IOR/R/15/1/556

This file consists of letters (in English and Arabic), telegrams, handwritten notes, diary extracts, and drafts of the above concerning a rumoured visit by Ibn Sa'ud, ruler of Najd, to the Trucial Coast and Oman. The bulk of the file is correspondence between the Political Residency in Bushire, the Political Agents in Kuwait and Sharjah, the Foreign Department of the Government of India, the Secretary of State for India in Whitehall, the British Embassy in Constantinople, the various Trucial Sheikhs, Sheikh Mubarak of Kuwait, and Ibn Sa'ud. Included within this are letters sent amongst the Arab rulers themselves that came into the possession of the British via the Agent at Sharjah.

The file begins with reports of Ibn Sa'ud's visit to al-Hasa in the summer of 1905 where he reconciled the quarrelling tribes of 'Ajman, al-Murrah, and Bani Hajar, and his talk of visiting the Trucial Coast and Oman. A discussion follows on how the British should deal with the consequential unrest and injury to trade in the Gulf should the visit occur, often seeking the advice of Sheikh Mubarak of Kuwait due to his close connection to Ibn Sa'ud. Warnings are then given to the Trucial Sheikhs to refrain from contact with Ibn Sa'ud and measures of blocking the arms trade to Kuwait and more direct military action are put forward. The file ends (at the close of 1907, after a gap of a year) with reports from Sheikh Mubarak that complaints about the British and requests for contact with Ibn Sa'ud had come to him from several of the Trucial rulers.