CONFIDENTIAL PRINT: Middle East, 1839-1969

Further information on this digital resource can be found on our website www.amdigital.co.uk.

Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969 is the second of our complete online series of ‘Confidential Print’ documents issued by the United Kingdom Foreign and Colonial Office since c1820.

From the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the nineteenth century, the Middle East Conference of 1921, the Mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Suez Crisis in 1956, to the partition of Palestine, post-Suez Western foreign policy and the Arab-Israeli conflict, Confidential Print: Middle East is a fundamental resource for academics, students and researchers studying the modern Middle East. These historical documents inform the volatile situation in the region today.

We include the following classes from The National Archives, Kew in their entirety:

CO 935/1-25 Middle East General, 1920-1956
FO 402/1-33 Afghanistan, 1922-1957
FO 406/1-84 Eastern Affairs (Middle East), 1812-1946
FO 407/1-237 Egypt/Sudan, 1839-1958
FO 416/1-113 Persia, 1899-1957
FO 423/1-70 Suez Canal, 1859-1947
FO 424/1-297 Turkey, 1841-1957
FO 437/1-9 Jordan, 1949-1957
FO 464/1-12 Arabia, 1947-1957
FO 481/1-17 Iraq, 1947-1969
FO 484/1-11 Lebanon, 1947-1957
FO 487/1-11 Middle East General, 1947-1957
FO 492/1-11 Israel/Palestine, 1947-1957
FO 501/1-10 Syria, 1947-1956

All documents are full-text searchable.

There is interesting material from the various committees on Mesopotamia and Palestine, on Transjordan and the military base at Aden, on Syria and the Lebanon, and on the Passfield Report of 1930 and the early phases of the Arab League after 1945.