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British-Saudi controversy over the sovereignty
of Buraimi

INTRODUCTION
Historical and diplomatic background
The establishment after the First World War of the present indepen­
dent Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which succeeded to the former
Ottoman provinces of Najd, Hasa and the Hijaz,1 gave rise to a
number of boundary problems. Although in 1922 agreements were
concluded by Saudi Arabia with Iraq and Kuwait delimiting her
northern boundaries with these countries,2 no agreements were con­
cluded by Saudi Arabia concerning the definition of her eastern and
south-eastern boundaries with Qatar, the Trucial States or the Aden
Protectorate. The present dispute over Buraimi is essentially a dispute
over the definition of the Saudi Arabian eastern boundaries.
The problem of the Saudi Arabian eastern boundaries first arose
in 1933, as a result of the grant of an oil concession by Saudi Arabia
to the Standard Oil Company of California on 29 May 1933.3 This
problem assumed further importance when in 1935, 1937 and 1939,
the Rulers of Qatar, Muscat and the Trucial States, respectively,
granted to affiliates of the Iraq Petroleum Company oil concessions
in respect of their territories.4 It appears that the first step towards

1Amir'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Sa'ud, later proclaimed as King 'Abd al-'Aziz, con­
quered the district of Najd in 1902 and the district of Hasa—from the Turks—in
1913, and thus established what came to be known as the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. The ancestors of King ‘Abd al-'Aziz, formerly known as the Wahhabi
House of Sa'ud or the Wahhabis (meaning the Arabian Reformation), governed
Arabia proper between the middle of the eighteenth and the middle of the nine­
teenth centuries. In 1871, the House of Sa'ud was driven by the Turks from the
province of Hasa. They retreated to Riyadh and central Najd until its occupation
by the House of Rashid in 1891. Between 1891 and 1902, Amir'Abd al-Rahman,
the father of King 'Abd al-'Aziz, and his family took refuge in Kuwait. In 1902,
*Abd al-'Aziz attacked and conquered Najd in his first attempt to regain the lands
of his forefathers, the Wahhabis or the Arabian Reformation.
For a detailed analysis of the rise of Saudi Arabia, see Aitchison, pp. 187-8;
Toynbee, A. J ..Survey of International Affairs, vol. 1 (1925), pp. 271-88; Philby, H.
St J. B., Saudi Arabia (1955), chapters 9—10; Saudi Memorial, I, chapter IV.
2 See Appendix VIII. # .
3 For text of the concession agreement, see Umm al-Qura (Saudi semi-official
gazette) no. 448, dated 21 Rabi' 1 1352 (14 July 1933).
4 Lenczowski, G., Oil and State in the Middle East (1960), pp. 141-2.
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