![‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [‎11r] (26/490)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000884.0x0003b8/IOR_L_PS_20_59_0026.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [‎11r] (26/490)")
‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [11r] (26/490)
The record is made up of 1 volume (243 folios). It was created in 1905-1908. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
3
entering them. As a rule, steam vessels of average draught can approach
to a distance of r to 4 a mile of the coast, and landing can be effected by
boats, without difficulty at most points, in fair weather. Normally there is
no regular surf on the coast between Aden and Shekh Said but. it may
be expected at most of the low stretches of coast to the east. Landing
can, however be carried out without much danger, the native boats being
the best for the purpose. In the south-west monsoon, and Ov'casionally
during the north-east monsoon, such operations would be extremely
hazardous.
The bank of broken ground lying between Ras ’Ara and Ras Kau
is mentioned by the Red Sea Pilot, as the only really dangerous stretch
for vessels approaching the Gulf of Aden coast.
Between Shekh Said and Aden, the coast is entirely devoid of cultiva
tion, the soil being either soft sand, or, very frequently, hard desert or
“ khabt” sparseL- covered with mimosa thorn, and good going for either
troops or transport. Ashore road runs from Mokha, past Shekh Said, to
Aden, sometimes actually along the shore and never more than twm or
three miles inland. It is only suitable for mounted troops, convoys, etc.,
on account of the long distances between the wells, of which the majority
are brackish, and the ardu us nature of the march, caused by the climatic
conditions and the stretches of heavy sand.
From Aden eastwards, the country near the sea is low and sandy as
far as Makatm, but cultivation and villages are found within a mile or two
of the shore in the Fadli country, near the embouchures of the Selat Suhebia
and the rivers Bana an i Hassan. Beyond Makatin, to the east, the
generality of the coast is sandy, but much varied wuth low rocky points
and more commanding head-lands, the majority being uninhabited, and
cultivation only occurring in the neighbourhood of the various towns and
villages.
Land frontier.
At every step w r hen dealing with the Aden Hinterland, we are met
with the difficulty of defective knowledge and unsurveyed and untraversed
country. In the case of the land frontier, however, the border of the most
importance, both from a commerciTl and a strategical point of view, is
the w'estern or the boundary between the British Protectorate and Turkish
Yemen, w'hirh is also the best known.
As the boundary line is shewn in detail on the map, it is unnecessary
to particularise too closely, and it may be roughly described as a line
following a general north-easterly direction, from a point, a little to the east
of the Turkish fort of Turba (Shekh Said), till it strikes the Rubh al Khali
desert, at a distance of roughly 300 miles in a straight line. Of this, the por-
tion between Turba, and a point on the Bana river to the nqxtk of the Mares
mountains, has been actually delimited by an Anglo-Turkish Commission,
and the general understanding betw r een the tw r o Governments withregaid
to the remainder, till the actual completion of delimitation is roughly that
a line drawn north-east from Lakmat as Shub, a village in Amiri territory,
defines the dividing line of the sphere of influence of the two powers.
Of this frontier, the most important section is that comprised by the
Amir of Dala’s, the Haushati, and a portion of the Subehi, territories.
Through these districts pass the main trade routes from Turkish Yemen,
and they are also the only routes which could be utilised by a force advancing
About this item
- Content
The volume, a military report compiled in the Intelligence Branch of the QMG’s [Quartermaster General’s] Department and published at the Government Central Printing Office, Simla, is comprised of several sections, as follows:
- section I, a Military Report on the British Protectorate of Aden , prepared by Captain Ernest Arthur Frederick Redl (ff 10-52), and including chapters on: geography; ethnography, with details of the different tribes living in the Protectorate; climate and health; natural resources; harbours and anchorages; communications; fortresses; history; native inhabitants’ administration; the military organisation and strength of native inhabitants; and political relations. A handwritten note is included in the report (f 49), and concerns the entitlements of Protectorate Chiefs to salutes, and issue to them of arms and ammunition, 1906;
- section II, a Report on the Amir of Dala’s [Ad Dali’] Territories , prepared by Major J K Tod (ff 54-118), and including chapters on: geography; ethnography; climate and health; resources; communications; forts and fortified posts; history; administration, and military. Following the report is a gazetteer providing greater detail of the sixteen districts in Dala, including: topography; ruling families and allegiances; villages and population figures, including numbers of fighting men; water resources; agricultural and industrial activities;
- section III, Reports on Haushabi, Subehi and Yafa’i Tribes, Turkish and North Western Border Districts and the River Tiban , divided into chapters, all prepared by Captain Redl unless otherwise specified, on: 1) the Haushabi [al-Ḥawshabī] (ff 120-130), and including a handwritten note, dated December 1905 (f 122), noting that the Sultan of Haushabi has agreed to abide by an agreement of 1895; 2) the Subehi tribes near the Turkish border (ff 130-144); 3) the districts of Turkish Yemen adjoining the British boundary (ff 144-165); 4) Tribes of the north-west frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. (ff 165-172); 5) a memorandum of the Yafa’i [Yāfi‘] tribe, prepared by Captain Gonville W Warneford (ff 172-183); 6) The Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Tiban (ff 184-185);
- section IV, Routes (ff 186-228), detailing numerous routes between key points in Aden province, noting: distances; stages; nature of the terrain and its suitability for different modes of transport; available resources en route; territories crossed. A (duplicated) confidential memorandum, written by Captain G A F Sanders of the Aden Brigade, dated 24 August 1905, containing additional information for stages 5 and 6 of route 5 has been added to the volume (ff 195-198);
- appendix I, a brief statement on inland trade between Aden and the Arabian mainland, 1903 (ff 229-230).
The volume is extensively illustrated throughout with fold-out maps, plans and illustrations, prepared by the Intelligence Branch (I.B.) and all of which describe the topography and terrain of the region. There are three maps included in a pocket at the end of the volume: a map of the Aden Protectorate (f 242); a view from the ruined village of Lakmat Magharam about one-and-a-half miles west of Sanah [Ṣanʻā'] (f 240); and a road sketch from Khalla through Awabil [‘Awābil] to the upper plateau of the Rubiatein [Ar Rubay‘atayn] tribe (f 241).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (243 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged in four sections (numbered I-IV), with a single appendix. Sections I-III are arranged in numbered chapters while section IV is arranged in twenty-three numbered routes. The volume’s contents page (ff 6-8) lists the sections and their respective chapters/routes, with page numbers referring to the volume’s printed pagination system. A general index (ff 231-238) lists placenames referred to in the volume in alphabetically ascending order, also with page numbers referring to the volume’s printed pagination.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the back cover with 243; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the file contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [11r] (26/490), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/59, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100034845247.0x00001b> [accessed 5 April 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/59
- Title
- ‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:11v, 13r:14v, 16r:28v, 30r:30v, 32r:35r, 36r:36v, 38r:56v, 58r:67r, 68r:69r, 70r:79r, 80r:85v, 87r:88r, 89r:89v, 91r:95v, 97r:98v, 100r:101r, 102r:105v, 107r:108r, 109r:113r, 114r:116v, 118r:120v, 122r:124v, 126r:126v, 128r:130v, 132r:132v, 134r:135r, 136r:136v, 138r:157v, 159r:161v, 163r:163v, 165r:165v, 167r:182v, 184r:188v, 190r:190v, 192r:239v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence