IOR/R/15/2/31

The majority of the file contains correspondence, reports, letters and telegrams between the British Political Agent at Bahrain and the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf at Bushire, as well as with ‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd (Ibn Sa‘ūd), various local rulers, Yūsuf bin Aḥmed Kanoo, the Government of India, the India Office in London and the British Consul in Basra.

This file contains papers regarding Ibn Sa‘ūd's increasing power following his conquest of al-Hasa and his relations with Britain, Turkey and local rulers, including Shaikh ‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah of Bahrain, and Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī of Qatar (ff. 197-198, 200-202), as well as the commencement of the First World War and the death of Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear.

Included within these papers are: requests for protection from Shaikh Hussain bin Nasir [Ḥusayn bin Nāsir] of Saihat [Sayhāt] and Haji Abdul Hussain bin Juma [Hājī ‘Abd al-Ḥusayn bin Juma‘ah] against Ibn Sa‘ūd (ff. 18-32), as well as notes by Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo [Yusūf bin Aḥmad Kānū] regarding his treatment of ‘Abd al-Ḥusayn bin Juma‘ah (ff. 164-168, 188-189); Ibn Sa‘ūd's relations with Ibn Rashīd; extracts from the Basrah newspaper Sada-ad-Dastur [Ṣadá al-Dustūr], dated 1 Shawwāl 1332 [23 August 1914] (ff. 198-199) and an extract from the Cairo newspaper al-Muqattam [al-Muqaṭṭam] dated 13 August 1914 (ff. 203-203A); Shakespear's visits to Ibn Saud (ff. 212, 215-217, 221-224, 260-271); a note by Kanoo regarding Sayid Mohamed Rashid Reda's [Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā] correspondence with Ibn Sa‘ūd (f. 220); correspondence with Ibn Sa‘ūd regarding the First World War (ff. 226-227, 231-248); the Turkish garrison in Qatar (ff. 276-277); and a witness report by Khalid bin Bilal [Khālid bin Bilāl], Shakespear's cook, regarding the latter's death (ff. 286-287).