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‘A sketch of the political history of Persia, Iraq and Arabia, with special reference to the present campaign.’ [30] (40/58)
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
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30
the wealth and luxury of Asia at their feet, he forbade the-
invocation of saints and the very mention of Muhammad or
any other prophet in prayer and set his face against the loose
living of Mecca and the idolatrous veneration of the Prophet's
tomb at Medinah. One of the most zealous and the most
influential of his converts was Muhammad ibn Sa'ud, Shaikh
of Dara'iyah in the
Wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
Hanifah. When 'Abdul Wahhab
died in 1787 the prosecution of his teaching fell to Ibn Sa'ud's
son and successor Abdul Aziz, who had married a daughter
of the reformer, and the spiritual impetus of Wahhabiism
helped to create the temporal supremacy of the A1 Sa'ud.
"Abdul Aziz mastered the Qasim and the
Wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
Dawasir and
forced the new creed upon the reluctant inhabitants of Jebel
Shammar, but it was left to his son Sa'ud to carry the swordi
of the Wahhabis to the shores of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, the borders
of the 'Iraq and into Western Arabia.*
As early as 1784 the frontiers of the Iraq were pillaged by
W ahhabi marauders, and after a fruitless expedition sent
by the Turks into the Hasa, they pushed their depredations
further north. In 1795 Sa'ud reduced the Hasa. Kerbala was
sacked in 1801 and a second Turkish expedition, despatched
in 1802, got no further than Kuwait. In 1803 tribute was
exacted from Bahrain and Oman was threatened, and in
the same year Sa'ud turned his arms to the west where he
captured and purged Mecca. The following year saw the fall
of Medinah, the Prophet's tomb was burnt and pillaged and
the Turkish representative driven out. The sacking of the
Red Sea ports as far as Hodaidah in the name of the Wahhabi
Amir marked the furthest extension of his power to the south,
but in 1810 a Wahhabi army ravaged the Hauran and all but
reached Damascus, while a second attack on Kerbala and
Najaf was with difficulty repulsed, and Sa'ud's son Abdullah
raided to within a short distance of Baghdad.
A new Muhammadan invasion, scarcely less sweeping in
its results than that of the 7th Century, menaced the Ottoman
Lmpire and the Sultan Mahmud II, roused by the loss of the
Hijaz to a realization of the danger which faced him, called
upon his great feudatory Muhammad 'Ali of Egypt for help.
A series of expeditions, led either by Muhammad 'Ali himself
* Sa'iid s accession took pJacc in 1803 when 'Abdul 'Aziz was murdered,
ny a Persian fanatic, but he had been associated with his father during the life
time ot the latter and was entrusted with the command of military operations.
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.’ [30] (40/58), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/C150, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023662459.0x000029> [accessed 19 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