Arabian Gulf Intelligence: Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, New Series, No.XXIV, 1856

Arabian Gulf Intelligence is an essential compendium of information concerning the eastern regions of the Arabian Peninsula and islands in the Gulf in the middle of the ninetenth century. 

The British Government of India maintained close surveillance over Eastern Arabia before the Arab states gained independence, and their most important reports by civilian and military personnel are reprinted for the first time in this volume of Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, with a new frontispiece, new introduction and six maps.

Extensive information is provided on the history, topography, campaigns, and tribal relationships in Muscat and Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the Emirates, with especially detailed studies of the qawasim, Utuba and Wahhabi. Treaties between Great Britain and Oman, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain appear verbatim. Navigation between islands and both shores of the Gulf is fully elucidated. There are notes on Hufhuf, al-Qatif and Buraimi.

Dr Robin Bidwell, who provided the introduction, was Secretary of the Middle East Centre at Cambridge University. He also wrote the introduction for Vincenzo Maurizi's History of Seyd Said, Sultan of Muscat.

Part of the Oleander Classics series, this 1985 title has been reproduced using the highest-quality modern scanning technology. This is in order to keep important works from the Press’s 50-year history from going out of print. In this way, the invaluable resources provided by this and other books in the series remain available for general readers, academics and other interested parties.