Abstract: The file contains the following title deeds: title deed in Arabic, with plan on reverse, and accompanying translation in English, recording exchange of land by the British Government of a piece of land at Ghosaibia, Manamah [Manama] with the Government of Bahrain, for a plot of land situated at Ummul Hassam, Manamah for a sum of 3304 rupees dated 1 February 1944, by which the piece of land situated at Ghosaibia became the property of the Bahrain Government; and title deed in Arabic, with plan on reverse, and accompanying translation in English, recording transfer by the Bahrain Government of a piece of land situated at Umm al Hasam, Manamah to the British Government in exchange for a plot of land owned by them at Qadhaibieh, Manamah for a sum of 3304 rupees, dated 3 February 1944, by which the piece of land situated at Umm al Hasam became the property of the British Government;The file also contains a covering memorandum from the Political Agent, Bahrain, Major Tom Hickinbotham, to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, dated 15 April 1944, explaining that in order to provide the necessary separation between transmitters and receivers situated in the Royal Navy base [at Jufair] it had been necessary to acquire a transmitting site in the area by exchanging a piece of land at Qudhaibia belonging to the Royal Air Force for a property belonging to the Sheikh of Bahrain at Umm al Hassan.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation system in use commences at 1 on the front cover, and continues through to 7 on the back cover. The sequence is written in pencil, enclosed in a circle, and appears in the top right hand corner of the recto page of each folio. A second sequence, numbered 24-30, appears on all the pages bearing text between ff. 2-6. This sequence is also written in pencil, and appears in a similar position to the main sequence.
Abstract: Distinctive Features:Title corrected to: ‘Sketch map of the QATAR PENINSULA’.Relief shown by hachures.Coast between Zubara and Jabel al Tabena outlined in red.Numerous additions and corrections to place names and topographical features.‘Al Doha’ underlined in blue crayon and ‘DOHAH’ added in later hand with coordinates inserted in pencil and annotation: ‘All these villages now form the town of Dohah the capital of QATAR’.Physical description: Material:Pen and ink with wash on paper with additions in pencilDimensions:765 x 460 mm
Abstract: Distinctive Features:Shows the location of tribes that dwelled in the Trucial States area with names reported. Names of tribes under authority of the Muscat state are double underlined in red.Physical description: Materials:Pen and ink on paperDimensions:340 x 433 mm
Abstract: Imprint:Copied by Mohommad Hashim H.E. the High Commissioner’s Office. Reproduced by Survey Directorate Baghdad, No.811, Dated 3-6-21.Distinctive Features:Relief shown by contours and spot heights.Upper margin: 'Map attached to appendix III of H.E. the High Commissioiner’s dispatch No. C.O/120 dated 9th December 1921'.The administrative boundary marked on the map is approximate and coincide with the Treaty boundary in the Nerva Reikan neighbourhood.Includes key to symbols and table of reference.Physical description: Dimensions:195 x 319 mm, on sheet 285 x 362 mm
Abstract: Distinctive Features:Depths shown by soundings recorded in feet.Shows the proposed development at Khawr al Qulay'ah, Bahrain with additions marked in red ink and position of signalling devices indicated. Below title is an annotation stating that if to be used at night all buoys and beacons must be lit as shown.Physical description: Materials:Print on tracing paper with additions in red inkDimensions:467 x 436 mm, on sheet 497 x 459 mm
Abstract: Distinctive Features:Includes an inset: ‘Enlarged plan of town’ with explanation ‘Space built over tinted red. Forts tinted Ind. red’.Legends and notations concerning the area cover the face of the map.Inscriptions:On recto, below title: ‘This Map is from a plane-table survey, based on a careful triangulation: the part north of the town, creeks, &ca are taken from the chart of harbour by Comr. Constable, and Lieut Stiffe. It is intended as an illustration of the campaign of 1856-7 in the peninsula. The different tints of blue, show the contours of equal depth. the deeper water being tinted darker they are only given as far as the 3 fathom line, and are only approximate south of Rishir.Corrections to 1873 by A.W.S. (in red)’.Physical description: Materials:Pen and ink with wash on paperDimensions:851 x 595 mm, on sheet 900 x 643 mm
Abstract: Correspondence related to the distribution of the text of the General Act of the Brussels Conference of 1890 throughout the Persian Gulf region. The English version of the Act is on folios 32-37. William Lee-Warner, Secretary to the Government of India in Bombay, sent Adelbert Talbot (Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, 1891-93) 100 copies of the Act in Persian (folios 5-19), and 100 in Arabic, for distribution to the Political Agencies on the Persian and Arab coasts of the Gulf respectively. Talbot sent 25 copies of the Persian translation of the Act to his Political Agent in Bandar-e Lengeh, and a further 25 copies to the Agent of the British India Steam Navigation Co. (Gray Paul & Co.) at Bandar-e Abbas. The Governor of Turkish Arabistan, Nizam-es-Sultaneh was critical of the distributed Persian translation of the Act, which had been produced under the authority of British Government staff in Bombay. In response Talbot commissioned and distributed a new translation (folios 73-88), produced under his authority at the Political Residency in Bushire.Physical description: Foliation: The volume has been foliated with small circled numbers in the top right corner of each front-facing page. The front cover has been foliated 1, then there are two unfoliated pages, before foliation restarts at 2 on the title sheet. After the title sheet and contents page (folio 4) there are a further three unfoliated blank pages before foliation restarts on the first piece of correspondence.). Folio 100 is missing.
