- 22 - goods to Aleppo had also returned after dropping their shipments there. In January 1779, a French officer passed by Kuwait. He was carrying packages to the French colonies in Asia containing reports regarding the declaration of war between France and Britain. George Ibraham, the Kuwait agency director of the East India Company seized them and sent them to the British officials in India.(9) On 8th March, 1779, the news spread throughout Persia that King Karim Khan Zand had passed away. That evening, Sheikh Saadun bin Madhkour, the deputy of Sheikh Nasser of Bushehr, received a letter from Shiraz confirming the death of Karim Khan on 2nd March, 1779, and that he had been succeeded by his eldest son, Abul-Fatħ Khan. The new king had also sent envoys to Basra to call Zaki Khan, one of Karim Khan’s cousins, over to Shiraz in order to restore peace and calm there as its newly appointed ruler. Zaki Khan brought with him to Shiraz, his son-inlaw, Mohammad Ali Khan, the son of the late king
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