Show menu
Search form
Search the site
Explore Qatar Digital Library
Articles From Our Experts
Glossary
About
العربية
English
Search form
Search the site
العربية
English
Articles From Our Experts
Filter articles by:
What
Introductory Articles
(47)
Arabic Manuscripts
(43)
Maps
(6)
The British Empire in the Gulf
(68)
Commerce and Communication
(39)
People and Places
(55)
Culture and Religion
(17)
Sciences and Medicine
(32)
Power and Politics
(49)
Sound and Music
(16)
Introductory Articles
(47)
Arabic Manuscripts
(43)
Maps
(6)
The British Empire in the Gulf
(68)
Commerce and Communication
(39)
People and Places
(55)
Culture and Religion
(17)
Sciences and Medicine
(32)
Power and Politics
(49)
Sound and Music
(16)
Where
Bahrain
(32)
Egypt
(5)
India
(2)
Iran
(39)
Iraq
(24)
Kuwait
(10)
Oman
(22)
Pakistan
(2)
Qatar
(15)
Saudi Arabia
(17)
United Arab Emirates
(15)
Yemen
(2)
Bahrain
(32)
Egypt
(5)
India
(2)
Iran
(39)
Iraq
(24)
Kuwait
(10)
Oman
(22)
Pakistan
(2)
Qatar
(15)
Saudi Arabia
(17)
United Arab Emirates
(15)
Yemen
(2)
When
Pre-1600
(7)
1600–1649
(4)
1650–1699
(3)
1700–1749
(5)
1750–1799
(14)
1800‒1849
(41)
1850‒1899
(41)
1900–1949
(112)
1950–1999
(6)
Pre-1600
(7)
1600–1649
(4)
1650–1699
(3)
1700–1749
(5)
1750–1799
(14)
1800‒1849
(41)
1850‒1899
(41)
1900–1949
(112)
1950–1999
(6)
276
of
276
articles to explore
From its origins as a small London enterprise, the East India Company (EIC) emerged as a powerful commercial and political organisation, whose presence in the Gulf helped shape the region’s modern history.
A Brief History of the English East India Company 1600–1858
Not all prisoners during wartime are soldiers. During the First World War, many countries interned “enemy” civilians.
Civilian Internment in the First World War
In the wake of Indian independence and the United States’ increasing presence, British administrators sought to remind the Gulf’s inhabitants of who remained nominally in control of the region.
A Demonstration of British Firepower on the Trucial Coast, 1949
The people of the upper Gulf coast have created a rich and multifaceted musical culture. Unfortunately, these musical genres are hardly known outside this region and there is a risk that some of this heritage will be lost forever.
Interlocking Patterns Meet Arabic Poetry: musical genres in the Upper Gulf region
The peoples of the Islamic world excelled at designing and building water-clocks as these manuscripts show.
Robots, Musicians and Monsters: The World’s Most Fantastic Clocks
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Saudi Arabia, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: Saudi Arabia
When Pelly undertook making a trip to Riyadh in 1864–65, he wished to gain intelligence on the Nejd, but also to prove that an Englishman could travel through the territory unmolested.
Pelly’s Unprecedented Trip to Riyadh
In November 1917, St John Philby was sent from Basra on a mission to cross the desert and meet with Ibn Sa‘ud. It was an expedition that changed his life.
St John Philby’s Mission to Najd: Across the Heart of Arabia
A guide to the East India Company ships’ journals and related records (IOR/L/MAR/A and B series files) and miscellaneous East India Company and India Office marine records (IOR/L/MAR/C files) on the Qatar Digital Library.
Finding Aid: IOR/L/MAR Marine Department Records (1600-c. 1879)
The British military constructed miles of railway in Mesopotamia during their war against the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century. In doing so, they also laid the foundations for a post-war colonial regime.
The Imperial Railway in British-Occupied Mesopotamia
The music of the upper Gulf region is well known for its intricate rhythms, hand-clapping and sung poetry. In addition to this, its musical instruments have evolved or been incorporated into various genres.
A Rich Culture Expressed in Music: musical instruments in the Upper Gulf region
From its earliest years the RAF played a vital role in maintaining and strengthening British power in the Gulf.
First Flights: Establishment of an RAF Presence in the Gulf
An enormous effort was made to translate almost all known Greek literature into Arabic during the 8th to 10th centuries, and Baghdad was at the centre of this work. Why was it that so many of the translators were Christians?
Why Were So Many of the Greek-Arabic Translators Christians?
Kuwait has maintained a thriving traditional music culture; in particular bahri, or sea music, and ṣawt have remained at the heart of the music scene.
Hidden Treasures: Reflections on traditional music in Kuwait
Certain collections within the British Library’s manuscript holdings represent dark links between Britain’s nineteenth-century colonial and military activities, and its acquisition of cultural and intellectual heritage.
The Prize Agents of 1857 and the Acquisition of the Delhi Collection
Gwadar was an enclave of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman for nearly 200 years, but records show that while the Sultans were reluctant to lose sovereignty over the territory, they were nevertheless open to negotiations with the British.
Gwadar: The Omani Enclave In Pakistan
An overview of records on the Qatar Digital Library originating from the Political (External) Department (IOR/L/PS/12), including a description of the records and the subjects they cover.
Finding Aid: IOR/L/PS/12 Departmental Papers: Political (External) Files and Collections (1903-1950)
By charting waters within and creating accurate maps of their spheres of influence the East India company, and later India Office, ensured that they had an advantage over competing powers.
India Office Records Map Collection: A Vast and Powerful Resource
A vast range of material that spans several thousand years, including a large collection of Arabic manuscripts and material related to the Gulf, is held in the British Library collection.
The British Library: How Many Institutions Became One
Two fragments of a medieval Arabic manuscript were bought by different collectors in northern Europe some nine centuries after they were copied. The manuscript contains a mix of scientific and Christian religious texts and can now be digitally reassembled.
Fragments of Abbasid Science from a Desert Monastery
The 1948 visit of Shaikh Khalīfa bin Mohammed Āl Khalīfa to Britain on a training trip arranged by the British Council provides an early example of cooperation between Britain and Bahrain in matters related to policing and security.
Bahrain’s Chief of Police Visits the UK, 1948
Britain’s decision to prohibit the use of modern diving suits and cultured pearls on the Gulf’s pearl banks was intended to preserve the region’s pearling industry, yet ultimately contributed to its slow collapse throughout the 1930s.
British Government Resist Modernisation of the Pearling Industry
For a period of over 150 years, from 1820 until its withdrawal in 1971, Britain was dominant in the Gulf, but the nature of British domination evolved from economic influence to political control, particularly of the Arabian side of the Gulf.
The British in the Gulf: an Overview
Salim Rashid Suri, an Omani ṣawt singer and oud player became famous as the ‘singing sailor’ and for developing a truly unique style, which took influence from musical sources across the Middle East and India.
The Singing Sailor, Salim Rashid Suri: A Ṣawt Musician from Oman
From prize courts to propaganda wars, discover how global conflict reshaped the Gulf.
Prize Courts, Petroleum, and Propaganda: The Gulf in the Second World War
Britain’s historical presence in the Gulf was based on a claim to be fighting “piracy”. But what did British officials mean by this, and how was it interpreted by the region’s residents?
“Piracy” in the India Office Records: some historical context
Who were the founders of traditional ṣawt music and why did their musical journey start in Kuwait?
The Cradle of Arabic Sawt Music: The early musician generations in Kuwait
How and why did the British Library come to hold 14,000 Arabic manuscripts within its collections?
