Key Actors

The Norris embassy was dominated by powerful personalities, organisations and states

William Norris

Sir William Norris was a parliamentarian turned ambassador who led England’s second royal embassy to Mughal India, from 1699 to 1702. Born into a noble family, Norris was educated at the University of Cambridge and spent several years there as a scholar and a poet. In 1697, he became a member of Parliament for the seat of Liverpool, succeeding his older brother, and was associated with the Whig political faction of the Parliament. Though he had little prior experience in diplomacy and had never stepped foot outside England prior to the embassy, Norris did have important royal connections and high social standing, which were considered the most desirable assets in a seventeenth-century English ambassador. On his embassy to India, Norris wrote a detailed and colourful diary of his experiences, which form the basis of this research project. The ambassador died on his return to England in 1702, after his three-year expedition ended in failure.

Aurangzeb

Muhi-ud-Din Muhammad (3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the sobriquet Aurangzeb (Persian: ‘Ornament of the Throne’) or by his regnal title Alamgir (Persian: ‘Conqueror of the World’), was the sixth Mughal emperor, who ruled over nearly the entire Indian subcontinent for a period of 49 years. Widely considered to be the last effective Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb compiled the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, and is regarded as one of the few rulers who have fully established Sharia law and Islamic economics throughout South Asia.

King William III

William III, also known as William of Orange, was King of England from 1688 to 1702. Born a Dutch prince, he later held the position of Stadholder of the Dutch Republic. In 1688, William took over the English throne from James II in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. A decade later, William granted the New Company the right to trade in Asia, an action which simultaneously dissolved the Old Company, which had been operating in Asia for almost a century. At the New Company’s request, William dispatched ambassador William Norris to represent him to the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb. William III and Norris both died of illness in 1702, just months apart.

The Old Company

Officially known as the ‘Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies’, the East India Company was created in 1600 by a royal charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I. After almost a century of trade with Asia, the English Parliament called for the Company to be dissolved and replaced with a new company (see ‘New Company’ below), after which the company came to be referred to as the ‘Old Company’. After a decade of conflict and competition, the New Company and Old Company finally merged in 1709 to become the ‘United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies’.

Asad Khan

Asad Khan (d. 1717), Aurangzeb’s imperial wazir (grand vizier). Born as Muhammad Ibrahim, Asad Khan was the son of a Persian émigré, Zulfiqar Khan Qaramanlu, who left Iran to enter Mughal service. Starting his career during the reign of Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1657), Asad Khan was appointed to the office of wazir in 1676 and held this office for the remaining thirty-one years of Aurangzeb’s reign. Norris was in contact with Asad Khan from the moment of his arrival in India, but an audience with the wazir never took place because of disagreements concerning diplomatic protocol. Shāh Nawāz Khān, The Maāthir-ul-Umarā I, pp.270-279.

Diyanat Khan

Diyanat Khan (d. 1713) served as mutasaddi (port town governor) of Surat from 1699 till 1702. He was appointed to replace his younger brother, Amanat Khan, upon the latter’s death in 1699. Born as Abdul Qadir into a Khorasani family, Diyanat Khan followed his father and grandfather in the service of the Mughal emperors. He was in charge of renewing the city walls of Aurangabad before serving as diwan in the Deccan, mutasaddi of Surat, and upon dismissal from that office once again as diwan of the Deccan province which post he held until his death in 1713. See: Shāh Nawāz Khān, The Maāthir-ul-Umarā I, pp. 472-475.

Mir Ali Naqi

Mir Ali Naqi (d. 1729) was the son of Diyanat Khan and, upon his father’s death, was likewise granted the title of Diyanat Khan. At the time of the Norris embassy he served as the customs officer in Surat. At various points in his career he served as diwan in Aurangabad, Bidar, and Burhanpur, and as diwan of the Deccan. Like his father, he was said to have held a reputation for truth and honesty, as reflected in the title diyanat (honesty). Ibid, pp. 475-483.

Edward Norris

Edward Norris served as William Norris’ head secretary on his embassy to the Mughal court on an annual salary of £200. He was also the ambassador’s younger brother. Edward played a leading role in negotiations between William Norris and various Mughal authorities during the embassy and acted as Norris’ main adviser and confidant. He returned to England and succeeded his older brother, William, in Parliament as the member for Liverpool (1714-15). He died in 1726.

Asad Khan

Asad Khan (d. 1717), Aurangzeb’s imperial wazir (grand vizier). Born as Muhammad Ibrahim, Asad Khan was the son of a Persian émigré, Zulfiqar Khan Qaramanlu, who left Iran to enter Mughal service. Starting his career during the reign of Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1657), Asad Khan was appointed to the office of wazir in 1676 and held this office for the remaining thirty-one years of Aurangzeb’s reign. Norris was in contact with Asad Khan from the moment of his arrival in India, but an audience with the wazir never took place because of disagreements concerning diplomatic protocol. Shāh Nawāz Khān, The Maāthir-ul-Umarā I, pp.270-279.

Thomas Harlowin

Harlowin was part of Norris’ main English council brought to India from England, and acted as treasurer for the embassy on an annual salary of £100. He accompanied the ambassador during every major event of the embassy, including on the ambassador’s visit to Aurangzeb in 1701. Harlowin was at Norris’ side even on his deathbed, the ambassador dictating his will to his treasurer aboard the Scipio on route to England in 1702.

