This file contains correspondence between British officials concerning the activities and standing of Izzat Jaafar ['Izzat Jafar], the Secretary of the Ruler of Kuwait, Shaikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.Much of the correspondence concerns allegations that Jafar was an agent of the Italian Government and was involved in smuggling weapons. Jafar was eventually expelled from Kuwait on the basis of these allegations and the correspondence in the file discusses this and his subsequent return to the country.The majority of the correspondence in the file is between British officials of the Middle East Intelligence Centre in Cairo, the Political Agency in Kuwait and the Political Residency in Bushire.The file also contains copies of letters that were exchanged between Jafar and an Iraqi government official who was being held in a British internment camp following Britain's invasion and military occupation of Iraq in 1941. These letters are in Arabic and accompanied by English translations (folios 100-106).In addition to correspondence, the file also contains an April 1941 issue of
Radio Araba di Bari, the monthly magazine of the Italian Government's Arabic language radio station, Radio Bari (folios 64-81) and a translation of an article about Kuwait that was published in
al-Sayad, an Egyptian Arabic weekly magazine on 10 August 1948 (folio 119).1 file (135 folios)The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 137; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 1-135; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
This beautifully-illuminated work is a medical tract, in five parts, dealing mainly with medicine and pharmacology, but with excurses on astronomy (astrology) and divination. The handwriting is Italian, of the 15th century. Joseph b. Isaac is the first author cited (on f. 2r) and a later note on the fly-leaf attributes the whole work to him. It appears to be a composite work, however, put together from a variety of sources but on the same general subject. A single scribe produced the manuscript, by the name of Solomon (many times throughout the manuscript, when the letters שלמה appear close together at the start of lines, they are marked with rows of dots), although other hands have left annotations in the margin and additions in the text. There are frequent illuminated headings, borders and miniatures (the latter on ff. 2r, 7v, 37v, 104r, 211r, 223r and 234r). Dr Solomon Schiller-Szinessy, in his description of this manuscript, concludes: 'Not forgetting that the MS. has plenty of superstitious reminiscences in it, it is on the whole very valuable & well worth the perusal of a professional man'.Condition: Slightly creased and lightly stained in places; some margins cropped, with loss of headings. Some leaves missing.Layout: 2 columns; 35 lines; ruled.