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The Taylor Collection
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
A Portrait of Sir Lewis Pelly
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
The Prize Agents of 1857 and the Acquisition of the Delhi Collection
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
Finding Aid: Mss Eur F111-112 Papers of the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1866-1925)
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)
General John Jacob and Charles Murray: Chronicles of a Rancorous Relationship
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
Creature Comforts, Wine and Spirits: Inside the Home of a Peripatetic British Agent
‘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
People in the Gulf: Native Agents at Sharjah
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
‘Ridiculous Falsehoods’: Archival Sources on Women in Nineteenth-Century Oman
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
The “Bania” of the Gulf
Who were the Bania, and how are they depicted in the India Office Records?
The “Bania” of the Gulf
Journey through Afghanistan, 1860
What was the purpose of Sir Lewis Pelly’s trip through Afghanistan in 1860?
Journey through Afghanistan, 1860
George Curzon’s Persia and the Persian Question: Published, yet unfinished?
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?
Diplomacy, Disease and Death: A Story of Georgian Slaves 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
Pelly’s Unprecedented Trip to Riyadh
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
Kharita: royal letter dispatching in nineteenth-century Afghanistan
What is a kharita, what are its main components, and how was it dispatched?
Kharita: royal letter dispatching in nineteenth-century Afghanistan