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‘A collection of treaties, engagements and sanads relating to India and neighbouring countries [...] Vol XI containing the treaties, & c., relating to Aden and the south western coast of Arabia, the Arab principalities in the Persian Gulf, Muscat (Oman), Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province’ [‎117r] (242/822)

The record is made up of 409 folios. It was created in 1933. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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PERSIAN GULF— Trucial Arab Shaikhs of Oman.
199
By the 9tli article of the Treaty of 1820 carrying oif slaves from the
coasts of Africa or elsewhere, and transporting them in vessels, were
declared to be plunder and piracy; but this was not interpreted as for-
biddmg traffic in slaves, but as prohibiting kidnapping only. A very
extensive trade in slaves was carried on from the ports of the Red Sea
and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. with Kathiawar, (hitch and the Indian States on
the west coast of India; but under the interpretation put on the Treaty
of 1820, the British Government had no power to interfere with ihia
trade. In April 1838, under instructions from Government, the Resident
in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. obtained from the Trucial Shaikhs of Ras-al-Khaimah,
Ajman, Dibai and Abu Dhabi an Agreement (No. XX), giving to British
cruisers the right to detain and search vessels suspected of being em
ployed in carrying off slaves, and to confiscate the vessels if found so em
ployed. In the following yeai the Shaikhs of Ras-al-Khaimah, Dibai,
Abu Dhabi and Umm-al-Qaiwain (Amulgavine) entered into an Agree
ment (Xo. XXI) containing three articles. The first and second of these
articles gave the British Government the right to search and confiscate
slave vessels found beyond a line from Cape Delgado, on the African
coast, passing two degrees east of Sokotra, and ending at Cape Gwadar,
on the Makran coast, unless driven beyond that line by stress of weather
or other necessity. By the third article the sale of persons of the Somali
tribe was declared to be piracy. The same Shaikhs, and also the Shaikhs
of Ajman and Bahrain, entered into Engagements* (No. XXIII) in
1847, binding themselves to prohibit the exportation of slaves from the
African coast, or elsewhere, in vessels belonging to themselves or their
subjects, and authorising British cruisers to confiscate vessels found
engaged in the forbidden traffic. In 1850 the Trucial Shaikhs signed an
Agreement similar to that concluded with the Shaikh of Bahrain (No
IX).
The treaty concluded with the Trucial Arab Shaikhs in 1820 did not
limit the right of the Shaikhs to carry on acknowledged war with each
other by sea, that is to say, war proclaimed and avowed by one Shaikh
upon another. All other hostile aggressions, however, were declared to
be piratical. But under the name of acknowledged war many acts of
piracy were committed, especially during the pearl-fishing season. The
Shaikhs were therefore induced in 1835 to bind themselves, by a maritime
truce, not in any circumstances to engage in hostilities by sea for a period
of six months, on the understanding that the British Government would
not interfere with their wars by land. The effects of this truce were ^o
marked that the Shaikhs were easily persuaded in the following year, and
again in 1837, to renew it for eight months. Thereafter it was renewed
annually till 1843, when it was prolonged (No. XXII) for ten vears
On the expiry of the ten years' truce in 1853 a Treaty (No. XXIV) of
* An Act of Parliament, 12 and 13 Vic., Cap. LXXXIV, was passed to give
effect to these engagements. (See Appendix No. I.)

About this item

Content

The volume is a fifth edition of a collection of historic treaties, engagements and sanads (charters) signed between representatives of the British Government or East India Company, and foreign rulers, dignitories or government officials, in the regions of Aden, south west Arabia, the Arab coast of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including Muscat and Oman, Baluchistan, and the north-west frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. province (present-day Pakistan). This volume, originally compiled by Charles Umpherston Aitchison, Under Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department, was revised in 1930 and published in 1933 by the Manager of Publications in Dehli, under the authority of the Government of India.

Part 1 contains treaties and engagements relating to Aden and the southwest coast of Arabia:

  • An historical overview of British (and Turkish) involvement in the region, including descriptions of the treaties and engagements signed;
  • The Anglo-Turkish Convention (in French) respecting the boundaries of Aden, dated 9 March 1914;
  • Treaties and conventions, agreed between the years 1802-1917, at Aden and with the Abdali tribe, the Subeihi, Fadhli, Aqrabi, Aulaqi, Irqa, Lower Haura, Beihan, Yafai, Audhali, Haushabi, Alawi, the Amirate of Dhala, the Wahidi, Kathiri, the Sultanate of Mukalla, Soqotra [Suquṭrā] and Qishn, Yemen, and the Idrisi. The treaties cover agreements of commerce, friendship and protection; agreements for the cession or purchase of land, for the abolition of the slave trade, storage of coal, protection of shipwrecked British sailors.

