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Abstract
The interwar period (1919–39) was a formative period in the Persian Gulf. These years marked a transition from a Gulf society once characterized by symbiosis and interdependency to a sub-region characterized by national divisions, sectarian suspicions, rivalries and political tension. This period witnessed a surge of anti-colonial and nationalist feeling in Iran, the rise of a stridently nationalist military leader in the person of Reza Shah Pahlavi, his implementation of an assertive Persian Gulf policy and his re-assertion of Iran’s claims to coastal territories ruled by Arab shaykhs under British protection. The challenge posed by ascendant Iran to Britain’s dominant position in the Persian Gulf generated an abrupt shift from indirect to direct forms of colonial penetration in the Gulf Arab shaykhdoms and a transfer of Britain’s locus of power from the Iranian to the Arabian littoral. This article surveys the wide-ranging political, economic and social processes that transformed the Persian Gulf community into a sub-region of Arab-Iranian rivalry during the interwar period.
Notes
1 The term “Arab shaykhdoms” is used to refer to the small Persian Gulf polities centered around port towns on the eastern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and ruled by Arab tribal shaykhs, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial States (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah, also known as Trucial Oman, the Trucial Coast, the Trucial Shaykhdoms, and since 1971, the United Arab Emirates [UAE]).
2 Mudayris, Al-ḥarakāt wa-l-jamāʿāt al-siyāsiyya fi al-Baḥrayn, 1938–2002 [The Political Movements and Associations in Bahrain, 1938–2002] (2004), p. 7.
3 See for example, Commins, The Gulf States: A Modern History (2014); and Yanai, The Political Transformation of Gulf Tribal States: Elitism and the Social Contract in Kuwait, Bahrain and Dubai, 1918–1970s (2014).
4 See for example, Schofield, Evolution of the Shatt al-Arab Boundary Dispute (1986); Zargar, “A Historical Review of British Role [sic] in Iran-Iraqi Dispute [sic] on the Shatt al-Arab Waterway”, International Journal of Political Science 1 (2011), pp. 21–35; Mojtahed-Zadeh, Security and Territoriality in the Persian Gulf: A Maritime Political Geography (2003); Khadduri, “Iran’s Claim to the Sovereignty of Bahrayn”, The American Journal of International Law 45.4 (1951), pp. 631–47; Adamiyat, Bahrein Islands: A Legal and Diplomatic Study of the British-Iranian Controversy (1952); Kelley, “The Persian Claim to Bahrain”, International Affairs 33.1 (1957), pp. 57–9; al-ʿAẓamī, Al-nizāʿ bayna dawlat al-Imārāt al-ʿArabiyya wa Īrān ḥawla juzur Abū Mūsa wa Ṭunb al-Kubra wa l-Ṣughra fī al-wathāʾiq al-Barīṭāniyya, 1764–1971 [The Conflict between the Arab Emirates and Iran over the Islands Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb in the British Documents] (2003); Valdānī, Nigāhī tārīkhī bih jazāyir-i Irānī Tunb va Abū Mūsa [A Historical Look at the Iranian Islands of Tunb and Abu Musa] (1997).
5 Potter, “Introduction”, The Persian Gulf in History, ed. Potter (Citation2009), pp. 1–24.
6 Ibid.
7 Onley and Khalaf, “Shaikhly Authority in the Pre-Oil Gulf: An Historical Anthropological Study”, History and Anthropology 17.3 (2006), pp. 189–208.
8 Ibid.
9 Onley, “The Politics of Protection in the Gulf: The Arab Rulers and the British Resident in the Nineteenth Century”, New Arabian Studies 6 (2004), pp. 52–3.
10 Aitchison (ed.), A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads Relating to India and Neighboring Countries: Relating to Aden and the Southwestern Coast of Arabia 11 (1933, repr. 1973), pp. 238, 256, 262.
11 Onley, “Britain and the Gulf Shaikhdoms, 1820–1971: The Politics of Protection”, CIRS Occasional Paper 4 (2009) pp. 10–11.
12 Aitchison (ed.), A Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads, pp. 256–7, 258–60, 262.
13 Onley, “The Politics of Protection in the Gulf”, pp. 30–92.
14 Ibid., pp. 57–60.
15 Ibid., pp. 75–6.
16 Onley, “Britain and the Gulf Shaikhdoms” (2009), pp. 9, 24–6.
17 Nadjmabadi, “The Arab Presence on the Iranian Coast of the Persian Gulf”, The Persian Gulf in History, ed. Potter (Citation2009), pp. 131–2.
18 Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia 1: Historical, ed. Birdwood (1915, repr. 1986), pp. 2611–12.
19 See for example, Palgrave, Narrative of a Year’s Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862–63, vol. 2 (1866), pp. 198–337.
20 Onley, “Transnational Merchants in the Nineteenth Century Gulf: The Case of the Safar Family”, Transnational Connections in the Arab Gulf, ed. al-Rasheed (2005), pp. 59–89.
21 Crystal, Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar (1990), pp. 39–40.
22 Cox (Political Resident, Bushire) to the Sec., Govt of India, 17 Dec. 1904, with enclosures, IOR/L/P&S/10/81, British Library, London.
23 Ibid., enclosure no. 4.
24 Cox to the Sec., Govt of India, 4 Mar. 1905, with enclosures, IOR/L/P&S/10/81, British Library, London.
25 “Petition from the Shaykh of Bahrain”, 2 Oct. 1905, IOR/L/P&S/10/81, British Library, London.
26 Ghods, “Iranian Nationalism and Reza Shah”, Middle Eastern Studies 27.1 (1991), pp. 35–45.
27 Kashani-Sabet, Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804–1946 (1999), p. 5.
28 Rezun, The Soviet Union and Iran: Soviet Policy in Iran from the Beginnings of the Pahlavi Dynasty Until the Soviet Invasion in 1941 (1981), pp. 242–309.
29 Haworth, “Persia and the Persian Gulf”, Central Asian Society Journal 16.4 (1929), pp. 495–509.
30 Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Residency for the Year 1932”, p. 58, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 9: 1931–1940 (1986), p. 58.
31 Kazemi (Iranian For. Minister) to Hoare (British Minister, Tehran), 13 May 1934; Knatchbull-Hugessen (British Minister, Tehran) to Simon (British For. Sec.), 15 Dec. 1934, FO 416/92, TNA, London.
32 Senior Naval Officer Persian Gulf (SNOPG) to Commander-in-Chief, East Indies (CinCEI), 17 Aug. 1928, IOR/R/15/1/280, British Library, London.
33 Ibid.
34 See for example, ʿAṣr-e Āzādi, 30 July, 21 Sept., 17 and 25 Oct., and 4 Nov. 1922, and Iṣṭakhr, 25 July and 17 Sept. 1922, IOR/R/15/1/319, British Library, London.
35 See, for example: “The Cry of Persia”, Bāhāristan [a Tehran newspaper], 24 Nov. 1923, enclosed in Foreign Office, Tehran Legation, “Intelligence Summary for No. 48 for Week Ending December 1, 1923”, reprinted in Iran Political Diaries 6: 1921–1923 (1997), ed. Burrell and Jarman, p. 638.
36 Foreign Office, Tehran Legation, “Persia: Annual Report, 1934”, reprinted in Iran Political Diaries 9 (1997), ed. Burrell and Jarman, p. 623.
37 See, for example, Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Residency for the Year 1934”, p. 18, and “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Residency for the Year 1936”, pp. v, 30, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 9: 1931–1940 (1986).
38 SNOPG to CinCEI, 17 Aug. 1928, IOR/R/15/1/280, British Library, London.
39 “Memorandum dated 13th May 1923, from the Political Agent, Bahrain, to the Hon’ble the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire”, IOR/R/15/2/127, British Library, London; al-Khayrī, Qalāʾid al-naḥrayn fī tārīkh al-Baḥrayn [Pendants of the Sacred in the History of Bahrain] ed. al-Shuqayr (2003 [c.1920s]), pp. 423–5.
40 Pakravan (acting Iranian For. Minister) to Clive (British Minister, Tehran), 22 Nov. 1927, FO 416/81, TNA, London.
41 Ibid.
42 Barrett (Political Agent, Bahrain) to Haworth (Political Resident, Bushire), 11 Feb. 1928, IOR/R/15/1/356, London.
43 Knox (acting Political Resident, Bushire) to Sec. of State for the Colonies, 9 May 1923, IOR/L/P&S/10/1039, British Library, London.
44 See for example, a travel pass issued on 27 Oct. 1924 to Hajjī Moḥammad Sharīf (merchant of Bahrain), reprinted in Farahmand, “Ingilīs va parvazha-yi Īrānzodāyī az Khalīj-i Fārs” [The British and the Project to De-Iranize the Persian Gulf], Tārīkh-i ravābiṭ-i khārijī 22 (2005), p. 176.
45 “Memorandum: Bahrain, 1908–1928”, p. 8, IOR/L/P&S/18/B396, British Library, London.
46 “Bahrain Government Proclamation”, 15 Dec. 1928, FO 416/84, TNA, London; Belgrave, Personal Diaries, 7 Nov. 1928.
47 Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Residency for the Year 1932”, p. 58, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 9: 1931–1940 (1986).
48 Shaykh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ (Ruler of Kuwait) to Dickson (Political Agent, Kuwait), 10 Apr. 1933; “Statement of Sālim bin Mubārak”, n.d.; Mallet (British Chargé d'Affaires, Tehran) to Kazemi, 29 July 1933; Kazemi to Mallet, 21 Oct. 1933, IOR/R/15/5/172, British Library, London.
49 Bilāl al-Saqr to Shaykh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ, 30 May 1933, IOR/R/15/5/172, British Library, London.
50 Dickson to Fowle (Political Resident, Bushire), 4 June 1933, IOR/R/15/5/172, British Library, London.
51 Bilāl al-Saqr to Shaykh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ, 30 May 1933, IOR/R/15/5/172, British Library, London.
52 Shaykh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ to Dickson, 1 June 1933, IOR/R/15/5/172, British Library, London.
53 SNOPG to CinCEI, 30 July 1926, IOR/R/15/1/282, British Library, London.
54 SNOPG to Haworth, 31 July 1928, IOR/R/15/1/282, British Library, London.
55 SNOPG to CinCEI, 30 July 1928, IOR/R/15/1/282, British Library, London.
56 Haworth to Sec. of State for India, 2 Aug. 1928, FO 371/13009, TNA, London.
57 SNOPG to CinCEI, 5 Aug. 1928, IOR/R/15/1/282, British Library, London.
58 Govt of Bahrain, “Bahrain Government Annual Report for the Year 1348 [1929–1930]”, reprinted in The Bahrain Government Annual Reports 1: 1924–1937 (1987), ed. Jarman, pp. 110–11; “Extract from Bushire Summary of News No. 11 of 1932 from the Arab States for the month of November 1932”, IOR/R/15/2/488, British Library, London.
59 Daly (Political Agent, Bahrain) to Haworth, 17 Oct. 1923, with enclosure, IOR/R/15/1/338, British Library, London.
60 Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates (1996), pp. 253–5.
61 Seccombe and Lawless, “Foreign Worker Dependence in the Gulf, and the International Oil Companies: 1910–50”, International Migration Review 20 (1986), pp. 559–60.
62 Govt of India, “Diary of the British Residency and Consulate General Bushire for the Month of October 1936”, reprinted in Political Diaries of the Arab World: Persian Gulf 12: 1936–1937 (1998), ed. Jarman, pp. 245–7.
63 Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Residency for the Year 1919”, p. 10, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 7: 1912–1920 (1986); and Floor, The Rise and Fall of Bandar-e Lingah: The Distribution Center for the Arabian Coast 1750–1930 (2010), p. 154.
64 See Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia 2: Geographical, ed. Birdwood (1908, repr. 1986), p. 345; and Admiralty, Naval Intelligence Division, Iraq and the Persian Gulf (1944, repr. 1987), pp. 156–7.
65 Daly to Haworth, 17 Oct. 1923, with enclosure, R/15/1/338; See also Qāsim, Tārīkh al-Khalīj al-ʿArabī: al-ḥadīth wa-l-muʿāṣir [History of the Arab Gulf: the Contermporary and Modern Period] (2001), pp. 202–42.
66 Al-Muqaṭṭam (Cairo), 17 Dec. 1934, IOR/R/15/2/486, British Library, London.
67 Crystal, Oil and Politics in the Gulf (1990), pp. 52–3.
68 “Summary of three articles from Al-Thaghr of Basra dated 16th January, February 1st and February 5th 1934 respectively”, IOR/R/15/1/505, British Library, London.
69 Mudayris, Al-ḥarakāt wa-l-jamāʿāt al-siyāsiyya fi al-Baḥrayn (2004), p. 7.
70 Burrell, “Britain, Iran and the Persian Gulf: Some Aspects of the Situation in the 1920s and 1930s”, The Arabian Peninsula, ed. Hopwood (1972), pp. 160–88; and Majd, Great Britian and Reza Shah: The Plunder of Iran, 1921–1941 (2001), p. 294.
71 Daly to Haworth, 17 Oct. 1923, with enclosure “translation of a petition without date”, IOR/R/15/1/338, British Library, London.
72 “Petition from Shabāb al-Umma to Political Agent Bahrain”, 9 Nov. 1938; “Petition by Shabāb al-Waṭanī to Political Agent Bahrain”, n.d., IOR/R/15/1/343, British Library, London.
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Chelsi Mueller
Chelsi Mueller is a research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel, 6997801.