Articles From Our Experts

A small, unprepossessing file from the India Office Records contains some of the earliest surviving aerial photographs of Qatar, captured as the country was about to enter a new chapter in its history.

How geophysicists working in the Gulf were able to contribute in the 1930s to the scientific community’s understanding of the earth’s magnetic field.

What do the records created by the British Political Agency at Muscat have to offer us?

An overview of the records created by the UK’s Political Agency at Kuwait between 1904 and 1949, and an examination of some of the subjects covered.

The sources of the British Library’s Arabic scientific manuscripts are many and various. Here we discover an individual who contributed to the collection and lived an adventurous life in London and the Middle East.

Britain’s decision to prohibit the use of modern diving suits and cultured pearls on the Gulf’s pearl banks was intended to preserve the region’s pearling industry, yet ultimately contributed to its slow collapse throughout the 1930s.

What was the life of a diver like and how did the trade function? Papers in the India Office Records provide some fascinating clues.

The marriage of Muhammad Reza Pahlavi and Fawziyyah Fu’ad in 1939 sparked excitement and interest well beyond their two countries. British records shed light on the commemoration and significance of this ultimately ill-fated union.

New communication technologies transformed bookkeeping practice at the British Residency in Bushire.

The movement for political reform in Kuwait in 1938 signified change in the region and highlights the country’s – and Britain’s – response to the ideas and forces that delivered it.

The 1820 treaty between Britain and ten tribal rulers of the eastern Arabian coast marked the beginning of 150 years of British hegemony in the region, reshaping its political map in a way that is still evident today.

The road to Egyptian independence was not straightforward. It involved a long, delicate, and often conflicting balance between British strategic interests and Egyptian nationalist aspirations.

How and why were the early voyages of the East India Company made? What were the challenges and first encounters?

A little known first-hand account, that the British Agents in Bahrain garnered by chance, sheds light on William Henry Irvine Shakespear’s death.

This article compares visual material from across the QDL and other digital collections to illustrate and identify colonialism in landscape photography.

A guide to the East India Company ships’ journals and related records (IOR/L/MAR/A and B series files) and miscellaneous East India Company and India Office marine records (IOR/L/MAR/C files) on the Qatar Digital Library.

Negotiation and improvisation formed the basis of the Gulf’s early aviation industry.

The life and times of Shaikh Khaz’al bin Jābir bin Mirdāw al-Ka‘bī (1861-1936), the Emir of Mohammerah and chief of the Banu Ka’b tribe.

For over thirty years, Charles Belgrave was an immensely powerful figure in Bahrain who played an instrumental role in its development but by 1957 he had become so unpopular he was forced to leave and never set foot in the country again.

During the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran, Britain established the Anglo-Iranian Relief Fund not only to deliver humanitarian aid to the Iranian people, but also to justify and promote its military presence inside the country.

Musandam’s majestic sea cliffs, inlets, and strategic location have always attracted the attention of external powers. British support in enforcing the writ of the Sultan of Muscat on the Peninsula has been vitally important since the mid-nineteenth century.

The private papers of George Nathaniel Curzon offer a window on the workings of the British Empire.

The subject of railways appears time and again in the India Office Records. What was Britain’s obsession with them and how did they transform how Britain thought about, protected, and ran its empire?

Bertram Thomas completed his historic crossing of the Empty Quarter in 1931, then the largest territory in the world outside Antarctica still unexplored by Europeans. But why is he still a minor figure in the history of exploration and Empire?

Sharjah 1940, and Nazi radio broadcasts in Arabic filled the air, stirring pro-German sentiment amongst the town’s inhabitants – and provoking consternation amongst British officials.

Salim Rashid Suri, an Omani ṣawt singer and oud player became famous as the ‘singing sailor’ and for developing a truly unique style, which took influence from musical sources across the Middle East and India.

By offering military protection to Qatar, the British tried to ensure access to Qatari oil in the run-up to the Second World War. But why did Qatar need weapons and armoured cars in 1935?

An unassuming financial file that forms part of the India Office Records contains an unexpected example of British, Arabic-language propaganda.

