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‘A sketch of the political history of Persia, Iraq and Arabia, with special reference to the present campaign.’ [4] (14/58)
The record is made up of 29 folios. It was created in 1917. It was written in English. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
4
When in 1810 an Anglo-Indian Force under Major General
Grant Keir captured and occupied with a force of 1,200 the
pirate stronghold of Ras-al-Khaimah on the
Trucial Coast
A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
, it
was the climate which forced thenj to evacuate that position
and to establish themselves on the western extremity of Qishm
Island, which is still a British enclave.
Here also, the climate was too much for them, and a naval
and Military cemetery, well kept, though disused for nearly
100 years, and some ruined barracks together with the British
Flag alone indicate that we still maintain our position there.
Indeed, in many a deserted Gulf port, the dead alone guard
the colours that are being borne afresh in Mesopotamia to-day
in vindication of the old claims.
The service that Great Britain has rendered to humanity
by preserving peace in the Gulf is so well known that no detailed
reference thereto is necessary ; suffice it to say that she has
policed, patrolled or freed its highway without making a single
claim to territory for a century or more ; the Pax Britannica
thus established found formal embodiment in the maritime
truce imposed upon the warring chiefs of the littoral from
Masandam to Kuwait in 1836 and annually renewed up to
1853 when it became perpetual.
Not less notable are the unaided efforts of Great Britain
to put down the Slave Trade—efforts which are still main
tained by His Majesty's Ships, for the traffic is not yet extinct:
some fifty slaves being given their freedom yearly by British
officials at various ports in the Gulf.
Piracy, which was rampant in the first part of the last
century, was put down by our unaided efforts, and it is only
due to the constant vigilance of the Navy that it does not
break out again in the pearling season, for isolated boats of
the pearling fleet fall an easy prey to a piratical
dhow
A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean.
.
Our action in repressing the Arms Traffic was actuated less
by philanthropic motives than by considerations of practical
expediency. Arabia, the Giilf and Persia, and through Persia
(by direct purchases made by Afghans on a large scale) Afgha
nistan were all being flooded with great quantities of arms
and ammunition.
Some two years before the outbreak of the present war,
the traffic in arms, which had its headquarters at Maskat and
was mamly, owiilg to our discouragement of the traffic among
About this item
- Content
The volume is an overview of the political history of Persia, Iraq and Arabia, authored by the Office of the Chief Political Officer, Indian Expeditionary Force “D”, and printed by the Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta [Kolkata], India in 1917. The volume is divided into a number of chapters:
1. An introduction to the political history of Persia, Iraq and Arabia, chiefly concerning Britain’s history of naval intervention and military occupation in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and its efforts in eradicating the slave trade, arms traffic and piracy;
2. A chapter entitled ‘The Arab attitude in Iraq before the War’, including: political conditions in Turkish Iraq prior to the War; the arrival of the Indian Expeditionary Force “D” at the start of the War; Ottoman ‘jihad’ against the British; Arab attitudes to the British in Iraq, central Arabia and Persian Arabistan;
3. British relations with Arabistan, including an overview of the Anglo-Persian War (1856-57), and a brief outline of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s activities in the region;
4. The Bakhtiari tribes, their leaders and their standing with the Persian Government, and the importance of maintaining British relations with them, with reference to trade routes, the maintenance of order in the oil fields, and the maintenance of friendly relations with the Shaikh of Muhammareh [Khorramshahr] and the Russians at Ispahan [Isfahān, or Eṣfahān];
5. Pusht-i-Kuh – ‘the right flank of Indian Expeditionary Force “D”’: a description of the area, and its strategic and economic importance, including: topography; climate; the position and powers of its Wali [governor] (taken from Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ), the Wali’s relatives; and Kaka Siyah, who reside in the region and who are of African origin;
6. Arabia – the left flank of Indian Expeditionary Force “D”. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is a general description of the Arabian peninsula, including: topography and geographic features; political powers in Arabia: the Wahhabi, with a history of their development and territorial gains; Egypt; Ibn Rashid [Ibn Rashīd]; the British Government; and Turkish interests in Arabia. The second part is a detailed historical outline of British relations with Ibn Sa‘ūd;
7. Entitled The Trend of Turkish policy before the War and since (official) , and subdivided into parts on internal and external politics. The first part includes an assessment of the characteristics of ‘Ottoman people’ and their Government, the second concentrates on German influence and activity in Ottoman territories.
There are pencil annotations on the front flyleaf of the volume (folio 2), which make note of sections within the volume, with the corresponding page numbers.
- Extent and format
- 29 folios
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged into seven chapters (I-VII), with subject subheadings used to organise each. A contents page (f 4), referencing the volume’s pagination sequence, lists the chapter headings. A preface (f 5) precedes the chapters.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, 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 front cover, on number 1, and ends on the inside of the back cover, on number 29.
Pagination: A printed pagination system runs through the volume (ff 7-27), the numbers of which are located top and centre of each recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. and verso The back of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'v'. .
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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‘A sketch of the political history of Persia, Iraq and Arabia, with special reference to the present campaign.’ [4] (14/58), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/C150, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023662459.0x00000f> [accessed 25 April 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/C150
- Title
- ‘A sketch of the political history of Persia, Iraq and Arabia, with special reference to the present campaign.’
- Pages
- front, front-i, 1:8, 1:46, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence