James Onley
Biographic Data
| ID | 164340 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Onley |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Onley |
| SIGNATURE | ONLEY J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Henley College |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1831-406X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 85 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Sulayman Najm Khalaf, 1946–2023: A Pioneering Anthropologist of the Gulf and Syria
This article celebrates the life and scholarship of Sulayman Najm Khalaf (1946–2023), Syria’s first social anthropologist who made important contributions to the fields of Gulf and Syrian Studies, as well as Intangible Heritage. It traces his life’s journey from a Bedouin upbringing in the Euphrates Valley to a pioneering scholar of Syria and the Gulf. It highlights his contributions to the study of society and tribal politics in rural Syria and …
Cultural Cousins: Indo-Gulf Connections since Antiquity
The Journal of Arabian Studies and the Development of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Arabian Studies (JAS), this article offers the first history of the field of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (GAPS), including the origins and evolution of JAS. It begins with an overview of the origins and evolution of GAPS as a field of scholarship, then provides a detailed survey of the field's institutional development, which can be traced back to the region's post-war oil wealth an…
Mary Ann Tétreault, 1942–2015: A Remembrance
Indian Communities in the Persian Gulf, c. 1500â 1947
The Hindu Community in Muscat: Creating Homes in the Diaspora
Published
Indian Communities in the Persian Gulf, c. 1500–1947
We know very little about Indian communities in the pre-oil Persian Gulf, such as the one described above. Their makeup was very different from the Gulf's South Asian communities today. Before the dawn of the oil era and the partition of India after World War II, only a few thousand Indians resided there—the majority of them merchants and their families, such as those William Palgrave saw in Manama in 1862. Many were wealthy and influential, elit…
The Qatar Unified Imaging Project (Quip): Revealing Qatar's Past
In December 2013, the Qatar Unified Imaging Project (QUIP) launched Qatar's first public registry of primary source collections (http://quip.qatar.vcu.edu/ica-atom2/index.php) and an online digital
The Raj Reconsidered: British India's Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in Asia and Africa
This provides a detailed explanation of how the Indian Empire was organised and run. But its main purpose is to argue that the British Indian Empire was in fact much larger than historians of the Raj normally realise because the Empire should be taken to include the Gulf Arab states, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, the Aden Protectorate and the British Somaliland protectorate
British India’s Native Agents in Bahrain
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Conventions, Terminology, and Transliteration
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Anglo–Bahraini Legal Obligations and Rights
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
The Decline of British India’s Native Agency System in Bahrain and the Gulf
From the mid-1890s on, Britain faced a new challenge in the Gulf. Growing European rivalry in the region threatened British paramountcy in Eastern Arabia and British influence in Persia. The resulting need for a stronger political presence eventually caused the British to abandon their native agency system throughout the entire region. Between 1900 and 1911, in an effort to counter the threat, the British replaced all but two of their native agen…
Abbreviations
Dedication
British India’s Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in Asia and Africa
Having entered the Indian Civil Service in 1907 and served for eighteen months in the Punjab, I was admitted to the Indian Political Service. This Service, of which the Viceroy was the Head, was concerned with: most of the self-governing States which extended over a third of the area of India and accounted for a quarter of the country’s population; with the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan; and with areas beyond the frontiers of India…
The Operation of British India’s Native Agency in Bahrain
Most, if not all, of the native agency buildings in the Gulf Residency were the property of their agents. The possession of a large and impressive house—one suitably reflective of Britain’s imperial status—was likely a prerequisite for the position of native agent. In Bahrain, the Union Jack adorned Bait Safar (Safar House) for thirty-four years while it served as the British Agency under four members of the Safar family between 1834 and 1900. Ba…
British India’s Residency System in Asia and Africa
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Rulers and Residents
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
British India’s Native Agents in Bahrain
As I am shortly proceeding to India, I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Agha Mahomed Rahim ibn Hajee Abdun Nabee [Safar], who has repeatedly proved of great use in obtaining correct information, the securing of which required much tact, delicacy of management, and personal influence. I have found him trustworthy, sincere, zealous, and ever willing to carry out any work entrusted to him to the best of his ability. He is well i…
British India’s Native Agency System in Asia
The practice of imperial powers employing ‘native agents’ in distant lands is as old as imperialism itself. During the modern age of imperialism (from the sixteenth to twentieth century), Western governments and companies employed native agents to represent them throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The Portuguese adopted the practice shortly after Vasco da Gama’s arrival in India in 1498.2 In time, the Spanish, British, Dutch, French, Belgi…
Conclusion: The Arabian Frontier of the Indian Empire
The Gulf Residency was one of the largest and most important of the dozens of residencies maintaining the protective zone of informal empire surrounding British India. Since all these residencies were part of the same political residency system directed from British India and all used native political officers in the nineteenth century, it follows that they all must have operated to a great extent as the Gulf Residency did. Differences in local c…
British Control: Bahrain v. the Indian States
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Glossary
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj is a study of one of the most forbidding frontier zones of Britain’s Indian Empire. The Gulf Residency, responsible for Britain’s relationship with Eastern Arabia and Southern Persia, was part of an extensive network of political residencies that surrounded and protected British India. Based on extensive archival research in both the Gulf and Britain, this book examines how Britain’s Political Resident in t…
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj is a study of one of the most forbidding frontier zones of Britain’s Indian Empire. The Gulf Residency, responsible for Britain’s relationship with Eastern Arabia and Southern Persia, was part of an extensive network of political residencies that surrounded and protected British India. Based on extensive archival research in both the Gulf and Britain, this book examines how Britain’s Political Resident in t…
The Raj Reconsidered: British India's Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in Asia and Africa
This provides a detailed explanation of how the Indian Empire was organised and run. But its main purpose is to argue that the British Indian Empire was in fact much larger than historians of the Raj normally realise because the Empire should be taken to include the Gulf Arab states, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, the Aden Protectorate and the British Somaliland protectorate
Shaikhly Authority in the Pre-oil Gulf: An Historical-Anthropological Study
This article provides a comprehensive synthesis of existing studies of rulership and political allegiance in the Arabian Gulf before oil. It examines the main factors affecting the shaikhs' authority and the interconnectedness and interplay between them. It shows how these factors affected the rulers' authority in a dialectical fashion: sometimes empowering it, sometimes constraining it, sometimes both simultaneously
Britain's Native Agents in Arabia and Persia in the Nineteenth Century
Research Article| May 01 2004 Britain's Native Agents in Arabia and Persia in the Nineteenth Century James Onley James Onley Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2004) 24 (1): 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-24-1-131 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn E…
The Journal of Arabian Studies and the Development of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Arabian Studies (JAS), this article offers the first history of the field of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (GAPS), including the origins and evolution of JAS. It begins with an overview of the origins and evolution of GAPS as a field of scholarship, then provides a detailed survey of the field's institutional development, which can be traced back to the region's post-war oil wealth an…
Abdulaziz (UK, Sa'udi Arabia) 1999. 90 min. Dir: David Martyn and Anthony Wilkinson. Prod: Michael McKinnon. Cinematography: Steve Foster. Original Music: Robert Boyle. Narrator: Sean Barratt. Part I:…
Abdulaziz (UK, Sa'udi Arabia) 1999. 90 min. Dir: David Martyn and Anthony Wilkinson. Prod: Michael McKinnon. Cinematography: Steve Foster. Original Music: Robert Boyle. Narrator: Sean Barratt. Part I: “Unity” (45 min). Part II: “Building a Nation” (45 min). A McKinnon Films production for the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, Kingdom of Sa'udi Arabia. - Volume 36 Issue 2
Transnational merchants in the nineteenth-century Gulf
The nineteenth-century Gulf was a remarkably transnational space, as the quotations above vividly illustrate. Foremost among the Gulf ’s transnationals were the merchants who, more than any other group, connected eastern Arabia to the wider world. They lived dual lives, speaking two or more languages and keeping homes in two or more countries. They dominated the import-export sector of the region. Some managed the customs administrations in a num…
Britain's Native Agents in Arabia and Persia in the Nineteenth Century
Research Article| May 01 2004 Britain's Native Agents in Arabia and Persia in the Nineteenth Century James Onley James Onley Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2004) 24 (1): 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-24-1-131 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn E…
Shaikhly Authority in the Pre-oil Gulf: An Historical-Anthropological Study
This article provides a comprehensive synthesis of existing studies of rulership and political allegiance in the Arabian Gulf before oil. It examines the main factors affecting the shaikhs' authority and the interconnectedness and interplay between them. It shows how these factors affected the rulers' authority in a dialectical fashion: sometimes empowering it, sometimes constraining it, sometimes both simultaneously
British India’s Native Agents in Bahrain
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Conventions, Terminology, and Transliteration
