Untold lives blog

Launched on 22 October 2014, the Qatar Digital Library (QDL) was developed as part of a longstanding partnership between the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar National Library, and the British Library.  The partnership includes the digitisation of a wide range of material from the British Library’s collections, aimed at improving understanding of the modern history of the Gulf, Arabic cultural heritage, and the Islamic world.

Following on from part 1 , members of the team of experts working on the QDL reflect on memorable material that they and former colleagues have encountered in the last decade.

• Preserving original order in George Curzon’s Persia and the Persian Question – Mss Eur F111/33

Annotated pages in George Curzon’s personal copy of his 1892 book, Persia and the Persian Question – Mss Eur F111/33 ff. 74v-75r. Image digitised by the BLQFP

George Curzon’s personal copy of his two-volume tome stands out for the interesting challenges it posed during conservation and cataloguing.  Rather unexpectedly, it contained dozens of assorted papers between its pages, including received correspondence, newspaper cuttings, various journal and magazine articles, and a few handwritten notes by Curzon.  The question for the conservation and cataloguing teams was how to preserve the inserted papers’ original order while ensuring their long-term preservation and indeed that of the book itself.  The solution was to number the pages of the book and the inserted items with the latter still in place, forming a single foliation sequence.  Now, when viewed on the QDL, the inserted items remain in their original order, between the pages of the two volumes (though some, e.g. certain newspaper cuttings, do not appear online for copyright reasons).  Physically, however, the inserted items are now preserved in a separate file.

• Discovering the unexpected – IOR/R/15/1/355 

A British wartime propaganda poster, dated c. 1941-42 – IOR/R/15/1/355, f. 42v

Cataloguing can be very serendipitous, as unassuming files can reveal the unexpected.  Such was the case with this financial file, containing two rare Arabic-language propaganda posters, which the British Government produced during the Second World War.  The posters only survived because of a wartime paper shortage, which led to financial accounts of the Bahraini Government being typed on their reverse.

• Personal reflections on life in the Gulf during the last years of Empire – Mss Eur F226/2, Mss Eur F226/7, Mss Eur F226/10, Mss Eur F226/13, Mss Eur F226/22, Mss Eur F226/23, Mss Eur F226/26, Mss Eur F226/28, Mss Eur F226/30, and Mss Eur F226/34

Excerpt from John ‘Jack’ Bazalgette’s 1984 memoir – Mss Eur F226/2, f. 152r. © Estate of John Bazalgette

These ten memoirs belonging to former British officials of the Indian Political Service provide a unique insight into one generation’s experiences of living and working in the Gulf during the last years of British India, as discussed at length in three blogs and in this QDL expert article.

• Muzah bint Ahmad Al Bu Sa‘id: the protector of Muscat – IOR/F/4/1435/56726

Heading to a letter written by Muzah bint Ahmad Al Bu Sa‘id, to the Governor of Bombay, dated 8 April 1832 – IOR/F/4/1435/56726, f. 235v

As in many archival collections, women are under-represented in the records, and those who do feature are largely misrepresented.  For these reasons, this item is particularly notable, since it contains a letter to the Governor of Bombay from Muzah bint Ahmad Al Bu Sa‘id, who, in the absence of her nephew the Imam of Muscat, took charge and defended his territories.

IOR Cataloguing Team, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership