about decedents, typically handwritten on the inside cover of each volume. As such houses of mourning were significant institutions that helped newly-arrived Iranian migrants assimilate and network within the Shi'ite communities of Manama, the information contained in these Qur'an texts can be helpful in documenting personal and demographic information about a subset of this population in Manama over the course of several decades.
Also included are approximately 45-50 bound volumes, primarily business ledger books and shipping records, documenting the business activities of Hussain Ali Kazim Bushiri, of Manama, Bahrain, and other local merchants, such as the Gujarati merchant Ioverohangos Dheramdes, dating from the late 1930s through the 1950s.
The series of documents related to the Safar and Sharif families consists largely of photocopies--but with a few originals among them--as Ali Akbar Bushiri had transferred a previous grouping of documents about these families to the Bahrain National Museum, retaining photocopies, the latter of which are represented in this collection. These documents trace the history of the Safar family from Mohammed Ali Safar, a merchant based in Bushire in the early 19th century, and his son and grandson, Abdulnabi Safar and Mohammed Rahim Safar, both of whom served the British Residency in Bushire and the British Agency in Bahrain. While their documents reflect some of their activities in this capacity, much of their material relates to family property holdings and disputes about estates, in particular about land holdings in Basra, in what is now Iraq. Also included with these papers are copies obtained from British archives, chiefly the India Office Records, that help frame the history of the Safars during this period.
A larger grouping of documents can be found from their nephews, Mohammed Khalil Sharif and Mohammed Taher Sharif. The former's documents include correspondence related to business activities and property holdings, as well as materials that document his relation to the British Residency in Bushire, and the operation of agricultural properties in Basra that he inherited from his uncle. Many documents are included about the dispute over the property his family inherited in Basra from his uncle, as well as correspondence and other documents that attest to the value he placed on his role of working with the British and the "protection" offered to him for that service. Correspondence includes letters from British officials such as Percy Cox, Herbert Chick, and Major C.J. Edmonds, whom he counted as friends and continued to correspond with after his retirement. The activities of Mohammed Taher Sharif, as reflected in his papers, relate primarily to his role as a shipping agent with the firm of Gray Mackenzie in Bahrain, as well as nearby operations in Saudi Arabia, and chiefly document his role in provisioning the company's ships and providing labor for unloading their cargo.
