Slavery in Persian Gulf states

This file contains correspondence relating to:

• A list of 29 slaves, including their place of origin, who were issued manumission certificates in Bahrain and Sharjah in 1951
• A list of nine unsettled manumission cases, including the names of the complainant and accused slaver
• The Political Agencies' assessment of domestic slavery on the Trucial Coast, Kuwait and Bahrain
• A statement by Mubarak Bin Obaid on behalf of his stepson Sawayah Bin Khamis who was kidnapped aged 14 (by Harashish Al Mansouri, Weld al Haram Al Amri, and Ali Yawaihi Al Amri) near Umm Al Quwain and a sworn deposition by the Chief of the Bani Qitab with the intention of securing his release from Ibn Saud's sister in Saudi Arabia, Nura Bint Saud
• The process of liberating slaves in Qatar
• A draft law abolishing slavery in Qatar from 10 April 1952, and the payment of compensation to slave owners
• The abduction of Afrah Bint Mohammad, the daughter of Mariam Bint Ahmad, allegedly now in the house of Abdul Rahman Bin Rawaf; and Sheikh Yusif Yasin's rebuttal of the allegation
• The efforts of some Saudi subjects to retrieve slaves who have escaped from Saudi Arabia
• HMG's reply to the UN questionnaire on slavery and servitude in connection with the Gulf States
• A notice issed by the Government of Bahrain forbidding the ownership of slaves in Bahrain
• An assessment of the debt-bondage system under which pearl divers work and the practice of buying and inheriting wives
• The danger that a hard line on slavery might push prominent people to sympathise with Saudi Arabia in the Buraimi dispute.

This file also contains manumission statements by:

• Saeed Saleem Bin Khamis, enslaved by Saeed Bin Tawil of Dubai
• Juma Bin Idris, enslaved by Mohammad Al Mulla of Algais Island, Dubai
• Bilal Bin Zuwaid, enslaved by Abdulla Juma, a servant of Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum of Dubai
• Metar Bin Farah, enslaved by Ali Bin Ahmad of Dhofar, Muscat
• Zayed Fairuz, enslaved by the Ruler of Ajman Sheikh Rashid Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi.