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‘MAP OF OMÂN SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRINCIPAL TRIBES. COMPILED FOR OFFICIAL USE BY Edward Charles ROSS, Political Agent, MUSCAT’ ST 393, vol 19, p 186a
Dr Francis Owtram, Gulf History Specialist at the British Library, highlights the further rich archival material and related articles on Oman which have been made freely available online on the Qatar Digital Library since writing his article for the 2017 Annual Review.
The British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership (BLQFP) started work in 2012 and in 2014 launched the online portal, the Qatar Digital Library (QDL) of digitised archives on the Gulf drawn from the India Office Records and Private Papers, 1600-1951. In 2021 the BLQFP celebrated the digitisation of the 2 millionth image and is scheduled to complete 3 million images by the end of 2025, many of which are about Oman.
The material in the archive consists of hand-written and typed correspondence, for example, letters in Arabic and English between British officials and members of ruling families as well as photographs, maps and technical drawings. The process involved in getting the archival documents digitized and available online involves a team of history, language, translation, conservation, copyright and photographic specialists. The Qatar Digital Library is a bi-lingual portal with all catalogue records translated into Arabic.
A notable feature of the QDL is a section of Expert Articles (also all available in Arabic) written by Partnership staff on Oman. These have covered a variety of topics including the role of female leaders in 1832 such as Moza, daughter of Imam Ahmed bin Syed, who prevailed over family rivals to maintain her father’s power and authority whilst he was in Zanzibar.
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Heading to the letter written by Moza to the Governor of Bombay requesting support, 8 April 1832. IOR/F/4/1435/56726, f. 235v
The Records of the Muscat Agency (IOR/R/15/6) have been digitised in full including the Treaty of Seeb, 1920; a Finding Aid has been written to accompany this series.
The Treaty of Seeb (Sib) which ended a revolt from interior Oman, September 1920. IOR/R/15/1/436, ff. 262A - 262
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A view of Zanzibar harbour, captured by Sir John Kirk, British Consul General in Zanzibar, 1875. Photo 355/1(120)
Other articles have examined rivalries at the Imam of Muscat’s court in Zanzibar in the 1840s, a proposal by a British official to make the tip of the Musandam peninsula the ‘Gibraltar of the Gulf’, the Sultanate’s territory of Gwadur, and the possible significance of the Lesser-Known Early Years of Sultan Qaboos.
Most recently, the British Library Untold Lives blog has featured the remarkable assistance proffered Sālim bin Sa‘īd bin Khāṭir, a Bedouin ‘of the Yal Wahibah tribe to British subjects who survived a shipwreck on the coast of Oman. Another piece highlighted the life and times of Suleiman Al-Baruni, an Ibadhi scholar from North Africa, who served as an adviser to both the Imam in the interior and Sultan Sa’id bin Taimur on the coast in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman in the 1930s.
Also included on the QDL are Arabic Scientific Manuscripts including one on Indian Ocean navigation techniques written by a well known ship captain of Sur, Oman active in the early 19th century.
About the author:
Dr Francis Owtram has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and is the author of A Modern History of Oman: Formation of the State since 1920 (IB Tauris, 2004). He is a Gulf History Specialist at the British Library and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter