IOR/L/PS/20/MM13

The volume consists of monthly memoranda of information received by the Government of India’s Foreign Department in relation to affairs in Arabia from January 1906 to December 1907. The memoranda are divided into sections, the most common of which are: ‘Aden’, ‘Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq]’ and ‘Persian Gulf’. Other sections include ‘Koweit [Kuwait]’, ‘Bahrein [Bahrain]’, ‘Nejd [Najd]’ and ‘Miscellaneous’.

The memoranda covers the following topics:

• Political, financial and administrative affairs
• Military affairs, including the movement of British and Turkish troops
• Tribal affairs
• The construction of infrastructure including canals, roads, and railways, with a particular focus on the Baghdad and Hedjaz [Hejaz] railways
• The arms trade, including in and around the Persian Gulf
• Various crimes committed and information regarding prisoners
• Discussion of postal systems, including violence and robbery committed against postal workers
• Health and sanitary conditions in the Persian Gulf, including plagues and quarantine arrangements
• Alleged acts of ‘piracy’
• Conflict between Ibn Saood [Ibn Sa‘ūd] and Ibn Rashid [Abd al-‘Azīz bin Mit‘ib al-Rashīd]
• The Maskat [Muscat] Dhows Award and the right to fly the French flag
• Trade reports for Koweit, Bahrein and Maskat
• The Sponge Exploration Syndicate
• The mining of red oxide
• Political and financial affairs of Yemen in relation to Turkish Arabia
• The Turco-Persian Frontier.

There are tables of contents for the memoranda for July 1906-December 1907 (ff 4-39).