The Arabic Manuscripts Collection in the British Library
al-Bīrūnī’s Qānūn is the most complete astronomical encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. It represents the most successful attempt to correct and rewrite Ptolemy’s Almagest, and was based on the results of three centuries of research in Islamic lands.
al-Bīrūnī: a high point in the Development of Islamic Astronomy
When the Residency ship Berenice was destroyed by fire on a trip to Muscat, the Resident in the Persian Gulf endured a ‘week of considerable anxiety’ over-seeing the rescue of 178 men, women, and children.
Berenice Burnt At Sea! A Tale of Fire and Rescue in the Gulf
The name Mīr Muhannā is much celebrated in Iran today because he stood up to imperialism and won.
A Thorn in England’s Side: The Piracy of Mīr Muhannā
An overview of the records in the IOR/F/4 Series, including how they were created, their format, and subject matter.
Finding Aid: IOR/F/4 Board’s Collections (1620-1859)
During the early ʿAbbāsid period (ninth century CE), a diverse group of scholars collaborated on the long-term project of translating an elaborate work of pure geometry dealing with the properties of the parabola, ellipse and hyperbola – Apollonius’ Conics.
Translating a Work of Higher Mathematics
Following the formation of Saudi Arabia in 1932, Britain continued to maintain close relations with the new state’s founder and ruler, King Ibn Sa‘ūd, although it would eventually be supplanted by the United States in its role as Saudi Arabia’s key western sponsor and protector.
Britain, Ibn Sa‘ūd, and Saudi Arabia, 1932-1953
An East India Company diary from the early nineteenth century demonstrates some of the challenges encountered when cataloguing older India Office records.
Cataloguing Challenges: The Bushire Residency Diaries 1803-07 as an Example
Early examples of watermarks in paper can display a variety of seemingly obscure imagery. What were these images attempting to communicate? Why were they used, and what is their significance?
The Imagery of Early Watermarks
A document written in the mid-1940s sheds light on how the Bushire Political Residency files came to be so well organised.
‘The life stream of an office’: Instructions for dealing with correspondence at the British Residency in Bushire
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Baluchistan and Makran, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: British Baluchistan and Makran
George Barnes Brucks was the first Englishman to survey the Gulf’s coasts in the 1820s. But while Brucks’s charts were quickly replaced by more accurate maps, his writings offer fascinating historic insight into the region.
George Barnes Brucks and the First English Survey of the Gulf
Viewed alternately as both luxury and necessity, ice has been valued in warm climates for millennia. Technological advances altered methods of producing, storing, and using ice, but it remained a highly sought-after and regulated product well into the twentieth century.
Ice: Hidden Depths below the Surface
In 1910, British officials discovered that the Persian authorities at Bandar-e Lengeh were charging travellers a domestic rate to travel to Bahrain, reigniting a decades-long dispute over Persian claims to the islands.
Passports and Politics: Britain and Persia’s Disagreements over Bahrain
The 1820 treaty between Britain and ten tribal rulers of the eastern Arabian coast marked the beginning of 150 years of British hegemony in the region, reshaping its political map in a way that is still evident today.
The Legacy of ‘The General Treaty’
This article looks at the India Office Records Map Collection’s holdings relating to the Arabian Peninsula and The Gulf. It considers why the India Office assembled such a significant collection for so distant a region, and outlines the variety and organisation of the material.
Maps of the Arabian Peninsula and The Gulf in the India Office Records Map Collection
It’s hard to imagine a natural resource as important to the history of the development of the Gulf States as oil. But in the early days of oil exploration, nothing was more important than water.
Water, not Oil, the Most Valuable Resource in the Gulf
Though nowadays Qatar is well-known for its immense natural oil and gas reserves and the rapid modernisation of society, it has a rich heritage of music and dance intimately related to pearl-diving, sea trade and Bedouin traditions.
Modernity meets Tradition: Reflections on traditional music in Qatar
Pesta and Rifi Songs, which developed in the twentieth century from Iraqi maqam, became more popular because they were recorded on shellac and broadcast throughout Iraq in the mid-century.
Love and Separation in Baghdad: Pesta and Rifi Songs on Shellac Discs
The period of Arab-Islamic rule in Spain, known as al-Andalus (92-897 AH/711-1492 CE), is renowned for its artistic and scientific richness, and its reputation for having nurtured tolerance and cultural exchange between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities.
Andalusī and Maghribī Scholarship: The legacy of Arabic in Spain
The Anglo-Qatar Treaty of 1916 strengthened existing ties between the two parties. What were the terms of the treaty, and what were the circumstances that led to it?
Keeping the Lion at Bay: The Anglo-Qatar Treaty of 1916
In the 1860s, speculation on Indian cotton, followed by failed harvests left Bombay’s banks in crisis and customers struggling to access funds. Lewis Pelly was one such customer.
The Bombay Banking Crisis
The family background, business activities, financial and political influence of the Qusaybi brothers, the eventual division of the family business, and their commercial and political legacy.
The Qusaybi Merchant Family: Agents and Financiers of Ibn Sa‘ud
An Islamic seal with an unusual bird design appears on a witness statement delivered by the Sheikh of Dubai to the British Resident in The Gulf, following a fatal gun battle in Dubai in 1910.
Guns ‘n’ Seals: An Unusual Seal indicates Cultural Influences in Dubai in 1910
During the First World War, leading members of the Hashemite dynasty accepted British support in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Their aspirations to lead independent Arab states succeeded, but survive today only in Jordan.
Out of the Hijaz: The Hashemite dynasty in the twentieth century
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Iraq, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: Iraq
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Oman, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: Oman
The movement for political reform in Kuwait in 1938 signified change in the region and highlights the country’s – and Britain’s – response to the ideas and forces that delivered it.
Kuwait’s Majlis Movement: National and regional developments brought into focus, 1938
During the first four centuries of Islam, almost all the Greek scientific literature available in manuscripts was translated into Arabic in an effort, centred on Baghdad, known as the ‘translation movement’.
Scientific Translators and Powerful Patrons
Played out against Oman’s imposing geographical position, the British relationship with Oman has changed from that of allies against common foe, through informal British imperial influence to an important trading and strategic partner today.
A Close Relationship: Britain and Oman since 1750
Among pre-modern Arabic scholars, the Almagest was generally regarded as the most authoritative work on astronomy. This esteem for Ptolemy's text, however, contrasted with a common practice among Arabic readers not to consult the Almagest directly but to rely on later commentaries for studying Ptolemy's theories.
Arabic Commentators on Ptolemy's Almagest
By offering military protection to Qatar, the British tried to ensure access to Qatari oil in the run-up to the Second World War. But why did Qatar need weapons and armoured cars in 1935?
Oil for Military Protection between the Wars: Qatar’s Request for Weapons and the British Response
Beyond Sykes and Picot, the India Office Records reveal the complex historical and political junctures that shaped the map of today's Middle East.
Just a Line in the Sand? The Making of an Arabian Border, 1925
During a period often characterised as one of decay and decline, the Andaluso-Tunisian astronomer Ibn al-Raqqām wrote his Risālah fī ‘ilm al-ẓilāl, the most important treatise on sundials of the Islamic West. The instruments he describes are much more elaborate and sophisticated than the surviving examples of Medieval sundials from al-Andalus and the Maghrib.
Ibn al-Raqqām’s treatise on sundials
Germany’s desire for ‘a place in the sun’ saw her challenge Britain’s commercial dominance in the Gulf in the early years of the twentieth century.
German Interests in the Gulf’s Pearling Industry
Thanks to the recording sessions at the first Arabic Music Congress in 1932 in Cairo, we can still listen to a selection of early Arabic music recordings. Additionally, several documents and reports are available, allowing us to learn about the formation of ‘Arabic music’ and musicological discussions in the first part of the twentieth century.
