Special Collections: Middle East Studies

The Middle East material held in our archives can provide historical and political insights into a region that remains of crucial significance to international affairs, global economic development and world peace. As the source of most of the world's petroleum, the location of the birth of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths and a perennial flashpoint for religious, ethnic and political tensions, the Middle East continues to demand compelling scholarly interest across almost every field and discipline. The diversity of our archival collections could support a wide range of research projects, particularly if such research is pursued across different archives along either thematic or geographical lines. 

• Relations between the Middle East and the West. The recent murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi has drawn worldwide attention not only to the conduct of the House of Saud but also to the reasons for the long-standing support offered to the Saudi regime by America and the UK. The ability to analyse contemporary political events and policies relies upon an understanding of the complex array of alliances, oppositions, armed conflicts and economic collaborations that have taken place during the last two centuries and beyond, and our archival collections contain a great deal of material on British involvement in the region, from Charles Belgrave's activities as 'Adviser' to the Sheikhs of Bahrain to John Richmond's diplomatic work in Kuwait and Sudan, as well as Sir William Luce's role overseeing the withdrawal of British forces from the Persian Gulf in the early 1970s and his efforts to balance regional stability with the maintenance of Britain's interests and influence. The personal nature of these archives present opportunities for researchers to obtain candid and unexpurgated opinions on key events and personalities. What is the relationship between British perceptions of Iran in the 1930s and current support for Iran's political opponents? How much of the contemporary geopolitical map of the region has been determined by Western activities in the Middle East, and what are the implications of this for the future? Material to answer these questions can be found not only in papers dealing directly with military intelligence, administration or diplomacy in the region itself, but also in the wealth of academic writings, conferences and groups such as the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) or Arab-British Chamber of Commerce through which such relations continue to be promoted.

• Energy, Resources and Development. The discovery of oil in the Persian Gulf in the 1930s transformed not only the Middle East itself but also Western policy in the region. Charles Belgrave's diaries chronicle the dramatic changes in Bahrain's landscape, economy and culture as the oil industry developed, as well as the influx of Western visitors that descended upon the island in consequence. Although the development of Isa Town in Bahrain was undertaken after Belgrave's departure, there are several items on the construction of this desert town in the Luce collection. Comparisons could be made between Belgrave's relationships with the rulers of Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and those of Sir William Luce two decades later, as the flourishing oil economies shifted the balance of political power as well as western attitudes towards Kuwait and Iraq. The papers of Jonathan Crusoe contain a wealth of material on the Iraqi oil industry in the 1980s up till the end of the Gulf War in 1991, as well as detailed information on other industrial, commercial and agricultural practices in the country. We also hold a substantial collection of working papers belonging to John Craven Wilkinson, who worked in the oil industry in the Middle East before devoting much of his later career to writing about Oman. 

• The Kurds: independence and identity, isolation and integration. The Kurdish people are a large ethnic minority who live in an area - sometimes referred to as 'Kurdistan' - that spans the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Armenia. They have their own culture, literature and language, with two main dialects - Sorani, which is written in Arabic, and Kurmanji, the dialect spoken in Turkey and written using the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The Kurdish people have been victims of ethnic repression throughout the 20th century, facing forced assimilation in the countries where they live. We have a uniquely valuable resource for Kurdish studies in the papers of Omar Sheikhmous, a founding member of  the 'Patriotic Union of Kurdistan' (PUK) who has dedicated his life and career to political, academic and cultural activities on behalf of the Kurds. The collection includes pamphlets, press cuttings, conference papers, unpublished writings and original archival material relating to Kurdish political resistance movements. There is also a smaller collection of material in the Crusoe archive relating to the activities and welfare of Iraqi Kurds.

• Pan-Arabism. While the papers of Charles Belgrave and William Luce reveal the extent of British fears about the growth of the Pan-Arab movement - an ideology that espouses cultural and political unity for all Arabs under the banner of a single Arab nation - and the Crusoe collection contains valuable documentation on the history of the Ba'ath party and the Pan-Arabism of Saddam Hussein, researchers seeking to study the Pan-Arab movement should read this material in conjunction with that held in the archives of Nazih Ayubi, Nabih Al-Azmah and Adil Al-Azmah. Their involvement in the politics of Syria, Egypt and other Arab countries is documented in reports, correspondence and other records, as well as research papers and draft publications.

Material from these collections can be located using our online archives catalogue and more information on specific archives is periodically posted on our Special Collections Blog.