Abstract: The volume contains correspondence between Government of India officials and the Political Resident of the Persian Gulf, on the question of the disposal or repatriation of slaves manumitted in the Gulf region, in response to concerns from the Government of Bombay over the potential social consequences of settling further Africans in the city (folio 5). British government officials in London and India discussed the practicalities of sending freed slaves to Britain’s possessions in East Africa, where freed slaves could be employed in the region’s agricultural plantations (folio 13 onwards).In December 1897 Captain Hugh Daly, Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, wrote to the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Malcome Meade), requesting him to liaise with Her Majesty’s acting Consul-General at Zanzibar, Basil Cave, to arrange for the dispatch of freed African slaves to be repatriated at Zanzibar (folio 23). A batch of correspondence from 1899/1900 documents the arrangements made by the Political Resident (then Major Percy Cox) to send eleven liberated slaves to Zanzibar. Particular attention is paid to keeping the cost of the freed slaves’ passage back to Africa to a minimum.The remainder of the file covers the period 1897 to 1905, and deals with specific cases of emancipated slaves being dispatched to Zanzibar, either from the Political Residency in Bushire or the Political Agency in Muscat. This includes a report written by the Political Resident (Major Charles Kemball) in Nov 1902 outlining the numbers of slaves transported over a two year period (1900-1902) from Muscat to Zanzibar, including method and cost of transport (folio 82).Physical description: Foliation: The volume has been foliated with a small circled number in the top-right corner of each front-facing page, beginning with the front cover and running to the last folio.
Abstract: The volume contains correspondence exchanged between the Political Resident in Bushire (Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm J. Meade) and his assistant (John Gaskin), the Political Agent Muscat (Major Christopher Fagan, and from October 1899 Major Percy Cox), and staff of the Government of India. Correspondence begins with an enquiry from the India Office in London to the Government of India, in response to a letter sent to
The Timesnewspaper by the Anti-Slavery Society, relating to British authorities’ procedure in surrendering fugitive slaves in Aden and Muscat.The Political Resident and Political Agent Muscat discussed the procedure of assessing and granting manumission. The assistant secretary to the Government of India enquired into the possibility of applying the current practice of manumission at Muscat to the Persian Gulf generally. Internal Residency memorandums between Meade and Gaskin, noted that such measures would further intensify hostile feelings on the part of the Arab shaikhs to the British Government, and it was noted that the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi was seeking closer links with the French Consul at Muscat (folios 17-18). The memorandums also explore the merits of making the children of slaves legally free, but this measure was rejected on the grounds that it would be too expensive to administer.In office notes from early 1899, Fagan described in detail the manumission procedure there, including the Sultan’s role in the process (folios 29-30). It was noted (folios 24) that slaves seeking refuge in Muscat tended to be manumitted, irrespective of whether their case merited manumission according to the Treaty signed with the Sultan of Muscat. In 1899 Meade embarked on a tour of the Arab shaikhdoms, in order to inform the Shaikhs of their obligations in relation to the suppression of the slave trade. The memorandum gives details of the tour made on HMS
Lawrenceand the Meade’s meetings with the shaikhs of Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Ra's al-Khaymah and Umm al-Qaywayn, and their respective responses (folios 47-49).In a letter to the Political Resident of February 1900, Cox noted what he regarded as a lack of British Protection in current manumission certificates (folios 53-55). Enclosed with Cox's letter is a specimen manumission certificate issued by the Agency in Muscat (folio 56). Cox noted in his letter that the British Consul at Muscat issueds certificates in his own name, and not in the name of the British government.Physical description: Foliation: The volume is foliated from front cover to inside back cover with pencil numbers in the top-right corner of each front-facing page.
