IOR/R/15/2/34

This file contains correspondence between British officials at Bahrain and Basrah, Baghdad, Bushire, Cairo and Kuwait, as well as with ‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd (Ibn Sa‘ūd). The correspondence predominantly concerns relations between Britain and Ibn Sa‘ūd, including his subsidy and relations with Sharīf Ḥusayn of Mecca and Ibn Rashīd of Ḥā’il.

Covered within the file is the growth of Ibn Sa‘ūd's Ikhwān movement and their conflict with Sharīf Ḥusayn during the Khurmah Dispute, as well as hostilities at Turabah and disruptions to the pilgrimage caravans to Mecca and Medina. Included are two reports on the Ikhwān movement, one by Captain J F Rabino, Assistant Political Officer, Basrah, and the other by Major A S Meek, Military Government and Political Officer, Basrah (folios 151-156); a report entitled 'The Khurma Dispute between King Hussein and Ibn Saud' by Captain N Garland of the Arab Bureau, dated 4 June 1919, with an appendix and sketch map (folios 300-305); and letters sent from Khālid bin Manṣūr, Amir of al-Khurmah, and Muḥammad bin Sa‘d bin Ghannām, Amir of Turabah, to Ibn Sa‘ūd (folios 38-400). There are also details of Ibn Rashīd's relations with Sharīf Ḥusayn and a translation of an agreement made between both of them (folios 311-318).

In addition, there is correspondence concerning the death of Ibn Sa‘ūd's sons, Turkī and Fahd, due to an influenza outbreak in 1919 (folios 6, 9, 37 and 75-76), as well as a letter from Dr Paul Wilberforce Harrison to Dr C Stanley G Mylrea, of the Arabian Mission, concerning the influenza outbreak (folios 82-84) and further extracts from letters of the former to his wife concerning Ibn Sa‘ud (folios 39-41).

There is also correspondence concerning various other matters, including the status Dawhat Balbūl and Najd-Kuwait boundary (folios 85-88 and 94-95), including 'Map to show the limit of Kuwait and Adjacent Countary [sic]' (folio 89); details of Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd's 1919 visit to London accompanied by Aḥmad Thāniyān and the Najd Mission (folio 240, 260 and 352-354); and the British and French presence in the wider Middle East, including Palestine and Syria (folios 372-379).