IOR/R/15/1/232

The volume contains correspondence relating to incidents of kidnapping in the Trucial Coast region. The correspondence for each incident was probably compiled at a later date, drawing together extracts from other Bushire subject files, in particular the Sharjah diary subject file (identified as file 14/160 V in a number of cases). These Sharjah diary extracts describe specific events of kidnapping or other incidents related to kidnapping. In some subjects, these diary extracts constitute the sole contents of a subject. In other subjects, correspondence follows between the Residency Agent in Sharjah (until August 1935, ‘Īsá bin ‘Abd al-Latif; between August 1935 and early 1936, Husain bin Hasan 'Amad as Acting Agent; from early 1936, Abd al-Razzaq Razuqi) the Secretary to the Political Resident, and the Political Agent Bahrain (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Loch), who followed up on the incidents in question.

The incidents referred to in the volume deal primarily with kidnapping carried out by the Manasir and Awamir Bedouin tribes, who abducted their victims from the Trucial Coast towns and the areas around them. The victims were usually women and children, with slaves being a particular target. The Residency Agent and Political Resident coordinated to encourage the Trucial Coast shaikhs to recover kidnapped persons, and capture or punish known kidnappers. In relation to a kidnapping incident in July 1934, the Political Resident wrote to the Residency Agent at Sharjah (folio 29), enquiring if they [the Bedouin kidnappers] were 'under any Trucial shaikh, and if not, do they bear nominal allegiance to H. M. Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd].' The Residency Agent responded by saying that 'submission to His Majesty Ibn Saud is a matter of conjecture as he wields authority in that wild region' (folio 33).

In many cases there was some partial success in recovering kidnapped persons, and on occasions the perpetrators were captured and imprisoned. On each new case of which he was informed, the Secretary to the Political Resident reminded the Residency Agent and the Political Agent at Bahrain of outstanding cases still requiring resolution. On one occasion, the Acting Residency Agent (Husain bin Hasan 'Amad) stated that, while the shaikhs made every effort to immediately recover kidnapped persons, the more time that passed the less likely they were to take action. Hasan 'Amad continued by stating that other tribes were often brought in to mediate between the shaikhs and kidnapping tribes, to 'negotiate an agreement between them so that no claim should be made for past happenings. This is the practice which has always been current between the Rulers of the Trucial Coast and the Bedouin Arabs' (folios 126-127).