Abstract: The volume contains copies of covering letters sent with copies of the 1873 Slave Trade Proclamation, which was reissued on an annual basis. The letters were sent by Bushire Political Residency staff to a range of British representatives around the Gulf, including the Political Agents (Bahrain, Muscat, Trucial Coast, Consulates), representatives at the region’s telegraph stations (including Jask), and a representative of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company at Ganawah [Bandar Ganaveh]. The volume also contains numerous replies from recipients of the treaty, responding that they have posted or distributed it as requested.The volume also contains two copies of the treaty (folios 93 and 148). The treaty is printed in five languages (English, Arabic, Marathi, Gujarati and Kanarese). In a letter of 1926 to the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Prideaux), the Political Agent in Kuwait (James More) notes the poor quality of the Arabic translation of the treaty. In response, Prideaux arranges for an improved Arabic translation be sent to him by More, for use on future reprints of the treaty. The revised translation is distributed for the first time in 1929. The two copies of the treaty enclosed reflect the ‘before’ (folio 93) and ‘after’ (folio 148) versions of the Arabic treaty text.Physical description: Foliation: The volume is foliated from the front cover to last folio, with small numbers in the top-right corner of each recto. Folio number 7 is omitted, and that there are some instances where the reverse side of pages are numbered if they are written or printed on.
Abstract: The volume comprises two printed documents. The first is guidelines for the manumission of slaves, printed by the British Government’s Foreign Office Press, and issued to the Political Resident at Bushire. Part one of the guidelines is for the Persian shore of the Persian Gulf. It outlines the authorities (treaties) for manumission, grounds for manumission, and the procedures for manumission. The second part of the guidelines deals with the Arabian shore of the Persian Gulf. Bahrain, Muscat and the Trucial Coast are dealt with separately.The second printed document in the file is a set of guidelines for dealing with the various scenarios in which economic disputes might arise between captains, divers and merchants in the pearling industry in the Gulf. The guidelines are for use by British agents and representatives in Bahrain, Kuwait, Bandar-e Lengeh and the Trucial Coast. The emphasis in the rules is on the honouring of debts as a means to ensuring the financial stability of the pearling industry, and sets out the obligations of divers to their captains, duties of captains to their divers, captains to other captains regarding loans, and captains to their debtors.Physical description: Foliation: The volume is foliated in the top-right corner of each recto. The two printed reports that comprise the volume each have their own internal pagination systems.
Abstract: This file contains correspondence regarding relations between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.The topics discussed in the file include the signing of a Treaty of Extradition between the Government of Bahrain and the Government of Hejaz-Nejd, a visit made by Amir Saud to Bahrain, visits made by Ibn Saud to Kuwait and Bahrain and territorial issues between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia related to a number of islands between their coasts. The activities of the Bahrain Petroleum Company and the Californian Arabian Standard Oil Company are also discussed.Two maps of Bahrain and its vicinity are contained on folio 156b and folio 157b. The maps contain information related to oil deposits and facilities.A bi-lingual (Arabic and English) copy of the Treaty of Extradition between the Government of Bahrain and the Government of Hejaz-Nejd is contained on folios 6-9.Physical description: A bound correspondence volume. The main foliation sequence commences at the titlepage and terminates at the 5th sheet from the back of the volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and can be found in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.A second foliation sequence runs between f 3 and f 193; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled and are located in the same position as the main sequence.A set of index numbers corresponding with the index at the back run through the volume; these numbers are written in red crayon and are circled. Foliation errors: 2A and 2B; 156A and 156B; 157A and 157B; 164A and 164B.