Gulf region’s oldest map to go online soon

The map drawn by ‘John Gordon Orimir’ during his stay as a British envoy for the Gulf region. The total area of this rare map is approximately 5.8 sq m in which one can locate Qatar, land of Hijaz, Yemen and Oman.

DOHA: The oldest and biggest map that gives topographical details of Qatar and the Gulf region will soon be available for users online. The digitisation of this rare map is part of a multi-million dollar project signed between the British Library and Qatar National Library (QNL).

The project will digitise the first and the biggest map of the Gulf region (dated back to 1863) giving details about cities, villages, small areas, seas, rivers and other smallest descriptions of the area.

The map was drawn by ‘John Gordon Orimir’ during his stay as a British envoy for the Gulf region. The total area of this rare map is approximately 5.8 sq m in which one can locate Qatar, land of Hijaz, Yemen and Oman.

The British Library and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF) have singed an ambitious agreement to digitise about 525,000 rare manuscripts which will be put on the website of the QNL.

Once the project is complete it will transform people’s understanding of the history of the Middle East, and the region’s relationship with Britain and the rest of the world.

The manuscripts include correspondence between the Qatar administration and the British Commission in Bahrain dated back to 1940.

These rare correspondences between the two administrations contain a lot of significant data and information about Qatar and the gulf region such as the number of fishermen, boats, pearl-divers that existed at that time.

According to some of the letters, Qatar at that time had about 12,890 pearl-divers and 817 boats that were used for fishing and diving for pearls. On an average approximately 16 people operated from each boat.

The letters also give details about Oman and Emirates region where about 22,000 divers operated from 1,215 boats for similar activities.

The project also encompasses the digitisation of thousands of pages of medieval manuscripts that demonstrate the significant influence of Islamic scholars in the fields of science, medicine, mathematics and geometry.

Together, these resources will illuminate centuries of fascinating Arab history and culture and massively boost understanding of the rapidly-changing Gulf region and its place on the world stage.

The project will also digitise Qatar’s first flag and a piece of cloth probably from which the flag was made of.

This historical flag and cloth were said to have been collected from the German Embassy in the Gulf region in 1929.

QNL, expected to open in 2014, will also offer an extensive collection of print and digital resources to residents across Qatar.

Source: The Peninsula