Page 85 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

The making of Gulf port towns before oil 65

3 Muhammad Rahim al-Safar, the British Native Agent between 1893
and 1900

Belgrave, the British advisor to Shaykh Hamad (who became regent after
the deposition of Shaykh ‘Isa ibn ‘Ali in 1923) noted in his diary his first
encounter with the town’s merchants organised by Major Daly, the British
Political Agent. Wearing his official uniform, Daly introduced Belgrave to
the notables as the representatives of the urban population with short
speeches in Arabic, Urdu and Persian. The visitors politely reciprocated
in their own mother tongues, and the conversation continued briskly in
various languages during the reception (see Figure 4). 64

64
Belgrave Diaries, 5 June 1926, Arab World Documentation Unit (AWDU hereafter).