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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’ [‎113r] (234/822)

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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H
PERSIAN GULF— Bahrain.
1 ^
'■I
191
behalf of Shaikhs Sulaiman bin Ahmad and Abdulla bin Ahmad, who
then 1'iiled Bahrain conjointly, signed a preliminary Engagement (No.
VIII) not to permit in Bahrain the sale of property procured by plunder
and piracy, and to restore all Indian prisoners then in their possession
The Shaikhs also subscribed the General Treaty of 1820 [see Trucial Arab
Shaikhs of Oman, No. XIX) for the pacification of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
In 1821 the Shaikhs of Bahrain agreed to pay a fixed annual tribute of
30,000 crowns to the ruler of Muscat; but the guarantee of the British
Government, for which both parties were anxious, was not given. Sub
sequently the tribute was reduced to 18,000 crowns, but ceased with the
failure of an attack made on the island by Saiyid Said in 1828. In
1830 tribute was demanded by the Wahhabis, and their protection was
purchased by an annual payment of 4,000 crowns. Three years later
Shaikh Abdulla of Bahrain refused allegiance to the Wahhabis, induced
the neighbouring tribes to make incursions into their territory, and block
aded their ports. The dispute terminated by his promising to pay them a
tribute of 2,000 dollars, on the understanding that they would assist him
against anv invaders of Bahrain, and would not demand his co-operation
against Muscat. On the death in 1834 of his nephew and colleague
Shaikh Khalifa bin Sulaiman, Shaikh Abdulla became sole ruler of Bah
rain. In 1839 the commander of the Egyptian forces in the neighbour
hood of Bahrain announced his intention of attacking the island, as
forming part of Nejd, over which claims were asserted by Egypt. He
was informed that the British Government could not admit any claim of
Egypt to Bahrain. In 1843 the British Government declined to recog
nise similar claims advanced by Persia to sovereignty over Bahrain.
Shortly after the conclusion of the Engagement of 1847 (No. XXIII),
overtures were made to the Shaikh of Bahrain by the Turkish authorities
at Basrah with the object of obtaining his recognition of the supremacy
of the Porte. The ministers of the Sultan were informed that, as the
British Government had had treaty relations with Bahrain as an inde
pendent power, they could not acknowledge or acquiesce in any arrange
ment for placing the island under the sovereignty or protection of the
Porte.
The Shaikhs of Bahrain were not parties to any of the agreements con
cluded after 1820 with the Arab Shaikhs, except the Engagement {see
Trucial Arab Shaikhs of Oman, No. XXIII) for the suppression of the
slave trade, signed in 184T by Muhammad bin Khalifa, and an additional
Agreement' (No. IX) concluded with him in 1856, by which he bound
himself to seize and deliver to British vessels of war slaves brought to his
territories from any quarter whatever, and to put an embargo on any
vessel belonging to him or his subjects, which might be ascertained to
have carried slaves.
Muhammad bin Khalifa was the grandson of Sulaiman bin Ahmad
who hud signed the General Treaty (No. XIX) in 1820. Sulaiman bin
XI

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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’ [‎113r] (234/822), 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_100023462215.0x000023> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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