IOR/R/15/2/130

The volume contains correspondence and papers relating to the issue of land rights and ownership in Bahrain.

The first part of the volume (folios 2-78) concern the organisation of a land survey in Bahrain. The Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfa, with the assistance of the Bahrain Political Agent (Major Clive Day), arranged with the Government of India’s Surveyor General ( E. A. Tandy) for a team of surveyors to come to Bahrain to survey the populated parts of the islands. A letter from Daly to the Surveyor General, dated 28 April 1925 (folios 28-30) provides details of the extent and character of the area to be surveyed. The survey was originally intended to take place during the winter of 1924/25, but was eventually delayed until the following year. A large portion of the correspondence relates to the costs of conducting the survey (including manpower, equipment, lodgings in Bahrain, food rations and passage from India), which were far greater than originally budgeted for by Sheikh Hamad. A revised proposal from the Surveyor General of India to Daly, dated 1 September 1925, gives details of the various costs of the survey (folios 54-56). Negotiations over the costs continued right up until the departure date of the surveying team from India to Bahrain, in October 1925. There is a copy of the deed (in Arabic) for the plot of land adjacent to the Agency at folio 80.

The second part of the volume (folios 81-99) concerns the implementation of a waqf department in Bahrain. The waqf is a form of religious endowment under Islamic law, usually involving the donation of buildings or land for religious or charitable purposes. The correspondence relates to Shaikh Ḥamad’s introduction of a waqf department, to address the reported mismanagement and misappropriation of waqf funds.