Microtones: The Piano and Muhammad Al-Qubanshi – The First Congress of Arabic Music and Early Recordings from Iraq
Sir Lewis Pelly was a key figure in the history of the Gulf owing to his role, as British Political Resident, in enforcing the region’s maritime peace treaties from 1862 to 1873.
A Portrait of Sir Lewis Pelly
Sharjah 1940, and Nazi radio broadcasts in Arabic filled the air, stirring pro-German sentiment amongst the town’s inhabitants – and provoking consternation amongst British officials.
Nazi Propaganda in Sharjah during World War II
While much remains unknown about the life of the first Meccan photographer, al-Sayyid ‘Abd al-Ghaffār, his 1880s photographs shed light on life in the holy city.
‘Abd al-Ghaffār: The First Meccan Photographer
Signed in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne is sometimes seen as a great victory for modern Turkey, but it left a troubling legacy.
Lausanne’s Legacy: A peace treaty that led to a century of conflict
While Britain’s more distinct political and strategic interests in the Gulf grew over time, it was initially a matter of textile trading with Persia that first lured them to the shores of the Gulf.
Foundation of an Empire: The East India Company’s Early Trade in Silk and Wool
Kept alive until today by a very small number of chalgi Baghdad ensembles and through remaining shellac recordings, Iraqi maqam is a sophisticated musical genre from urban Iraq that developed in the 1920s‒1940s.
Dusty Streets and Hot Music in Baghdad: Iraqi Maqam Music and Chalgi Ensembles
‘What can I buy from the current post holder?’ was the first consideration of a newly appointed British Agent in the Empire. Frequent moves meant that provisions, furniture and necessities for entertaining were bought and sold rather than transported with Agents from post to post.
Creature Comforts, Wine and Spirits: Inside the Home of a Peripatetic British Agent
From the early days of its existence, the East India Company sought a secure base, known as a factory, in the Gulf from which to conduct trade with Persia. In 1763, it finally established a base which would provide some continuity to its operations, namely Bushire.
The Political Residency, Bushire
Ptolemaic astronomy became known in mediaeval Europe mainly through translations from Arabic. Latin translations of the Almagest reflect the complex tradition of Ptolemy in the Arab world and show the translators' individual approaches to a demanding and unfamiliar science.
The Latin Reception of the Arabic Tradition of the Almagest
A thousand years ago, a high-ranking individual commissioned an astrological text on choosing the best moments to undertake important actions. But the stars held a terrible fate for him and his family.
Viziers, fears, and a manuscript: The tumultuous history of the al-Anbārī brothers
The death of the Persian Ambassador in Bombay almost spelled disaster for relations between Persia and British India in July 1802.
Anglo-Persian Relations: The Death of Hajji Khalil Khan, 1802
During the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran, Britain established the Anglo-Iranian Relief Fund not only to deliver humanitarian aid to the Iranian people, but also to justify and promote its military presence inside the country.
British humanitarian efforts as propaganda in Iran during the Second World War
Fifteenth-century Cairo was the place to be for astronomers and mathematicians. One scholar left his particular mark in a surprising variety of ways on the manuscript records of the period.
Reading, transmitting, and making books: The personal touch of Muḥammad Ibn Abī al-Fatḥ al-Ṣūfī, astronomer of Cairo
During WWII, secret instructions for the interception of post passing through the Gulf were circulated to Political Agents in Bahrain, Kuwait and Muscat.
Invisible Ink: Intercepting Post in Second World War
The dramatic decline of the Gulf’s pearling industry during the 1920s and 1930s, saw increasing numbers of pearl divers seek their freedom.
Twilight of Pearl Trade Sees ‘Slave’ Divers Seek Freedoms
In the immediate post-WWII period, despite British opposition, the U.S. sought to increase its influence in the Gulf by distributing propagandistic material in Arabic.
U.S. Propaganda in Post-WWII Bahrain
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Bahrain, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: Bahrain
Mathematicians in medieval Islamic societies were the first to grasp the real significance of Menelaus’ Spherics. They followed Menelaus’ approach to spherical geometry and went on to develop spherical trigonometry as an independent branch of mathematics.
Menelaus’ Spherics
The vast archive known as the India Office Records, occupying approximately nine miles of shelving in the British Library, contains the documents created or received in London by three organisations crucial to the British colonial effort in the period 1600–1858.
The India Office Records, 1600-1950 (IOR)
The Persia Collection: casting light on Britain’s thorny relationship with Persia [Iran] throughout the 1930s, Second World War, and Anglo-Soviet Occupation.
Finding Aid: IOR/L/PS/12/3390-3550 Political (External) Collection 28: Persia (Iran) (1903-1949)
What was the life of a diver like and how did the trade function? Papers in the India Office Records provide some fascinating clues.
Pearl Diving: Inside the Trade That Shaped the Gulf
The Private Papers of One of the Gulf’s Most Important Political Residents, 1862–72, provide a fascinating insight into British Policy in the period as well as providing a more personal insight into the life of a British official.
Lewis Pelly’s Private Papers (Mss Eur F126)
The extremely difficult and elaborate work of sailing ships and boats for pearl-diving and fishing in the Gulf region was essential in giving birth to a group of the most exciting music genres in the Arab world. Today, we wonder how this happened and how these genres could survive.
Fann Al-Baḥri: The great art of the sea
A candid exchange between British officials in the 1920s reveals the extent to which Britain had intervened in Bahrain in its own interest.
Britain’s ‘interest’ in Bahrain
An overview of Bahrain Political Agency files dealing with the impact of the Second World War on the Gulf region.
The British Empire in the Gulf during the Second World War
Common household practices such as consuming hot soups and drinks when one has caught a cold are rooted in humoral medicine, which was the dominant medical paradigm from the time of Galen to the nineteenth century (and beyond) across much of the world.
Galenic Humoral Pathology
The words camphor, lemon, syrup and tamarind all derive from Arabic formularies – books in which Arabic-speaking physicians and pharmacists preserved and adapted the knowledge of earlier civilisations and presented new drugs to the public.
Medieval Arabic Formularies: Compounds and Simples
In 1920, a gift from Ibn Saud in the form of a female oryx was the first ever to have survived the difficult journey from Arabia to London.
The King’s Oryx: Ibn Saud’s Diplomatic Gift to George V
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Iran, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: Iran
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and United Arab Emirates, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: United Arab Emirates
The death of an African sailor who had been severely flogged for attempted desertion, exposes the brutal nature of early nineteenth-century maritime life, in which justice could be as capricious as a strong tailwind.
Crime or Punishment? The Cruel Death of a Sailor at Bushire in 1820
How did an illustrated Arabic manuscript on the Art of War come into the possession of an illegitimate son of a King; his extraordinary and ultimately tragic life leading to its acquisition by the British Library?
An Earl, a Collection and a Gun: the Curious Provenance of a British Library Manuscript
The life and death of Claudius James Rich, author of 'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan' and the East India Company’s Resident at Baghdad.
Claudius James Rich: Administrator, traveller, author, and collector of manuscripts and antiquities
There are numerous records relating to high-level British officials in the Gulf, but the letters in the India Office Establishment Files also reveal the working conditions of the lower-paid ranks of Agency staff.
The Menial Establishment in Britain’s Political Agency, Bahrain
The uneasy union between British and Kurdish allies during the First World War gave way to hostilities in the war’s aftermath, as Britain failed to deliver on Kurdish hopes for independence.
Anglo-Kurdish Relations during the Mesopotamia Campaign (1914-1918)
An overview of records on the Qatar Digital Library created by Britain’s Residency Agency in present-day UAE (IOR/R/15/4), including a description of the records, the subjects they cover, and how they are organised.
