Articles From Our Experts

Filter articles by:
14 of 239 articles to explore
The Baghdadi Bookseller of Bloomsbury
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
Anglo-Kurdish Relations during the Mesopotamia Campaign (1914-1918)
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)
The Imperial Railway in British-Occupied Mesopotamia
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
Country Profile: Iraq
An overview of the key moments from the history of interaction between the British and Iraq, as illustrated through the India Office Records.
Country Profile: Iraq
Love and Separation in Baghdad: Pesta and Rifi Songs on Shellac Discs
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
Technologies of Power: Railway Records and What They Can Tell Us
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
Finding Aid: IOR/L/MIL Records of the Military Department (1708-1957)
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)
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
The British Residency in Baghdad
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
Dusty Streets and Hot Music in Baghdad: Iraqi Maqam Music and Chalgi Ensembles
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
London to Basra in Twenty-Two Days
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
Finding Aid: Departmental Papers: Political and Secret Separate (or Subject) Files
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: Departmental Papers: Political and Secret Separate (or Subject) Files
Claudius James Rich: Administrator, traveller, author, and collector of manuscripts and antiquities
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
Steaming Ahead: The Euphrates Expedition of 1835-36
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