Page 12 - Su'udi Relations with Eastern Arabi & Uman (1800-1870)

conquests, the organization of Muhammad’s administration, the advance to
eastern Arabia, and the final days of the Egyptian rule in al-Hijaz. This
collection comprises twelve files. The last one contains an exchange between
rulers in Arabia and the zvafi of Egypt in the later period.
2. Bahr Barra files. These files include, for the most part, information relating
to Muhammad ‘All’s wars outside Arabia, but which also contain many letters
and reports exchanged between Muhammad ‘All and the Porte concerning the
affairs of al-Hijaz. Some information on the Gulf area in later times is also
preserved in this collection.
3. Miscellaneous files. These files include some undated documents in Arabic
and Turkish pertaining to the expeditions, as well as various personal letters
and petitions.
4. * Abidin files, which contain most of the original copies of letters and reports
concerning the peninsula’s political development and certain events relating to
'Uman. The exchange of letters between Khurshld and Sa‘d b. Mutlaq al-
Mutayri and Sultan b. Saqr, the QasimI chief, is also to be found here.

Since the bulk of the information documented in these collections of files
were written by Ottoman Turkish officials, one cannot rely completely on their
impartiality. They reflect hostile attitudes toward the native rulers and chiefs,
minimize the tribal opposition to their own rule, and overlook the Egyptian
expansionist policy on the eastern borders of the peninsula.

2. Great Britain: The India Office Records
These records are an invaluable source of information for the political and
tribal conditions in the Persian Gulf area because of the wealth of accounts they
contain on internal events in central Arabia, al-Bahrayn, al-Kuwayt, and
‘Uman. The records, especially those of the Bombay government’s political
and and secret departments, are very important for the internal history of the
region. They contain a large number of letters, reports and minutes sent and
received by representatives of the British government during the nineteenth
century that are relevant to our research. However, since the bulk of this
information is available in published documents, our use of these records is
limited. The collections consulted had the following headings: Bombay
Political Proceedings, Bombay Political Letters Received, Enclosures to Bombay
Secret Letters, and Factory Records: Persia and the Persian Gulf.
The India Office Records are similar in nature to the Egyptian Archives.
They are written by British officers and agents, and thus one should allow for
some prejudice in their conclusions.

B. Published Documents

The following printed documents are based on manuscript records and
contain essential information. They were published by either the Government
of Bombay or the Government of India during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, and they were limited to official use. Consequently, they
are as rare as the original records themselves, and are to be found only in highly
specialized libraries, such as the India Office Library in London.

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