In a corner of Baghdad’s British cemetery lies Gertrude Bell – archaeologist, explorer, political officer, and more. Who was she and how did she come to wield so much power?

The 1948 visit of Shaikh Khalīfa bin Mohammed Āl Khalīfa to Britain on a training trip arranged by the British Council provides an early example of cooperation between Britain and Bahrain in matters related to policing and security.

A religious disagreement in 1930 between the Sultanate of Muscat and American missionaries in Muscat reveals more than just a battle for souls.

The Anglo-Qatar Treaty of 1916 strengthened existing ties between the two parties. What were the terms of the treaty, and what were the circumstances that led to it?

Mohamed Bin Fares and Dhahi Bin Walid are regarded as the founders of the traditional urban Gulf musical genre ṣawt, which is still performed in the region.

With the oil industry booming in Bahrain in the early 1930s, BAPCO oil workers, amongst others, lobbied for the first cinemas to be established.

Britain and its Allies maintained supremacy over the Gulf’s airspace during the Second World War, but mechanical failure could quickly turn the tables, making crewmen dependent on the region’s local population for their survival.

For over a hundred years, in tandem with the colonisation of Palestinian land, Palestinian history has been systematically erased, suppressed, and distorted. The QDL however contains multiple sources on Palestine and Palestinians.

In the immediate post-WWII period, despite British opposition, the U.S. sought to increase its influence in the Gulf by distributing propagandistic material in Arabic.

From prize courts to propaganda wars, discover how global conflict reshaped the Gulf.

An overview of records on the Qatar Digital Library originating from the Political (External) Department (IOR/L/PS/12), including a description of the records and the subjects they cover.

In 1923, the Government of India advised the Sultan of Muscat and Oman not to allow one Sulayman al-Baruni to enter his territory. Who was this ‘undesirable intriguer’ and why were British officials so suspicious of him?

The QDL contains a wealth of material covering the early years of the oil industry in the Gulf and surrounding region. This is the first article in a series of two.

How the anti-British sentiments of a British adviser assisted the foundation of Saudi Arabia.

Simone Corbiau (1900-74) was a Belgian archaeologist who reinvented herself as a portrait painter and may also have been involved in espionage in the Middle East.

The short-lived escapades of the Sponge Exploration Syndicate.

From its boom years to its eventual decline, the Gulf pearl industry features in a wealth of QDL material.

The culmination of extensive travel and research, George Curzon’s Persia and the Persian Question was a critical success. Yet was its author happy with it?

Thanks to the recording sessions at the first Arabic Music Congress in 1932 in Cairo, we can still listen to a selection of early Arabic music recordings. Additionally, several documents and reports are available, allowing us to learn about the formation of ‘Arabic music’ and musicological discussions in the first part of the twentieth century.

The period of Arab-Islamic rule in Spain, known as al-Andalus (92-897 AH/711-1492 CE), is renowned for its artistic and scientific richness, and its reputation for having nurtured tolerance and cultural exchange between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities.

From 1900 to 1933 the Persian Oil Concession was the backdrop to a stand-off between the British and newly-renamed Iran.

Qatar’s exploratory wells were drilled relatively late, although Major Frank Holmes sought an exploratory lease in 1922.

There are numerous records relating to high-level British officials in the Gulf, but the letters in the India Office Establishment Files also reveal the working conditions of the lower-paid ranks of Agency staff.

Known variously as the Iraqi Revolt, the 1920 Rebellion, or the Great Iraqi Revolution, this uprising swept across Mesopotamia, threatening Britain’s wartime gains and challenging its imperialist authority.

From its earliest years the RAF played a vital role in maintaining and strengthening British power in the Gulf.

In recognising the importance of the trade, British colonial records cast light on the state of the ancient trade in Frankincense in the Dhofar region at the end of the 19th century, as well as some conflicts that emerged as a result.

An overview of Bahrain Political Agency files dealing with the impact of the Second World War on the Gulf region.

In the wake of Indian independence and the United States’ increasing presence, British administrators sought to remind the Gulf’s inhabitants of who remained nominally in control of the region.

A small selection of memoirs by retired political officers provides a unique insight into one generation’s experiences of living and working in the Gulf.