Finding Aid: IOR/R/15/4 Residency Agency, Trucial Coast (1930-1951)
Mohamed Bin Fares and Dhahi Bin Walid are regarded as the founders of the traditional urban Gulf musical genre ṣawt, which is still performed in the region.
The Founders of Bahraini Sawt Music: Mohamed Bin Fares and Dhahi Bin Walid
In 1830, the long-term relationship between Prince Najaf Ali Khan Zand and the Government of Bombay was put to the test when the Prince was accused of murder.
The Politics of Foresight in nineteenth-century Anglo-Persian Relations: The Trial of Prince Najaf Ali Khan Zand
During the evacuation of British forces from Bushire, in the aftermath of the Anglo-Persian War (1856-57), tensions rose between two of Her Majesty’s public servants.
General John Jacob and Charles Murray: Chronicles of a Rancorous Relationship
J. G. Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia has long been used as a central source for the study of the region. Yet, it is essential to understand the contexts of its production in order to fully appreciate its content.
Colonial Knowledge: Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia
The arrest of a British Subject on spurious charges makes plain Britain’s dominant position in Kuwait in the late 1930s.
The Kuwait Cat’s Meat Crisis
Great Britain abolished the slave trade in its Empire in 1807, yet not only did it persist in the Gulf into the latter half of the nineteenth century, it flourished amid ineffectual British efforts towards its suppression.
Britain’s Ineffectual Efforts to Suppress the Slave Trade
Ibn Saud’s quest for recognition of his Arabian Kingdom, and how British Government officials turned their backs on the largest reserves of crude oil in the world.
Emir Faisal’s Diplomatic Mission and Britain’s Reluctance to Invest in Saudi Oil in 1932
Verbal abuse and physical attacks from those amongst which he lived, and denigration from foreign visitors; all part of the job of being a British Native Agent in Sharjah.
People in the Gulf: Native Agents at Sharjah
The EIC’s departure from Bushire in 1769 was one example of how, in the 17th and 18th centuries, groups of traders would settle, then relocate, along the Gulf coast with great adaptability, going where they could freely carry out their business.
The Mobility of Merchants in the Pursuit of Profit: The English withdraw from Bushire, 1769
British intelligence services obsessively monitored the travels of the ex-Sultan of Muscat and Oman, Sayyid Taymur bin Faysal Al Bu Sa‘id to East Asia. What were the reasons behind this and why did they fear a ‘New Order’ in Asia?
Japan, Islam, and Pan-Asianism: Echoes in the Gulf
Before oil, the inhabitants of the Gulf’s Arab coast depended on diving for natural pearls for their economic livelihoods. And, like oil, it was chiefly European and North American demand that dictated the success or failure of each pearling season.
Divers are a Pearl’s Best Friend: Pearl Diving in the Gulf 1840s–1930s
A small, unprepossessing file from the India Office Records contains some of the earliest surviving aerial photographs of Qatar, captured as the country was about to enter a new chapter in its history.
In Search of Landing Grounds: Views of Qatar from above, May 1934
Bertram Thomas completed his historic crossing of the Empty Quarter in 1931, then the largest territory in the world outside Antarctica still unexplored by Europeans. But why is he still a minor figure in the history of exploration and Empire?
Skull Measuring, Oil Seepages and Desert Crossings: Bertram Thomas and the exploration of the Arabian Peninsula, 1930-31
Over 800 manumission statements, collected by numerous British administrators in the Gulf over the course of three decades, offer invaluable insights into the lives and labours of the enslaved peoples of the Gulf region.
Manumission Statements: Insights into the Lives of the Gulf’s enslaved Population
The story of a Qatari shaikh from the early days of Doha.
‘Īsá bin Ṭarīf Āl Bin ‘Alī, Governor of Biddah (Doha), 1843-47
At the time of Sheikh Jāsim bin Muḥammad Āl Thānī’s death in 1913, his great wealth was revealed to the British in intelligence reports sent by Yūsuf bin Aḥmad Kanoo.
A Considerable Fortune: The wealth, and death, of Sheikh Jāsim Bin Muḥammad Āl Thānī, 1913
At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain’s concerns over a possible French invasion of India through Persia led to its deepening intervention in the Gulf.
The Impact of the Napoleonic Wars in the Gulf: The Franco-Persian Alliance and Napoleon’s Threat to India
The environment has greatly influenced life in the Gulf and Indian Ocean over the centuries. Before the era of steamships, a hugely significant factor affecting life and trade in this region were the winds of the Indian Ocean monsoon.
Muscat and the Monsoon
The remarkable travel journals of an Indian civil servant, who was an eyewitness to the military action at Ra’s al-Khaymah in 1819.
The Manuscript Journals of John Bax (Mss Eur F377)
With pearling in decline and oil exploitation on hold, what drove Bahrain’s economy between the World Wars?
Bahrain’s Economy: Buffeted between Pearls and Oil
Faced with the rise of a new power on land and an increase in attacks at sea, the British response at the start of the nineteenth century would lead to a new era of political and military intervention.
The East India Company, the problem of “piracy”, and the rise of the first Saudi state
Behind the label of piracy lies a hidden history of empire and ambition in the Gulf.
Pirates or Patriots?
Bahrain’s Order in Council gave the Political Agent the power to, on one hand, issue birth certificates, and on the other, to rule on capital punishment for convicted criminals.
Births, Marriages, Deaths: Bahrain’s ‘Order in Council’ in Action
From mosque timekeepers to royal astrologers, the manuscripts of the Islamic world reveal how science and the stars shaped faith, power, and daily life.
Finding Aid: Astronomy and Astrology in the Islamic World
Captain Owen’s plan to take over the portal town of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean put British officials in a contentious situation with the Sultan of Muscat and Zanzibar.
Mombasa: Britain’s Shortest-Lived Protectorate?
The India Office Private Papers offer a personal perspective on military, political, social and economic history over the period 1750–1947; in their private correspondence and diaries, people could write in different, often more open, ways.
The India Office Private Papers
Ṣawt, the urban music of the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf, has evolved from diverse musical traditions, including sea music, and was profoundly influenced by Indian, African and classical Arabic music.
Sing, Play, and Be Merry: The unique ṣawt music of the Arabian Peninsula
The QDL boasts roughly 800 maps of the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf. This is the first article in a series of five by the author, explaining cartographic terminology.
Part 1 – The Language of Maps: A map for every occasion
Lewis Pelly, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf 1862–72, witnessed rapid expansion in the value of trade in the region as well as political upheaval and crisis caused by famine.
Economy in Turmoil: Gulf Trade Hit by Piracy and Famine
From 1900 to 1933 the Persian Oil Concession was the backdrop to a stand-off between the British and newly-renamed Iran.
From Persia to Iran: the Politics of the Change of Name and its Impact on the Oil Concession
In a corner of Baghdad’s British cemetery lies Gertrude Bell – archaeologist, explorer, political officer, and more. Who was she and how did she come to wield so much power?
Gertrude Bell and the Middle East: From archaeologist to state builder and a possible informer
The subject of railways appears time and again in the India Office Records. What was Britain’s obsession with them and how did they transform how Britain thought about, protected, and ran its empire?
Technologies of Power: Railway Records and What They Can Tell Us
The British Empire used new technologies to counter the problem of cross-border raiding in the newly formed Kingdom of Iraq.
Raiding on the Iraqi-Najdi Frontier: Britain's use of new technologies on new borders, 1921-1929
In medieval Islamic societies, education in the mathematical sciences was based not on solving problems, or producing new results, but rather on careful study of the accomplishments of past masters.
Studying the Mathematical Sciences
From East India Company intelligence to news of the discovery of oil, the India Office Records demonstrate the exchanges that took place between Britain and Qatar over the last three centuries.
Qatari History: Pivotal Moments Revealed in India Office Records
For centuries, the Gulf has been a crucial axis of global communication. This was certainly the case in 1783 when news of American Independence travelled to India.
The Basra Overland Mail: Conveying news of American Independence through the Gulf, 1783
How the anti-British sentiments of a British adviser assisted the foundation of Saudi Arabia.
‘Calls himself an Englishman’: The shifting loyalties of Harry Philby
Known variously as the Iraqi Revolt, the 1920 Rebellion, or the Great Iraqi Revolution, this uprising swept across Mesopotamia, threatening Britain’s wartime gains and challenging its imperialist authority.
The Iraq Rebellion of 1920: Empire in crisis
Britain and its Allies maintained supremacy over the Gulf’s airspace during the Second World War, but mechanical failure could quickly turn the tables, making crewmen dependent on the region’s local population for their survival.
Air Crashes in the Gulf during the Second World War
With the oil industry booming in Bahrain in the early 1930s, BAPCO oil workers, amongst others, lobbied for the first cinemas to be established.
Priority Air Freight to Serve Bahrain’s First Cinemas
Colophons do more than date a manuscript – they let us hear scribes speak, revealing their identities, anxieties, lineages, and the cities in which they worked. This is part three in a series of three.
Part 3: Scribes, Places, and the Human Voices of Colophons
With the city of Muscat in disarray and growing dissent on the coast, the absent Imam of Muscat had to rely on his close relative to take charge and defend his territories. The person to assume this mantle? Influential, commanding, and female.
In the Absence of Men: Female Leaders in 1832 Oman
In a pre-internet age of slow-travelling news, just how could a message be sent from London to Basra in 22 days?
London to Basra in Twenty-Two Days
In the ninth century, Ḥunayn ibn Ishāq decided to explain Greek terminology, instead of simply adopting it, in his translations of the medical treatises of Galen. In doing this he helped establish Arabic as an international language of science.
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and the Rise of Arabic as a Language of Science
For over thirty years, Charles Belgrave was an immensely powerful figure in Bahrain who played an instrumental role in its development but by 1957 he had become so unpopular he was forced to leave and never set foot in the country again.
Charles Belgrave – The Adviser
New communication technologies transformed bookkeeping practice at the British Residency in Bushire.
Telegraphs and Typewriters: The Impact of Technology on Bookkeeping at Bushire
Qatar’s exploratory wells were drilled relatively late, although Major Frank Holmes sought an exploratory lease in 1922.
The Qatar Oil Concession Ushers in a New Era for British Relations with Doha
The 1930s was the decade that transformed the Gulf from its role as conduit between Britain and her empire to a strategic locus in the run-up to the war and a ‘highway between east and west’.
The 1930s: the Gulf as ‘Highway between East and West’
The marriage of Muhammad Reza Pahlavi and Fawziyyah Fu’ad in 1939 sparked excitement and interest well beyond their two countries. British records shed light on the commemoration and significance of this ultimately ill-fated union.
A ‘Great and Happy Union’: The marriage of Iran’s Muhammad Reza Pahlavi and Egypt’s Fawziyyah Fu’ad, 1939
This article compares visual material from across the QDL and other digital collections to illustrate and identify colonialism in landscape photography.
The Morning of Time: Colonialism and photography
An unassuming financial file that forms part of the India Office Records contains an unexpected example of British, Arabic-language propaganda.
‘For the Sake of Freedom’: British World War II Propaganda Posters in Arabic
The scrapbooks of Augustus Fortunatus Bellasis reveal the eye of an artist within the life of a nineteenth-century administrator.
Sketching Empire: The scrapbooks of civil servant and artist Augustus Fortunatus Bellasis
The first crossing of the Arabian Peninsula by a European, revealed in glimpses by the early correspondence of the Bushire Residency, was indicative of the East India Company beginning to look beyond the Gulf littoral and into Central Arabia.
The Accidental Explorer: George Sadleir and Britain’s entry into Central Arabia, 1819
An overview of India Office Military Department records relating to Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Finding Aid: IOR/L/MIL Records of the Military Department (1708-1957)
Today’s leaders look to their medical, economic, military, and other expert advisers, but historically rulers have also consulted astrologers, dream-interpreters, and specialists in other forms of divination and occult sciences.
Power and Prognostication in the Cairo Sultanate
Behind every scribal date lies a puzzle: multiple calendars, variant month names, approximate formulae, and the interpretive challenges they pose for modern readers. This is part two in a series of three.
Part 2: Dating Manuscripts: Calendars, months, and the complexities of time in colophons
A 1787 letter requesting plants from the Persian Gulf for a newly established botanical garden in Kolkata illuminates the way in which the pursuit of scientific knowledge became part of the EIC’s global economic endeavour.
A Quest for Knowledge: The Basra Date Palm, the Botanical Garden in Bengal
Who were the Bania, and how are they depicted in the India Office Records?
The “Bania” of the Gulf
A government department unique in its scope and power, the India Office had a profound impact on the history of the Gulf.
The India Office: The Government, in London, of British India
A religious disagreement in 1930 between the Sultanate of Muscat and American missionaries in Muscat reveals more than just a battle for souls.
The Affair of the Muscat ‘Christian’ Widow
Not only did the Asian subcontinent’s hot and humid climate present a significant threat to the health of British administrators, but it also presented new challenges to their business of recordkeeping.
A Nineteenth-Century Approach to the Conservation of Government Records
A number of key moments in the life of Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa are recorded in the India Office Records.
Episodes from the Life of Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
The vast trove of material held at the British Library that pertains to Britain’s Colonial exploits owe their present organisation in part to the early acknowledgement by officials in the EIC and India Office of the importance of record-keeping.
History of the India Office Records and Private Papers
Although British power in the Gulf was founded on maritime truces with local rulers, in the early 20th century land-based attacks increased, creating the need for new agreements.
When Maritime Protection Is Not Enough: Britain’s Agreement to Protect Qatar’s Borders at Sea and on Land
Ḥunayn Ibn Isḥāq: a Medieval Arab scholar who transformed his understanding of ancient Greek medical texts into manuals for the benefit of many successive generations of students.
The Making of Medical Manuals: The 'Questions and Answers' Format in Ḥunayn Ibn Isḥāq’s Medical Manuals
In spite of legally abolishing slavery in its Empire in 1833, the British Government struggled to eradicate the practice in its protectorates in the Gulf.
Manumission, Not Abolition: British Mediations over Slavery in the Gulf
A small selection of memoirs by retired political officers provides a unique insight into one generation’s experiences of living and working in the Gulf.
Personal Reflections on Life in the Gulf during the Last Years of Empire
Only by mapping and surveying Aden fully were the British able to plan for its reconstruction and fortification, thereby facilitating trade and other shipping to and from India and beyond.
Mapping Aden: The British Occupation of A Vital Trading Port
Growing tensions between the British and the Sheikh of Dubai led to a gun battle in 1910 that cost numerous lives and did long-term damage to relations between the British and locals on the Trucial Coast.
The Dubai Incident, 1910: A Gun Battle that Damaged British relations with the Trucial Coast
The life and times of Shaikh Khaz’al bin Jābir bin Mirdāw al-Ka‘bī (1861-1936), the Emir of Mohammerah and chief of the Banu Ka’b tribe.