Part 2 contains treaties and engagements relating to the Arab principalities of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , divided into the following areas: 1) The Wahhābī A follower of the Islamic reform movement known as Wahhabism; also used to refer to the people and territories ruled by the Al-Saud family. and Nejd [Najd]; 2) Bahrain; 3) The Trucial Arab shaikhs (of Oman); and 4) Kuwait:

  • An historic overview of the agreements made between the British and the region’s rulers, organised by tribes and/or geographical locality;
  • Agreements and treaties signed with the Wahhābī A follower of the Islamic reform movement known as Wahhabism; also used to refer to the people and territories ruled by the Al-Saud family. tribe, including: an agreement between the Wahhābī A follower of the Islamic reform movement known as Wahhabism; also used to refer to the people and territories ruled by the Al-Saud family. and British Government over aggression towards the Arab tribes, dated 21 April 1866; a series of conventions and treaties agreed in the 1920s, establishing boundaries and relations between the Kingdom of Najd and its neighbours; the Treaty of Jeddah, dated 20 May 1927;
  • Agreements and treaties signed with the ruler of Bahrain, relating to: piracy and slavery (1820), abstention from entering into relations with foreign powers (1880, 1892), arms trafficking, wireless telegraphy (1912), and oil exploitation (1914);
  • Agreements and treaties signed with the shaikhs of the Arab coast, relating to respect for British property (1806), piracy (1820), the slave trade (1838, 1873), the maintenance of maritime peace in perpetuity (1853), the Anglo-Qatar treaty (1916); oil exploitation (1922);
  • Agreement and treaties signed with the ruler of Kuwait, relating to: arms trafficking, exclusive post office rights (1904), pearling and sponge fishing concessions (1911), wireless telegraphy (1912), oil exploitation (1913), boundaries between Kuwait and Najd (1922) and Kuwait and Iraq (1923).

Part 3 contains treaties and engagements relating to Oman, chiefly Muscat but also Sohar:

  • An historical overview of the Sultanate of Muscat, and the agreements made between Britain and Muscat;
  • Treaties and conventions, agreed between the years 1798 and 1929, including: the exclusion of the French from the Sultan of Muscat’s territories (1798); suppression of the slave trade (1822, 1873); commerce (1839); cession of the Kuria Muria islands [Jazā'ir Khurīyā Murīyā] (1854); the independence of Zanzibar (1861, 1862); telegraphic communications (1864, 1865); jurisdiction of Indian subjects at Muscat (1873); friendship and commerce (1891); coalfields at Ṣūr (1902); arms traffic (1919); prolongation of the commercial treaty (1891); treaty of peace between the Sultan of Muscat and Chief of Sohar (1839).

Part 4 contains treaties and engagements relating to Baluchistan:

  • An historic overview of the region and its districts, including British involvement in Baluchistan, organised by the Kalat [Kelat] Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Sibi Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , and British Baluchistan and its territories;
  • The treaties and conventions listed for Kelat, agreed between the years 1839 and 1925, include: an engagement between the British Government and the Khan of Kelat (1839), the Khan of Kelat’s allegiance and submission to the British Government (1841); various agreements for the protection of the Indo-European telegraph line; cession of lands for the Kandahar Railway (1880), Mushkaf-Bolan Railway (1894) and Nushki Railway (1906); demarcation of the boundary between Persian Baluchistan and Kelat (1896);
  • The treaties and conventions listed for Sibi and British Baluchistan, agreed between the years 1884 and 1897, including: cession to the British Government of rights to petroleum and other mineral oils (1885); agreement on the Bargha and Largha boundary line (1895), grazing fees for animals and responsibility for good behaviour within the British border at Zhob, signed by the Suliman Khel Ghilzai (1897).

Part 5 contains treaties and engagements relating to the northwest frontier province:

The appendices contain a number of treaties signed between foreign rulers, including treaties agreed between Muscat and the United States, French and Dutch Governments, as well as British Parliament acts and memoranda related to the treaties and engagements in the volume.

Extent and format
409 folios
Arrangement

The volume is arranged into five key geographical regions: Aden and the southwest coast of Arabia, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Oman (Muscat) and Sohar, Baluchistan, and the northwest frontier province. The main body of the volume, containing the narrative treaties, is arranged into parts covering these five regions. The appendices at the end of the volume is likewise arranged by the five regions.

Each part (or region) is further subdivided into a number of smaller units, and in some cases further subdivided into smaller units. These subdivisions can be tribal, geographical and administrative in nature. Within each part, the narrative treaties are numbered with Roman numerals, restarting at I at the beginning of each part.

There is a contents page at the front of the volume (ff.2-17) which lists the geographical regions, their subdivisions and treaties. The contents pages refers to the volume’s pagination system. There is a subject index, arranged alphabetically, at the end of the volume (ff.363-405) which also refers to the volume’s pagination system.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: The volume’s foliation sequence uses circled pencil numbers, located in the top-right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio. It begins on the first folio with text, on number 1, and ends on the last folio with text, on number 405. Total number of folios: 405. Total number of folios including covers and flysheets: 409.

Pagination: The volume has a series of printed pagination sequences, expressed in Roman numerals for the contents, appendices and index pages, and in Arabic numerals for the volume’s main content matter. These numbers are located in the top-left corner of versos and the top-right corner of rectos.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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‘A collection of treaties, engagements and sanads relating to India and neighbouring countries [...] Vol XI containing the treaties, & c., relating to Aden and the south western coast of Arabia, the Arab principalities in the Persian Gulf, Muscat (Oman), Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province’ [‎117r] (242/822), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/G3/12, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023462215.0x00002b> [accessed 19 April 2024]

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