Details
[TRUCIAL STATES]
General Treaty with the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf (1820), in Arabic, manuscript on paper. [ca. 1830] 300 x 185 mm. 4 leaves, black ink on paper (browned throughout, with small tear to top of first leaf, not affecting text), in later orange-brown morocco binding.
A NEAR-CONTEMPORARY COPY OF THE TREATY LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRITAIN AND THE TRUCIAL STATES. The first two decades of the nineteenth century saw an increasing menace from piracy both to trade between western India and the Persian Gulf and to the British 'direct route' to India, from the caravan terminus at Aleppo across the desert to Basra and thence by sea to Bombay. The sheikhdoms of the Qawasim, the main tribe of the Omani coast, had come under the dominance of the aggressively fundamentalist Wahhabis, who encouraged them to prey upon the traffic of the unbelievers. An expedition in 1809-10, which destroyed most of the pirate fleet, proved only a temporary setback for the Qawasim, who were soon ranging further afield than ever, and a second, more powerful expedition, under the command of Major-General Sir William Grant Keir, left Bombay in 1819; this time, the military operations culminated in a General Treaty of Pacification with the Arab tribes, issued at Ras al Khaima on January 8, 1820. Plunder and piracy were to cease; the difference between these and acts of war was defined. There followed formal regulations for the recognition and control of shipping, such as the flying of flags and the carrying of registers and port clearance certificates. There was a provision for the exchange of envoys between the sheikhs and the British Residency in the Gulf, and a guarantee of trading rights in British and allied ports. Furthermore, the Treaty, which although issued in the name of Keir was in fact drafted by his interpreter Captain Thompson, contained in its ninth article the first denunciation of the slave trade in a formal treaty. The Treaty was signed, among others, by the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as well as by Sultan bin Saqar, chief of the Qawasim and sheikh of Ras al Khaimah for more than sixty years. Thanks to the Treaty, and the relationship with the British in India which developed out of it, the sheikhdoms of the Trucial Coast succeeded in maintaining their independence from other regional powers down to our own time.
General Treaty with the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf (1820), in Arabic, manuscript on paper. [ca. 1830] 300 x 185 mm. 4 leaves, black ink on paper (browned throughout, with small tear to top of first leaf, not affecting text), in later orange-brown morocco binding.
A NEAR-CONTEMPORARY COPY OF THE TREATY LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BRITAIN AND THE TRUCIAL STATES. The first two decades of the nineteenth century saw an increasing menace from piracy both to trade between western India and the Persian Gulf and to the British 'direct route' to India, from the caravan terminus at Aleppo across the desert to Basra and thence by sea to Bombay. The sheikhdoms of the Qawasim, the main tribe of the Omani coast, had come under the dominance of the aggressively fundamentalist Wahhabis, who encouraged them to prey upon the traffic of the unbelievers. An expedition in 1809-10, which destroyed most of the pirate fleet, proved only a temporary setback for the Qawasim, who were soon ranging further afield than ever, and a second, more powerful expedition, under the command of Major-General Sir William Grant Keir, left Bombay in 1819; this time, the military operations culminated in a General Treaty of Pacification with the Arab tribes, issued at Ras al Khaima on January 8, 1820. Plunder and piracy were to cease; the difference between these and acts of war was defined. There followed formal regulations for the recognition and control of shipping, such as the flying of flags and the carrying of registers and port clearance certificates. There was a provision for the exchange of envoys between the sheikhs and the British Residency in the Gulf, and a guarantee of trading rights in British and allied ports. Furthermore, the Treaty, which although issued in the name of Keir was in fact drafted by his interpreter Captain Thompson, contained in its ninth article the first denunciation of the slave trade in a formal treaty. The Treaty was signed, among others, by the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as well as by Sultan bin Saqar, chief of the Qawasim and sheikh of Ras al Khaimah for more than sixty years. Thanks to the Treaty, and the relationship with the British in India which developed out of it, the sheikhdoms of the Trucial Coast succeeded in maintaining their independence from other regional powers down to our own time.
Literature
H.Moyse-Bartlett, The Pirates of Trucial Oman, London: 1996.