The Shaikh who lost his Shaikhdom, Khaz’al al-Ka‘bī of Mohammerah
The struggle for power in Muscat 1866–68 following the death, in suspicious circumstances, of Sayyid Thuwaynī bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd, Sultan of Muscat.
Assassination and Intrigue in Muscat 1866–68
How do you reduce communication times between the Gulf and India, from months, to a matter of weeks?
Telegraphy: The Gulf’s Most Admired Means of Communication in the 1860s
Captivating extracts from the Middle Eastern press found in the India Office Records offer a unique insight into the region. What do they comprise, and why were they kept?
Records Within Records: A survey of Middle Eastern newspaper extracts found in the India Office Records
In the thirteenth century, Ibn al-Nafīs wrote a substantial commentary on Avicenna’s entire Canon of Medicine thereby revising existing understandings of human physiology and anatomy. His theory of the pulmonary transit of blood formed a cornerstone of the modern theory of blood circulation.
Ibn al-Nafīs and Pulmonary Transit
The Death of Karim Khan Zand, ruler of Persia, in 1779 marked the beginning of a bloody period lasting 15 years and culminating in the rise to power of the Qajar dynasty.
The Brutal End of Persia’s Zand Dynasty, 1779-1794
The untimely death of John Gordon Lorimer, acting Resident in the Persian Gulf 1913–14, was seen as a tragedy. Yet, his legacy – in the form of his Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia – emerged forty years later and has remained central to the study of the Gulf ever since.
‘Persian Gulf Tragedy’: the Death and Legacy of John Gordon Lorimer
Wherever European navies sailed, they introduced their own designs of ships and adapted those they saw being used locally. This is the second article in a series of three by the author, providing context and explanation for nautical terminology in the India Office Records.
Part 2 – Nautical Terminology in the IOR files: European Ships in the Age of Sail
In the Sultanate of Oman, traditional music, poetry and dance are still part and parcel of everyday life and national celebrations alike.
Sea meets Desert: Reflections on traditional music in Oman
Despite inauspicious beginnings, Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ’s official visit to England in 1919 proved a success.
Shaikh Ahmad goes to England: The Politics of Official State Visits
The short-lived escapades of the Sponge Exploration Syndicate.
The Humble Petition of the Sponge Exploration Syndicate
Six videos demonstrating the replication of a specific eighteenth-century manuscript's binding by the British Library's conservator, Flavio Marzo.
Replication of an Eighteenth Century Manuscript Binding
What is a kharita, what are its main components, and how was it dispatched?
Kharita: royal letter dispatching in nineteenth-century Afghanistan
The sources of the British Library’s Arabic scientific manuscripts are many and various. Here we discover an individual who contributed to the collection and lived an adventurous life in London and the Middle East.
The Baghdadi Bookseller of Bloomsbury
Considered deadly to the “European constitution”, the hot and humid climate of the Gulf was blamed for the deaths of countless British officials in the early nineteenth century.
A Deadly Climate
Around 150 AD Claudius Ptolemaeus wrote the great handbook of astronomy, later known as the Almagest, which became the prevalent handbook for the knowledge of the stars in Europe for about 1500 years. The text was handed on to the Europeans through Arabic translations in the ninth century AD, and translated into Latin in the twelfth century.
The Arabic Translations of Ptolemy's Almagest
The Qatar Digital Library contains over 800 records with French-language material from the India Office Records, spanning many centuries. This is the second article in a series of two and explores French-language records arising from contexts beyond France and French policies.
Finding Aid: French-language Sources, Part 2 – Beyond France
Prior to the construction of the Suez Canal, nineteenth-century British officials explored an alternative route between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
Steaming Ahead: The Euphrates Expedition of 1835-36
In the pre-modern Arabic-speaking lands, as the world over, the lives of people and animals were intertwined in manifold ways. This resulted in the production of numerous Arabic scientific, veterinary, and related texts on the world of beasts.
The usefulness of animals in the Arabic scientific tradition
‘Islamic’ and ‘Western’ are terms used to describe different styles of binding but experts agree that much further research is required to create more meaningful categories.
‘Islamic Style’ Binding: A Misleading Term Ripe for Further Research
The reign of Said bin Taimur was marked by financial troubles from the outset, but despite his more active role in the 1930s, a rebellion in the province of Dhofar ultimately cost him the Sultanate.
The Financial Troubles of Said bin Taimur
An Italian bombing raid brought Bahrain into the Second World War’s ‘zone of operations’, sparking fear amongst Bahrainis and concerns amongst the British over the safety of the islands’ strategic oil installations.
The Second World War Comes to Bahrain
An overview of the records created by the Bahrain Political Agency, 1899-1953
Finding Aid: IOR/R/15/2 Political Agency, Bahrain (1899-1953)
In the late 1940s an American Mission Hospital was in development in Doha. The response of British officials seems to have been motivated more by the demands of the nascent oil industry and concerns over loss of influence than intrinsic concern for the health of the people of Qatar.
A Dispensary for Doha: healthcare, subterfuge, and external political influence in late 1940s Qatar
Western naval bases have played a significant part in colonial history, and remain an important factor in international relations today. This article explores the early history of the establishment and proliferation of British naval bases in the Gulf.
British Naval Bases in the Gulf, 1820-1935: A History of Tensions
Astrology was considered a scientific discipline in the Middle Ages, when political powers patronised astronomical research that was considered necessary for obtaining ‘scientific’ astrological predictions.
Sahl ibn Bishr and the Rise of Astrology in Abbasid Times
How did an Agent of the East India Company use his position to collect the manuscripts that went to form the basis of the British Library’s Arabic-language collection?
The Taylor Collection
Although relatively little is known about the early years of Sultan Qaboos bin Sa‘id Al Bu Sa‘id, his experience of growing up secluded in Salalah may well explain the solitary nature of his fifty-year rule.
The Lesser-Known Early Years of Sultan Qaboos
In the early 20th century, British Officials responsible for the administration of justice in cases concerning British subjects and foreigners in the Gulf had to maintain a delicate balance, so as not to stoke bad relations between neighbouring states.
Legal Business: The Judicial Aspects of British Rule in the Gulf
In 1923, the Government of India advised the Sultan of Muscat and Oman not to allow one Sulayman al-Baruni to enter his territory. Who was this ‘undesirable intriguer’ and why were British officials so suspicious of him?
Sulayman al-Baruni: The life of an Ibadhi scholar and statesman in North Africa and Oman 1872-1940
A colonial officer named Hickinbotham illustrates the everyday boredom of administrating the Empire with his practical jokes and escapist reading list.
‘Imperial Boredom’ and Imperial Reading
Ships have always been important in the history of the Gulf, and therefore are prominent in the India Office Records and other documents on the QDL. This is the first article in a series of three by the author, providing context and explanation for nautical terminology in the records.
Part 1 – Nautical Terminology in the IOR files: An introduction
In recognising the importance of the trade, British colonial records cast light on the state of the ancient trade in Frankincense in the Dhofar region at the end of the 19th century, as well as some conflicts that emerged as a result.
Frankincense in Dhofar: An Ancient Trade at the Centre of 19th Century Tensions
While much of the world was experiencing the effects of global war in the first half of the 1940s, the Gulf by contrast was an oasis of calm.
The 1940s: Perfect Peace in the Midst of War
Archival records on the Qatar Digital Library can help to challenge traditional assumptions and paint a fuller picture regarding the role of women in nineteenth-century Oman.
‘Ridiculous Falsehoods’: Archival Sources on Women in Nineteenth-Century Oman
Former slaves employed in the Indian Navy’s crews in the mid-19th century often exploited the itinerant existence of naval vessels to escape servitude.
