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'Field Notes on Sa'udi Arabia, 1935' [28r] (60/248)
The record is made up of 1 volume (120 folios). It was created in 1936. 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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49
CHAPTER IV
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
1. General Description and Area of Country
(a) Area
Sa’udi Arabia occupies two-thirds of the Arabian Peninsula, an
area of roughly 700,000 square miles or about the same as that of
India.
{b) Imperial Communications
It is passed on one side by the main Imperial sea route and on
the other by the main Imperial air route. Neither route has places
of call in Sa’udi Arabia.
Its inhabitants, as outlined in Chapters II and III of this report,
have shown themselves to be extremely conservative, and the
Sa’udi Arab Government is slow to welcome foreign commercial
exploitations or offer landing facilities to air liners.
The shortest line of flight between Cairo and Bahrain would pass
over Hail, the northern city of Sa’udi Arabia, formerly seat of the
Ibn Rashid dynasty and independent, where there is, in the
immediate vicinity of the city, an area naturally suitable for landing
of aircraft. Under Sa’udi Arabian rule, the city is not accessible to
Europeans.
The present Imperial air route passes through Kuwait, Bahrain,
and Sharjah, all close to the Sa udi Arab frontier, the first and last
being on Arab soil and having frontiers open to Sa’udi Arabia, while
Bahrain Island, off the coast, has inhabitants mainly Arab, many
being in close family and trade relations with the people ot
Sa’udi Arabia.
(c) Unsettled Southern Frontiers
In the south-east, little is known, either to Europeans or to the
Sa’udi Arab authorities, of the country and people. The frontiei
would run through the sparsely populated sand country, beyond
which, and between Sa’udi Arabia and Muscat, there rules an almost
unknown political quantity, the Imam Khalili, who is inimica to
the Sultan of Muscat, as well as other little known independent
minor shaikhs.
In the south, the Imam Yahya of the Yemen has shown in the
recent past (see Chapter I, page 18) a desire to penetiate Sa udi Ara la
and was only restrained by force of arms.
About this item
- Content
The volume, marked confidential, is Field Notes on Sa'udi Arabia, 1935 , prepared by Donald Banks of the Air Ministry, by command of the Air Council.
The volume begins with a brief forward (folio 2) in which the geographical scope is outlined. The volume is then divided into nine chapters (I-IX) with appendices, as follows:
I - History
II - System of Government
III - Population
IV - Political Geography
V - Physical Geography
VI - Climate and Meteorology
VII - Communications
VIII - Resources
IX - Armed Forces
Appendices - Weights and Measures, Coinage, Calendar and Time, Note on the state of Wahhabism viewed from a military standpoint, Note on Zakat
The volume contains the following route reports:
1. 'Uqair to Riyadh, via al Hasa
2. Riyadh to Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Fatima (near Jedda)
3. Jumaima to Medina
4. Riyadh to Kuwait
The volume contains nineteen maps and plans, as follows:
- Imperial Air and Sea Routes (folio 29)
- Tribal Areas (folio 23)
- Administrative Divisions (folio 33)
- Town Plans of Jedda, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, and Taif (folios 40, 42, 43, 45, and 46, respectively)
- Diagrammatic Section of Middle Sa'udi Arabia (folio 50)
- Physical Geography (folio 54)
- Chart showing Magnetic Variation in Arabia (folio 59)
- Communications in Sa'udi Arabia (folio 64)
- Diagram of Principal Watering Points, Frontier Posts and Garrisons (folio 70)
- Tribes of Asir (folio 76)
- Panorama of the town of Marat (folio 98)
- Panorama of Muwaih (folio 101)
- Sketch Plan of Muwaih (folio 100)
- Sketch of route Rumaihiya-Jarya (Route Report No. 4) (folio 109)
- General Map (folio 121)
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (120 folios)
- Arrangement
At the beginning of the volume (folios 4-7) is a list of contents with reference to the original pagination.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 122; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'Field Notes on Sa'udi Arabia, 1935' [28r] (60/248), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/5/384, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100049274805.0x00003d> [accessed 23 April 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/R/15/5/384
- Title
- 'Field Notes on Sa'udi Arabia, 1935'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:41v, 42v, 43v:45v, 46v:108v, 109v:121v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence