IOR/R/15/2/634

The file begins with a letter of complaint from Mr Ismail Ghaznavi (also spelt Ghuznavi) of Amritsar, India, and is addressed to the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, New Delhi, in December 1927. This letter and the ensuing correspondence, mainly between British officials in India and London, was circulated to the Political Agent, Bahrain, and others, in case prominent Arab political agitators, who were engaged in anti-British and anti-Saudi Arabian activities in India and elsewhere, should attempt to enter the Arab states in the Persian Gulf. In his letter, the complainant objects to the mass dissemination among Indian Muslims, of pamphlets in Urdu, containing political propaganda against the Government of Ibn Saud, King of Hedjaz and Nejd [Saudi Arabia], and written by Syed Mohammad Husain Aldabbagh Alhussaini and his followers.

The complaint letter is followed by copies of letters exchanged between the Governments of India and Bombay, the Foreign Office, London, and the India Office, London, in 1928 and 1933. Included in this correspondence are two undated biographical notes (folios 14-15), probably compiled by Foreign Office officials in 1933, identifying two of the leading anti-Ibn Saud political agitators, known to be active in India, as Sayed Mohamed Tahir Al Dabbagh (also spelt Sayid Muhammad Hussein and other variations), born in Mecca in 1890, and Abdul Ra’ouf El Sabban, aged thirty-five, born in Hedjaz. In a letter (folios 22-23) from the India Office, London to the Government of India, New Delhi, written in response to representations made by the Government of Saudi Arabia, a third leading anti-Ibn Saud political agitator, Muhammad Sadiq (also spelt Muhammad Abdullah Ahmad Sadiq and other variations), is identified as an Iraqi subject travelling on an expired Iraqi passport issued to him in 1928.

The exchange of letters between British officials in London and India comes to an end between 30 November 1933 and 5 January 1934, with confirmation that Sayed Mohamed Tahir Al Dabbagh and Muhammad Sadiq had been traced to an address in Bombay, allowed to proceed to Iraq and had left Bombay by sea for Basra on 4 January 1934.

All documents in the file are in English, apart from a memorandum (folio 18) in English and Arabic dated 12 April 1933, from the Secretary to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire to the Residency Agent, Shargah [Sharjah]. The latter is instructed to be on his guard against any attempt by Sayed Mohamed Tahir Al Dabbagh and Abdul Ra’ouf El Sabban to land on the Trucial Coast and carry out political activities against Ibn Saud (King Abdul Aziz) of Saudi Arabia.