Between Freedom and Slavery: The Employment of Runaway Slaves in the Indian Navy
Over several centuries, the close relationship between individual explorers of the Arabian Peninsula and the British Empire was made clear in often unpublished journals and accounts held in the India Office Records.
Thesiger’s Clothes: Empire and Exploration in the Arabian Peninsula
When and where did the sciences practised in the Islamic world during the so-called Golden Age originate?
The Beginnings of Science in the Islamic World
Against the dramatic international backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, the British in Constantinople, Syria and Persia ensured that they kept one step ahead of a mysterious French officer.
Napoleon’s Agent: Monitoring the Movements of Monsieur Romieu in the East
In the tempestuous history of the British Residency at Mocha, one of the most notable incidents was the bombardment of the city in December 1820. This followed allegations from British officials and Arab leaders of shocking misconduct on both sides.
The ‘disgraceful treatment’ of Lieutenant Dominicetti: The Bombardment of Mocha in 1820
An overview of the records created by Britain’s Political Residency at Bushire between 1763 and 1948, including a description of the records and the subjects they cover.
Finding Aid: IOR/R/15/1 Political Residency, Bushire (1763-1948)
How and why were the early voyages of the East India Company made? What were the challenges and first encounters?
The Third Voyage of the English East India Company (1607-1610)
For eight hundred years, the Arabic scientific tradition was superior to that found in western Eurasia. It gave birth to new theories and fields of scientific inquiry that laid the foundations for the Scientific Revolution, and continued to flourish thereafter.
Arabic Scientific Tradition
Join a musician and a curator for a deep dive into a unique work on musical notation from sixteenth-century Damascus.
Melodies and Music Theory: In conversation with Maya Youssef
How a state of the art communications technology arrived in Bahrain in 1916.
The Coming of the Wireless Telegraph to Bahrain
Long before modern laboratories, alchemists writing in Arabic within the Islamic world developed techniques and systems of classifications that shaped modern chemistry.
From Alchemy to Chemistry: Muslim scholars and the science of matter
Much Anglocentric writing on Gulf history credits the British with bringing peace to the region. But how accurate is that narrative? A close inspection of the India Office Records reveals another picture of the British presence in the Gulf.
The Persian Gulf Squadron: British Hegemony in the Gulf?
From its foundation at the end of the eighteenth century, the British Residency in Baghdad occupied a strategically important position, linking together various strands of British imperial engagement in the region.
The British Residency in Baghdad
There is still so much we do not know about the history of independent Arab recording companies in the ‘shellac era’ (1897-1960s). A handful of record sleeves, that would have once been thrown away, tell us about how some of them were connected.
Arabic Music Record Sleeves and What They Can Tell Us
An overview of the records created by the UK’s Political Agency at Kuwait between 1904 and 1949, and an examination of some of the subjects covered.
Finding Aid: IOR/R/15/5 Political Agency, Kuwait (1904-1949)
During the nineteenth century, the Gulf was a hive of economic activity, with merchant ships carrying precious cargoes back and forth to India, making fortunes for traders. But it could also be hazardous for sailors.
The Perils of Shipwreck
The QDL contains a wealth of material covering the early years of the oil industry in the Gulf and surrounding region. This is the first article in a series of two.
Finding Aid: Sources on Oil, Part 1 – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Iran
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Kuwait, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: Kuwait
Oman’s lease of a major Persian port was defined by obscure origins, and a relationship that was generally uneasy and often contentious – a situation that British authorities were happy to exploit. This is the first article in a series of two.
No Place Equal to It: The Omani Lease of Bandar Abbas, Part 1 – 1794-1848
During the American Civil War (1861–65) cotton supplies to Britain’s textile mills dwindled, causing a boom in production elsewhere in the Empire.
How the American Civil War Caused a Boom in Cotton in Persia
It was an event that provoked anxiety among Persians and foreign traders alike and was to trigger a period of profound instability in Iran: the death, in 1779, of the ruler of Persia, Karim Khan Zand.
The ‘Dreaded’ Death of Karim Khan Zand, Ruler of Persia
Due to increased tensions between the British and French, in the 1780s, the Gulf was drawn into a global battle for supremacy. Spying was a significant aspect of the struggle to control strategic shipping routes.
Spies, Ships and Strategic Communication: Anglo-French Competition in the Gulf
Simone Corbiau (1900-74) was a Belgian archaeologist who reinvented herself as a portrait painter and may also have been involved in espionage in the Middle East.
Simone Corbiau: Archaeologist, artist, and possible spy
From pre-Islamic roots to influential foot messengers in Persia, who were the shaters and how did they rise through the ranks?
Shater: the origins and history of the Persian foot messenger
Looking to strengthen Persia as a potential buffer for the defence of India, Britain provided military assistance to the Crown Prince of Persia in his struggle against Russian expansion into the Caucasus.
Anglo-Persian Relations: The British Military Mission to Persia, 1810-1815
Cultural appropriation was as much a part of empire as military force. The use of ‘Islamic’ seals by British colonial officials is one example of this.
Performing Authority: the ‘Islamic’ Seals of British Colonial Officers
How did a fourteenth century illustrated ‘Treatise on the Art of Riding and using the Instruments of War’ end up in the British Library’s Arabic manuscript collection? A ‘Nincumpoop’ of the Napoleonic era, who moonlighted as an antiquarian, holds the answer.
Sir Thomas Reade: The ‘Nincumpoop’ Collector of Arabic Manuscripts
In AD 137, Ptolemy compiled a catalogue of forty-eight constellations containing 1022 stars. ʽAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī revised critically Ptolemy’s catalogue, added new stars and identified those appearing in the Arabic folk tradition.
ʽAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī and the Revision of Ptolemy’s Star Catalogue
From its boom years to its eventual decline, the Gulf pearl industry features in a wealth of QDL material.
Finding Aid: Sources on the Gulf’s Pearl Industry and Trade
A deep dive into the world of surveying and the techniques used to produce maps. This is the second article in a series of five by the author, explaining cartographic terminology.
Part 2 – The Language of Maps: Surveyors of all they see
As the oil industry developed in the late 1940s, Britain was keen to place a Political Agent in Qatar. To do this the British had to come to an understanding with the Shaikh of Qatar on matters of slavery without being seen to interfere.
Petroleum and the politics of non-interference: the first Political Officer in Qatar
What do the Gombroon Diaries convey about eighteenth-century Persia [Iran] and the Gulf (1708-1763)?
Finding Aid: IOR/G/29/2-14 Gombroon (Bandar ‘Abbas) Diaries and Consultations (1708-1763)
Against a backdrop of bold manoeuvres by different states in the nineteenth century, the British Agent at the Court of the Imam of Muscat wrote numerous letters focused on small matters of prestige.
Soft Power, Harsh Rivalries at the Court of the Imam of Muscat
The shipwreck in 1852 of a merchant vessel off the Oman coast, led to the plunder and loss of enough indigo to supply the entire Gulf region for a year.
The Indigo Trade in the Gulf in the Nineteenth Century
Musandam’s majestic sea cliffs, inlets, and strategic location have always attracted the attention of external powers. British support in enforcing the writ of the Sultan of Muscat on the Peninsula has been vitally important since the mid-nineteenth century.
British Power, the Al Bu Sa‘id Sultanate, and the Musandam Peninsula, 1800-1932
The British Government had a strong interest in Kharg, a small, strategically placed island in the Gulf.
A Strategic Position: British seizures of the Island of Kharg, 1838, 1856
What do the records created by the British Political Agency at Muscat have to offer us?
Finding Aid: IOR/R/15/6 Political Agency, Muscat (1828-1951)
Scribal notes in a Mughal-period manuscript of fourteen musical texts shed light on its historical context and the process of its creation.
