IOR/R/15/2/1829

The file contains correspondence related to twenty manumission applications made by slaves from Qatar, taken down by staff at the Political Agency in Bahrain. Many of the cases in the file feature only the slave's manumission statement, with little else in the way of correspondence.

In the first case in the file, there is a British manumission certificate (folio 6), and an original, handwritten manumission certificate, given to a slave by his master (folio 5). Case 3 involves the manumission application of a female slave from Qatar, found embracing the flagstaff at the Political Agency in Bahrain. The woman also requests the retrieval of her children, who are in the custody of the Shaikh of Qatar. There are angry exchanges in letters between the Political Agent at Bahrain (Captain Tom Hickinbotham) and Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī, over access to the children (folios 22-23, 25-26), with Shaikh ‘Abdullāh stating that he resents 'interference in matters about which agreements were concluded [in 1916] between me and H.E. Sir Percy Cox'. Office notes suggest that the mother lied about the ages of her children, resulting in the Agency having 'got into trouble with the Shaikh of Qatar' (folio 14).