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Anglo–Bahraini Legal Obligations and Rights
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
The Decline of British India’s Native Agency System in Bahrain and the Gulf
From the mid-1890s on, Britain faced a new challenge in the Gulf. Growing European rivalry in the region threatened British paramountcy in Eastern Arabia and British influence in Persia. The resulting need for a stronger political presence eventually caused the British to abandon their native agency system throughout the entire region. Between 1900 and 1911, in an effort to counter the threat, the British replaced all but two of their native agen…
Abbreviations
Dedication
British India’s Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in Asia and Africa
Having entered the Indian Civil Service in 1907 and served for eighteen months in the Punjab, I was admitted to the Indian Political Service. This Service, of which the Viceroy was the Head, was concerned with: most of the self-governing States which extended over a third of the area of India and accounted for a quarter of the country’s population; with the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan; and with areas beyond the frontiers of India…
The Operation of British India’s Native Agency in Bahrain
Most, if not all, of the native agency buildings in the Gulf Residency were the property of their agents. The possession of a large and impressive house—one suitably reflective of Britain’s imperial status—was likely a prerequisite for the position of native agent. In Bahrain, the Union Jack adorned Bait Safar (Safar House) for thirty-four years while it served as the British Agency under four members of the Safar family between 1834 and 1900. Ba…
British India’s Residency System in Asia and Africa
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Rulers and Residents
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
British India’s Native Agents in Bahrain
As I am shortly proceeding to India, I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Agha Mahomed Rahim ibn Hajee Abdun Nabee [Safar], who has repeatedly proved of great use in obtaining correct information, the securing of which required much tact, delicacy of management, and personal influence. I have found him trustworthy, sincere, zealous, and ever willing to carry out any work entrusted to him to the best of his ability. He is well i…
British India’s Native Agency System in Asia
The practice of imperial powers employing ‘native agents’ in distant lands is as old as imperialism itself. During the modern age of imperialism (from the sixteenth to twentieth century), Western governments and companies employed native agents to represent them throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The Portuguese adopted the practice shortly after Vasco da Gama’s arrival in India in 1498.2 In time, the Spanish, British, Dutch, French, Belgi…
Conclusion: The Arabian Frontier of the Indian Empire
The Gulf Residency was one of the largest and most important of the dozens of residencies maintaining the protective zone of informal empire surrounding British India. Since all these residencies were part of the same political residency system directed from British India and all used native political officers in the nineteenth century, it follows that they all must have operated to a great extent as the Gulf Residency did. Differences in local c…
British Control: Bahrain v. the Indian States
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Glossary
Subject Middle Eastern History Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf
The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj is a study of one of the most forbidding frontier zones of Britain’s Indian Empire. The Gulf Residency, responsible for Britain’s relationship with Eastern Arabia and Southern Persia, was part of an extensive network of political residencies that surrounded and protected British India. Based on extensive archival research in both the Gulf and Britain, this book examines how Britain’s Political Resident in t…
The Raj Reconsidered: British India's Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in Asia and Africa
This provides a detailed explanation of how the Indian Empire was organised and run. But its main purpose is to argue that the British Indian Empire was in fact much larger than historians of the Raj normally realise because the Empire should be taken to include the Gulf Arab states, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, the Aden Protectorate and the British Somaliland protectorate
The Qatar Unified Imaging Project (Quip): Revealing Qatar's Past
In December 2013, the Qatar Unified Imaging Project (QUIP) launched Qatar's first public registry of primary source collections (http://quip.qatar.vcu.edu/ica-atom2/index.php) and an online digital
Indian Communities in the Persian Gulf, c. 1500–1947
We know very little about Indian communities in the pre-oil Persian Gulf, such as the one described above. Their makeup was very different from the Gulf's South Asian communities today. Before the dawn of the oil era and the partition of India after World War II, only a few thousand Indians resided there—the majority of them merchants and their families, such as those William Palgrave saw in Manama in 1862. Many were wealthy and influential, elit…
Indian Communities in the Persian Gulf, c. 1500â 1947
The Hindu Community in Muscat: Creating Homes in the Diaspora
Published
History (23 works) · Ancient history (17 works) · Geography (16 works) · Political science (16 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (13 works) · Islamic Studies and History (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts (12 works) · History (9 works) · Sociology (8 works)