27 May 2003

The Creation of Modern Iraq: British India Office Files, c. 1914-1921
IDC Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands
Self-description: "The Creation of Modern Iraq: British India Office Files, c. 1914-1921.
Editor: Dr Penelope Tuson, former Curator of Middle East Archives, British Library (Oriental and India Office Collections).
Expected release: September 2003.
The geopolitical identity of present-day Iraq can be traced back down to the British Military occupation of the First World War and the civil administration laid down at the beginning of the British Mandate, which lasted 1921 to independence in 1932. During the War, British officials of the Arab Bureau's Eastern Branch, including T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, prepared detailed intelligence reports on local personalities, tribes and political affiliations. At the same time both military and civilian experts produced geographical and topographical surveys of the entire region, from the boundaries with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the south to Kurdistan in the north.
The materials in the British Library (OIOC) consist of India Office Political & Secret Department confidential reports, memoranda, maps and handbooks (for example Handbook of Mesopotamia, Who's Who, Personalities, Gazetteers etc) as well as policy files describing the background and practicalities of the creation of a political administration and a social and economic infrastructure.
The material is organized in the following subject headings: * BII-1 Iraq: Gazetteers and Handbooks * BII-2 Iraq: Outbreak of the First World War: situation in Turkish Arabia * BII-3 Iraq: Wartime military and civil administration * BII-4 Iraq: Wartime economy: trade and communications * BII-5 Iraq: Post-war administration and constitution for the state of Iraq * BII-6 Iraq: Local government and education * BII-7 Iraq: Kurdistan * BII-8 Iraq: Iraqi boundaries * BII-9 Iraq: Post-war economic development * BII-10 Iraq: The oil industry.
Scope: approx. 43,000 exposures/frames. Number of fiche c.850.
Related projects: * British Intelligence on Afghanistan and its frontiers, c. 1888-1946; * British Statistical Blue Books; * Freya Stark Photograph Collection; * Historical Photographs of the Middle East; * Indian Political Intelligence (IPI) Files, 1912-1950; * Palestine: The British Mandate; * Palestine: The Legal Background."
[Details of a microfiche publication - ed.]
URL http://www.idc.nl/catalog/referer.php?c=408
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract.]
Link reported by: T.Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek[use"@"]coombs.anu.edu.au)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Document
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Business
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30