India Office and successors: Political Residencies and Agencies, Persian Gulf: Correspondence...

FO 1016

1917-1972

This series contains files of the British political residency in the Persian Gulf and the subordinate political agencies at Muscat, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai (Trucial States). The records are predominantly from the period of Foreign Office responsibility, though some of the earlier files are from series represented among the holdings of the India Office Library and Records.

Public Record(s)

Arabic and English

• Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Political Agency, Abu Dhabi, 1968-1971
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Political Agency, Bahrain, 1968-1971
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Political Agency, Dubai, 1968-1971
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Political Agency, Qatar, 1968-1971
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Political Residency, Bahrain, 1968-1971
• Foreign Office, Consulate and Political Agency, Muscat, 1948-1966
• Foreign Office, Political Agency, Abu Dhabi, 1948-1968
• Foreign Office, Political Agency, Bahrain, 1948-1968
• Foreign Office, Political Agency, Dubai, 1948-1968
• Foreign Office, Political Agency, Kuwait, 1948-1961
• Foreign Office, Political Agency, Qatar, 1948-1968
• Foreign Office, Political Agency, Sharjah, 1948-1950
• Foreign Office, Political Residency, Bahrain, 1948-1968
• India Office, Consulate, Muscat, 1914-1948

920 files and volumes

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

From 1981 Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Topics

International

Middle East

Series is accruing

The early history of the British Residency and Agencies in the Persian Gulf lay in trading contacts of the East India Company which led to an agreement in 1763 with the Shaikh of Bushire, under which a Residency was established at Bushire. The Residency was transferred to Bahrain in 1946, and in 1948 the residency and agencies came under the supervision of the Foreign Office. The independent emirates were granted British protection, and took advice from the British political agents, who reported to the Resident in Bahrain. The Resident was responsible for British relations with the protected states generally.

The Agency at Muscat also served as a Consulate. In 1966 it was removed from the supervision of the Residency in Bahrain and operated as a separate Consulate General in Muscat. The Agency in Sharjah was closed in 1950. Kuwait gained official independence in June 1961 (it had been effectively independent for some time previously), at which time the office of the Political Agency in Kuwait was closed and an embassy established in its place. In December 1971 the Trucial States (Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quaiwain) came together to form the independent United Arab Emirates (Ras al-Khaimah joined the following year), and the Political Agency at Dubai was closed and replaced with an Embassy. Bahrain and Qatar were established as independent states outside of the United Arab Emirates in the same year, and the Political Agencies in each, and the Political Residency in Bahrain, were closed at that time and replaced with embassies.