'File 5/191 III Individual slavery cases'

Content

Twenty cases relating to individuals and small groups, kidnapped or transported from Baluchistan or India, to the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , in particular Dubai. Some of the cases are straightforward and involve the appearance or retrieval of slaves in the Dubai area, often initiated by the Sharjah Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. Agent ('Isa bin 'Abd al-Latif) and their manumission, plans for repatriation, and punishment of traders/kidnappers, where they are identified. Other cases are more complex, where the identification of slaves, their parents, or those who traded them, is more difficult. Of particular note in the volume:

Subject 8, relating to a young Persian boy kidnapped from Sind and brought to Dubai, which stretches over 100 folios. Difficulties are encountered in obtaining a photograph of the boy for purposes of identification. The extensive correspondence in the case is in part also cause by obstructions and procrastinations of al-Latif. Subject 16, relating to two Baluchi men kidnapped by Bedouins in the interior of the Trucial coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. . The case reveals tensions between the coastal Sheikhs of the Trucial region, and the Bedouin chiefs of the interior. Questions over the control how much control Sheikhs, who have signed treaties with the British, have over actions of Bedouins from the interior. Subject 20, account of the capture of a dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. carrying slaves at Dubai, and the burning of the dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. by the British navy, off the Dubai coast.

Extent and format

1 volume (435 folios)

Arrangement

The correspondence contained in the volume is arranged by subject, with twenty subjects in total included in the volume. Within each subject, correspondence is arranged in rough chronological fashion from earliest at front to latest at rear. The subjects themselves are arranged chronologically, based on the earliest pieces of correspondence included in each, from earliest at the front to latest at the rear. There is a handwritten contents page on ff.2-3, which lists the titles of these subjects, but not their corresponding page or folio number.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: The volume is foliated with a circled number in the top right-hand corner of each front-facing page. Cover (containing cover title), blank front page and 2 blank rear pages are unnumbered. Each of the subjects into which the volume is divided has its own internal pagination system, expressed as page number x of subject number y .

Written in

English and Arabic in Latin and Arabic script

Type

Archival file

Access & Reference

Original held at

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.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IOR/R/15/1/223

Former external reference(s)

A Series: 5/191 III

History of this record

Date(s)

11 Feb 1927-21 Jul 1929 (CE, Gregorian)

Context of creation

Although the large-scale trade in slaves into the Gulf had been virtually eradicated by the early twentieth century, a small trade - chiefly from the unknown and largely un-policed Baluchistan coastline - continued. Children, women and men were occasionally kidnapped by opportunistic traders, and transported from the Makran coast, across the Gulf of Oman to ports such as Muscat and Dubai, where some cases came to the attention of British agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. representatives.

Places

Trucial CoastDubaiBaluchistan

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Cite this record in your research

'File 5/191 III Individual slavery cases', British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/1/223, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100000000193.0x0000c4> [accessed 24 April 2024]

Link to this record

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