Nicholas Waite

Sir Nicholas Waite was President of the New Company at Surat from 1698 to 1704. He was previously employed by the Old Company at their settlement in Bantam, but was dismissed following reports of his misconduct. Waite features prominently in the diaries, particularly during the time Norris spent at Surat. He and the ambassador developed a turbulent relationship stemming from a struggle over which of them held ultimate authority in India. Though previously a fervent opponent of a merger between the Old and New companies, between 1704 and 1708 (when the companies were in the midst of merging) Waite acted as Governor of Bombay in the place of Old Company Governor John Gayer, who was then imprisoned by Mughal authorities in Surat. 

Rustamji Manakji

Rustamji Manakji (1635-c. 1721), Parsi merchant and chief broker to the New Company. Characterised as ‘a poor man of priestly lineage’ when he first came to Surat, Rustamji made his fortune in trade and assumed a prominent place in the Parsi community. See: Ashin Das Gupta, Indian Merchants, 81. Rustamji Manakji’s life is described in a Persian biography written in 1711. See: Modi, ‘Rustam Manock (1635-1721 A.C.)’.

John Gayer

Sir John Gayer served as General for the Old Company between May 1694 and November 1704, and as Governor of Bombay for the same period. As General, Gayer was responsible for overseeing the Company’s affairs in India and the rest of Asia. He features prominently in the Norris diaries, mostly as the figure leading the Old Company’s resistance to the embassy. As leader of the Old Company in India, Gayer was also embroiled in the ongoing conflict with Mughal authorities over acts of piracy committed by the English in Mughal waters and was consequently placed under house arrest in Surat from 1700- 1709. On his return to England in 1711, Gayer died from wounds inflicted when a French squadron attacked the ship that was carrying him.

John Pitt

John Pitt was President of the New Company’s settlement at Masulipatam from 1698 until 1703, when he died suddenly of illness. Before his appointment with the New Company, Pitt was employed by the Old Company at Fort St. George and acted as a member of the council there until 1696. His cousin, Thomas Pitt, was Governor of the Old Company’s presidency settlement at Fort St George. Norris’ diaries reveal a fraught relationship between the ambassador and John Pitt, the former blaming Pitt for delaying the embassy in Masulipatnam, the latter accusing Norris of exorbitant spending of Company funds.

Adiel Mills

Mills was a member of Norris’ English council and served as one of the ambassador’s secretaries and close advisers. Prior to the ambassador’s arrival in India, Mills spent many years on the subcontinent working for the Old Company. He was competent in Persian and also acted as an interpreter for Norris on his journey to the Mughal Court. In the midst of Norris’ negotiations with Aurangzeb, Nicholas Waite and the New Company factors at Surat wrote to the ambassador, accusing Mills of being in leagues with the Old Company in order to ruin the embassy, but these charges were later deemed false. 

Stephen Colt

Stephen Colt succeeded Samuel Annesley as President of the Old Company at Surat in 1698. He, alongside Old Company General John Gayer, was instrumental in leading the Old Company’s opposition to the Norris embassy, for which Norris and the New Company factors at Surat accused him of high treason. In 1700, along with Gayer and the other Old Company English factors at Surat, Colt was imprisoned by Mughal authorities for English piracies committed against merchant ships in Mughal waters. He died in 1708, a year before the Old and New companies officially merged.

Samuel Annesley

Samuel Annesley began his service for the Old Company in India in 1677 at the age of nineteen and lived on the subcontinent for the rest of his life. He acted as President for the Old Company at Surat from 1694 until 1698, when he was dismissed from service by the Court of Directors for mismanaging the Company’s affairs. Annesley was still living in Surat when Norris and his embassy arrived there in December 1700, and he attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain employment with the ambassador. He died in 1732.

Louis-Estienne de Pilavoine

Louis-Estienne de Pilavoine (1664-1720) directed the factory of the French Compagnie des Indes Orientales (founded 1664) in Surat from 1685 until his death there in 1720. Between 1713 and 1716 he also briefly served as director of Pondichéry, yet he remained in Surat throughout this period.

Hasan Hamadani

Hasan Hamadani, an influential Surat-based merchant of Turkish or possibly Persian descent. In 1698 Hamadani lost a richly-laden ship carrying pilgrims returning from the hajj to the Scottish pirate, William Kidd, which put further strain on the already tense relationship between the East India Companies in Surat and the Mughal authorities.

Pedro Pereira

Pedro Pereira or Pereyra, a Jewish diamond trader active in Surat. Born in Amsterdam around 1652, he was the son of the Amsterdam-based diamond merchant, Jacob Pereyra, and brother to Aron (also known as Francis) Pereyra who was based in London. As Jonathan Schorsch asserts, Pedro Pereyra, alias Mosseh Pereyra de Paiva, ‘operated as an agent at the Dutch East India Company factory at Surat, India, trading jewels with/for the Amsterdam firm of Athias and Levy in the late 1680s and 1690s’: Schorsch, ‘Mosseh Pereyra de Paiva’, p. 79.

Mullah Abdul Ghafur

Mullah Abdul Ghafur (d. 1718), a Bohra Muslim merchant and shipping magnate who dominated overseas trade from Surat for three decades from the mid-1680s onwards. The richest merchant in the city, his interests repeatedly clashed with that of the European Companies. Abdul Ghafur led Surat’s merchant lobby with the Mughal imperial administration which resulted in Aurangzeb’s order in 1699 to have the English, Dutch, and French representatives in Surat each sign a bond (muchalka) holding them liable for providing security to Indian shipping on the high seas, or pay indemnities in the event of losses due to piracy.