Description

Fahreddin Reşad Bey ( Rumbeyoğlu Fahreddin Bey also Rumbeyoglu Fahr al-Din Bey,1867–1943) – Mehmed Nâbi Bey (1868-1924).

[Sublime Port. Foreign Reports. Problem of Qatar Coasts]

Istanbul: Matbaa-i Âmire 1334 [1918].

The following report was compiled during World War I in 1917 and published the following year in a series of government publications regarding the management of foreign affairs in the former Ottoman territories and borderlands at the war’s end.

The editors who selected and transcribed the documents from the archives into Ottoman Turkish and then translated them into French were Fahreddin Reşad Bey (also known as Rumbeyoğlu Fahreddin Bey or Rumbeyoglu Fahr al-Din Bey, 1867–1943), a diplomat, and Mehmed Nâbi Bey (1868–1924), a statesman who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs starting in October 1918.

A rare pamphlet presents the correspondence between the British and Ottoman diplomats from 1890 until 1903 regarding the British interest in the coast of Qatar, at the time de facto under the Ottoman rule, but locally governed by Arab Sheiks, whore rebellion against the Ottomans was supported by the British. Qatar became a British protectorate on 3 November 1916.

The pamphlet includes transcriptions of the following documents:

December 9, 1890.
A Note Verbale between the British ambassador in Istanbul, Sir William Arthur White (1824 –1891) to the Ottoman Imperial Ministry for Foreign Affairs regarding the military posts Zubarah and Khawr al Udayd on the coast of “El-Katr” in the Persian Gulf.
March 22, 1891.

March 22, 1891.
A letter by the British ambassador in Istanbul to the Ottoman minister, reminding him, that they have not responded the letter about two new Ottoman military posts in Zubarah and Khawr al Udayd on the coast of Qatar. Mentioned is also a signature of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi (Abuthabi) on a peace treaty (Maritime Fruce).

July 11, 1891.
A Note Verbale is a response by the Ottoman Foreign Ministry to the British ambassador, regarding the two military posts on the coast of Qatar, which are in the limits of the Vilayet of Basra. The minister states he knowns nothing about the document, signed by the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi.

August 29, 1891.
Respond of the British ambassador to the Ottoman foreign minister regarding the posts in Qatar. The ambassador also mentions that the peace treaty (Maritime Fruce) was signed on May 4 1853 between the Sheikhs of Ras Al Khaimah (today Saudi Arabia), Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman and Umm al-Qaiwain.
The letter is followed by a transcription of the peace treaty, signed by five Arab Sheikhs.

January 2, 1892.
A respond of the Ottoman foreign minister to the British ambassador regarding the previous letter. He acknowledges no previous notion on the Arab treaty but stands behind the statement, that the Zubarah and Khawr al Udayd are under the Ottoman rule.

April 1903.
A letter by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, (1845 – 1927), probably to the Ottoman Ambassador in England, regarding the coast of Qatar and the news, that the Ottoman Empire will not send any further Mudirs (governors) to Qatar.

May 13, 1903.
A letter by the Ottoman Ambassador in England to Lord Lansdowne, confirming, that a Mudir had been appointed to Al Wakrah and had already met with Sheikh Ahmed.

We could trace a single institutional example on Worldcat, housed at the University of Haifa. We have featured another example in our March 2024 catalogue.

References: OCLC 745133464.