From the pages of history

Lookout Qatar

HISTORY ONLINE: (clockwise from top) Manuscript from the Description and Uses of Animals; Item from Archimedes Book on the Construction of Water Clocks; ; maps of the pearl fishing beds commissioned by the British; Oliver Urquhart-Irvine, Head of the British Library-Qatar Foundation Partnership; a page from a Mamluk manual on horsemanship, military arts and technology by Muhammad ibn Isa ibn IsmaĎil al-Hanafi al-Aqsara

On Archives

In a 10-year effort, over 3 million documents related to the Gulf – will be conserved, digitized, catalogued and made freely available to the public through an online portal of the Qatar National Library.

By Ayswarya Murthy PhotOGRAPH by Rob Altimirano

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T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

TRAVEL DOCUMENT: (Clockwise from left) Sir Lewis Pelly’s Passport”; in this 1929 communication, a Lincoln Ford Fordson dealer in Bahrain explains, with illustrations, the flag being flown by the ruler of Qatar.

Images courtesy of the British Library

From the Pages of History

”Request and require in the name of Her Majesty, all those whom it may concern to allow Major-General Sir Louis (sic) Pelly (British subject)...accompanied by Lady Pelly with her maid servant, to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford him every assistance and protection of which he may stand in need.” Thus goes the passport that Lewis Pelly, the famous British civil servant, carried on his person as he traveled through the region. This is just one slice of history, buried deep within the Gulf British Library archives, which will shortly be available online, “transforming and enhancing our understanding of the past”, according to Oliver Urquhart-Irvine, Head of the British Library-Qatar Foundation Partnership. In a 10-year effort, over 3 million documents related to the Gulf – maps, photographs, correspondence, manuscripts, government records, paintings, multimedia content, all thoughtfully hoarded by the library through the course of Britain’s long presence in the region – will be conserved, digitized, catalogued and made freely available to the public through an online portal. “These will place the history of Qatar in context to the Gulf and the world. It is also a fantastic opportunity for the new Qatar National Library to make a sizable digital acquisition when it’s ready to open next year, by which time we expect to have digitized over 350,000 pages,” says Urquhart-Irvine.

Perhaps what researches and young students will find most interesting are the documents relating to the understanding of the sciences in the Arab world. “British Library has an internationally significant collection of medieval Arabic books and documents on science – original works and translations of ancient Greek texts – which trace the story of the intellectual flowering in Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus and their impact on Western sciences and the Renaissance.” He brings up a few manuscript pages on his iPad. An early manuscript on chivalry and horsemanship, colorfully illustrated and detailed in beautiful calligraphy; a volume on natural history; a translation of Euclid’s commentary on Pythagoras with the Arab mathematician al-Tusi adding some of his own insights along the margins; and countless more works of medicine, astronomy, geography being unearthed and newly-discovered. Some of these manuscripts are from as long ago as 900 AD. While Britain’s interest in the region was in the beginning limited to trade concerns, the country had begun to keep its finger on the political pulse of the Arab states from the early 1800s. “Initially the British were just observing the climate, corresponding with the chiefs (there is a wealth of communication between the government and the Al Thani family, for example), reporting back to London, writing to their counterparts in India and negotiating trade,” Urquhart-Irvine says. “Meticulous efforts were being made, especially in a pre-photograph era, in recording and keeping accounts, resulting in a wealth of information concerning Qatar. In 1851 a trade treaty was signed between the British and the Al Thani, one of the earliest documents recognizing Qatar as a separate political state. Except Qatar was spelt with a G, probably the result of a government employee who learnt Arabic at London College transliterating the sound. There are drawings of the flag of Qatar along with cloth samples, explaining the significance of it, from as early as 1840. Further records from 1868 detail terms of a treaty and the way the negotiations were conducted with the royal family. Then there is an account of Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani (who is said to be the founder of modern Qatar) meeting with Lewis Pelly.”

These little glimpses into history provide a tantalizing taste of daily life and personal stories from the day up to the 1950s. “There are sketches of the old views of Doha, notes on what life was like here in the past and random pieces of information on literacy and how long it took to cross the Empty Quarter [of the Arabian Peninsula].”

“This is not just a regional resource,” he says. With British interests spanning the globe, these snatches from the past can’t help but contain little hints of new technological advancement and goings-on from the globe affecting the British Empire. “There is a letter here exchanging views on the laying of telegraph lines in the region. There are discussions pertaining to pilgrimages to the region, the flourishing trade with South Asia and the earliest mention of American shipping in the Gulf. We get a wonderful insight into the minds of the British officers who are discussing American

MAPPED: (left) Trigonometrical survey of Core Alladeid on the Arabian side of the Gulf

FLAGGING OFF: (Right) This is an official request from the German Embassy in London in 1931 to share information on the arms and flags of Bahrain, Qatar, Asir and Yemen, with promises to refund any expenses incurred.

privateers just immediately after they lost the war of independence in America and are not entirely sure how to describe or deal with them. Some of them talk about the boastful nature of American pamphlets which describe their perfect systems,” Urquhart-Irvine laughs. A few of these personal narratives being unearthed help bring into focus the underlying human element of history that goes beyond maps, treaties and government memos. “There is a mention of the Sheikh of Sharjah playing blaring broadcasts of German propaganda during the 1949s to annoy the officers in the British camp. Letters from Pelly talking about playing badminton with Rudyard Kipling’s mother in India, discussing the great and good everywhere with his friends half way across the globe.”

“The scale and quality of this project is unique,” Urquhart-Irvine says. An interdisciplinary team of over 40 archivists, conservation experts, curators, Arabic bibliographers, imaging staff and engineers are working together to shape this collection into a valuable resource for the generations to come. We are not just cataloguing the documents but adding about 2.5 million words’ worth of metadata containing contextual information and translations both in Arabic and English. The printed words will be text-searchable and at some point we’re looking to do this for manuscripts as well.” Since many of these contain rich illustrations, the high-resolution images add another dimension to this repository of historic knowledge. “The quality is incredibly high - you can see the fibres in the paper, the cracks in the ink,” he says. “For us, it’s a privileged opportunity to explore these pages, bringing alive the history contained in them.”

September-October 2013

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