A Mughal Musical Miscellany: the creation of Or. 2361
The road to Egyptian independence was not straightforward. It involved a long, delicate, and often conflicting balance between British strategic interests and Egyptian nationalist aspirations.
The Making of Independent Egypt
When Captain Francis Erskine Loch arrived in the Gulf, he very quickly made an impact that would continue to have implications for British attitudes to the Gulf for over 200 years.
Francis Loch and the British quest to eradicate “piracy” in the Gulf
Sir Lewis Pelly is a key figure in the history of the Gulf who, in his role as Political Resident, was Britain’s senior official in the region from 1862 to 1873. He holds particular importance for Qatar due to his recognition of its independent sovereignty in 1868.
The Emergence of Qatar: Pelly’s Role in Britain’s 1868 Recognition of the State
Keen to maintain peace and wary of inflaming relations with the Trucial Shaikhs, in 1910 the Government of India censured those responsible for a bloody bombardment of Dubai and its aftermath.
The Response of the Government of India to ‘The Dubai Incident’
The culmination of extensive travel and research, George Curzon’s Persia and the Persian Question was a critical success. Yet was its author happy with it?
George Curzon’s Persia and the Persian Question: Published, yet unfinished?
There are many different types of vessels used from the Red Sea to India. All of them have developed over the years to suit the local conditions. This is the third article in a series of three by the author, providing context and explanation for nautical terminology in the India Office Records.
Part 3 – Nautical Terminology in the IOR files: Non-European Ships in the Age of Sail
What can British records tell us about the lived experience of famine in Iran and how relief was organised and contested?
Hunger, Disease, and Relief: The Persian Famine of 1870-72
Murder, suicide, communal riots, racial snobbery and a colourful, much-maligned British Agent caught up in the midst of it all: a record of life in Gwadar 1928–32.
M. Waris Ali’s ‘Absurd’ Account: A Native Agent and the Riots at Gwadar
Far from mere formulae, colophons are miniature historical archives that illuminate the lives, practices, and environments of the scribes who shaped the Arabic manuscript tradition. This is part one in a series of three.
Part 1: Reading the Ends of Manuscripts: How colophons reveal scribal worlds
The establishment of the Bahrain Agency in 1900 cemented previous British interest in the Persian Gulf and set the tone for increased economic and political involvement in the 20th century.
The Political Agency, Bahrain: Inside the Organisation that Ran Britain's Interests in Bahrain
Appearing in files from Bahrain in the 1930s, the terms ‘Holi’ (singular) and ‘Hawala’ (plural) are not immediately recognisable to most readers. Gulf History cataloguers take a closer look at the terms to decipher their meanings.
Home and Away: The Itinerant History of the Hawala Arabs
During WWII food shortages in the Middle East caused by locust swarms were tackled by a largely forgotten, but ultimately successful war supported by British administrators in the Gulf.
The Forgotten War against Locusts that Helped Win the War
The QDL contains a wealth of material covering the early years of the oil industry in the Gulf and surrounding region. This is the second article in a series of two.
Finding Aid: Sources on Oil, Part 2 – Iraq, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates
Between the world wars, Reza Shah Pahlavi brought great changes to Iran and a challenge to British predominance in the Gulf, the legacy of which is still felt in the region.
Reza Shah Pahlavi and the Gulf
A minor incident at Basaidu in the 1930s led to the Royal Navy launching its First Destroyer Flotilla on a tour of the Gulf, in a very public display of its naval dominance over the region.
The Flotilla Tour of 1933: A Demonstration of British Naval Power in the Gulf
The interception by an East India Company vessel in June 1853, of a Bahrain trading vessel carrying slaves in the Gulf, reveals a story of politics and diplomacy, disease and death.
Diplomacy, Disease and Death: A Story of Georgian Slaves in the Gulf
Upon the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, instructions sent to the Native Agent at Sharjah on how to visibly mourn her death reveal aspects of the construction of empire via ritual mourning practices.
The Death of Queen Victoria: the Politics of Mourning for the British in the Gulf
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Qatar, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Historical Profile: Qatar
How geophysicists working in the Gulf were able to contribute in the 1930s to the scientific community’s understanding of the earth’s magnetic field.
Kuwait, Carnegie, and Terrestrial Magnetic Observations
A vast array of cartographic material has been hidden amongst the India Office Records’ administrative files; this material provides a fascinating insight into the workings of British imperial knowledge gathering in the Gulf and beyond.
Cartographic Material in India Office Reports
Until the 19th century, European powers considered much of the Gulf coastline to be hazardous, but the 1820 survey recorded vital details that contributed to later British involvement in the region.
Important Work: The British 1820 Survey that Charted the Gulf for the First Time
A guide to the Departmental Papers: Political and Secret Separate (or Subject) Files (IOR/L/PS/10), describing what the files represent, their subject matter, how they are organised, and the different types of papers they contain.
Finding Aid: IOR/L/PS/10 Departmental Papers: Political and Secret Separate (or Subject) Files (1902-1931)
The Qatar Digital Library contains over 800 records with French-language material from the India Office Records, spanning many centuries. This is the first article in a series of two and explores French-language records relating to France itself.
Finding Aid: French-language Sources, Part 1 – France
In the medieval and early modern periods, the same group of individuals who developed new mathematical methods and theories were often directly involved in the historical, philological preservation of ancient texts.
Competing Theories of Spherical Trigonometry
A little known first-hand account, that the British Agents in Bahrain garnered by chance, sheds light on William Henry Irvine Shakespear’s death.
The Death of Captain Shakespear, 1915
Negotiation and improvisation formed the basis of the Gulf’s early aviation industry.
Negotiating the Origins of the Gulf’s Aviation Industry
The removal of original backgrounds and inscriptions reveals a tension between the photographers ‘Abd al-Ghaffār and Snouck Hurgronje in terms of their process, approach to and outlook on photography.
From the Individual to the Archetypal: ‘Abd al-Ghaffār’s Edited Photographic Portraits
Papers highlighting a difference in 1915 between Western and Arab interpretations of judicial procedure in Bahrain may not be representative of the history of Britain’s jurisdiction in the Gulf as a whole.
Khidma: Britain’s Pragmatic Approach to Justice in the Gulf
While Britain more famously held naval bases in Basaidu, Hengam, and Bahrain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, less is known about the small base on the Musandam Peninsula, which was at one time envisaged as the centre of British power in the region.
‘Gibraltar at the head of the Gulf’: The Base that Wasn’t
A rejected nationalist delegation became the spark that set Egypt ablaze in revolution.
A Rejection of Protection: The Egyptian Uprising of 1919
What was the purpose of Sir Lewis Pelly’s trip through Afghanistan in 1860?
Journey through Afghanistan, 1860
For over a hundred years, in tandem with the colonisation of Palestinian land, Palestinian history has been systematically erased, suppressed, and distorted. The QDL however contains multiple sources on Palestine and Palestinians.
Finding Aid: Sources on Palestine
Ownership of a medal of the Order of the Lion and Sun becomes the subject of an unseemly quarrel, as related by the British Envoy in Tehran.
An Embarrassing Diplomatic Dispute in Baghdad, 1847
Wherever British merchants, sailors, or officials went, they left behind permanent markers of their presence in the form of cemeteries and other memorials. These cemeteries often caused political and religious issues for both their creators and the rulers of the countries in which they were located.
The Politics of Death: British cemeteries in the Gulf Region
The private papers of George Nathaniel Curzon offer a window on the workings of the British Empire.
Finding Aid: Mss Eur F111-112 Papers of the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1866-1925)
http://www.qdl.qa/en/articles-from-our-experts
