A fascinating sketch of the political history of Shatrah from 1880 to 1919, written while the author was Assistant Political Officer in the Iraqi district. We have not located an earlier printed text by Thomas, making this almost certainly his first published work.
Bertram Sidney Thomas (1892-1950) is best remembered as the first European to cross the Rub’ Al Khali (Empty Quarter), a remarkable feat accomplished in 1930-31 while serving as Finance Minister and Wazir to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. The present work was conceived during his first spell in the Middle East, when he spent seven years in Mesopotamia (Iraq), initially with the Somerset Light Infantry and then as an Assistant Political Officer.
In addition to outlining the principal tribes, it deftly records the various struggles for control of the Shatrah district, played out in intertribal conflicts and movements against the imperial control of the Ottomans, and later the British. Several important figures feature, such as Sheikh Sa’dun al-Mansur —brusquely described as a “highwayman” (p.2)— who led a famous Muntafiq uprising against Ottoman rule from 1891 to 1911.
Rare. No copies in OCLC. LibraryHub locates one in the UK, at the University of Manchester. We have located two further examples: one in the Bertram Thomas Archive at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Library, University of Cambridge (Ref. BT A/1), and another in the India Office records at the British Library (IOR/L/PS/10/621).
