HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The name ´Bahrain´ has been used over the years to describe two separate entities - the region of Bahrain which covered the whole of Eastern Arabia (including the modern Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, the Qatar peninsula, and parts of the United Arab Emirates), and the main island of the modern State of Bahrain. The region of Bahrain has always been described as ´Bahrain´. The island(s) of Bahrain have been given many different names over the centuries: in the early Arab maps of the Gulf dating back to the 10th century, the island was called ´Awal´; in the mediaeval Chinese maps of the world, the island was called ´Pailien´; in the 15th century maps based on Ptolemy´s geography, the old Hellenic names of ´Tylos´ and ´Arados´ reappeared; and it was not until the Portuguese and French maps of the 16th and 17th centuries that the name ´Baharem´ (or its shorter form ´Barem´) begins to resemble the modern name Bahrain.
Although the islands of Bahrain appeared on maps dating back to the 10th century, these were maps of the Gulf or Arabia as a whole; there were no maps which concentrated on the island of Bahrain only until a Portuguese map of 1538; this was followed by several other Portuguese maps, and by two French maps, both by Andre Thevet dated 1575 (one published in his Cosmographie Universelle, and one as yet unpublished and at present in a private collection in Capetown). But none of these maps were accurate surveys of the islands or of the waters round them; accurate surveys had to wait until the arrival of the British in the Gulf in the early years of the 19th century.
The purpose of this collection of maps and surveys is to bring together these accurate British maps and surveys of the islands and waters of Bahrain, from the very first one in 1817 to the last ones produced in 1970 just before independence, after which the Government of the State of Bahrain through its own Survey Directorate began publishing maps on a frequent and regular basis.
Naval surveys
The first maps were the result of naval surveys. Although their main purpose was to survey the waters round Bahrain, the surveyors were interested in the shoreline and in prominent features on land which could be a help to navigation - thus, cities, prominent geographical features such as hills and clumps of trees, and prominent buildings were featured on these charts. The originals of these maps can be found in the India Office Records (now part of the British Library Oriental and India Office Collections) in London or in the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office archives in Taunton.
The series of charts produced as a result of the survey of the shores and islands of the Persian Gulf by the Bombay Marine (the naval arm of the British East India Company) between 1820 and 1829 are well known, and the two charts relating to Bahrain have been reproduced in this collection. Less well known are the earlier surveys conducted by the Bombay Marine or by the Royal Navy - the first survey was by the East India Company Cruiser Mercury in 1817, and this resulted in a map of Bahrain and Arad Islands (with the first mention on any map of the towns of Manama and the recently-built Muharraq); another survey by HMS Challenger, also in 1817, produced a panorama of the shoreline of the two main islands (with the first ever views of various buildings in Bahrain); and another survey by the East India Company Cruiser Benares in March 1818 resulted in a chart of the north-western anchorage of Bahrain by Captain Eatwell. These early surveys resulted in the following charts: A Plan of the Islands of Bahrain and Arad, 1817; A Sketch of the Islands of Bahrain and Arad, with a plan of the anchorage, 1817;The north-western anchorage of Bahrain, by Captain Eatwell, March 1818 (incorporated in the Chart of the Gulf of Persia, 1820); Trigonometrical Plan of the Island and Harbour of Bahrain on the Arabian side of the Gulf of Persia, by Lts Brucks and Rogers, 1828; Part of the Arabian Side of the Persian Gulf, from Core Abdulla to Ras Reccan sheet 2, or Trigonometrical Survey of the Arabian or Southern side of the Persian Gulf sheet 4, by Lts Guy and Brucks, 1829.
After the survey of the shores and islands of the Persian Gulf by the Bombay Marine in the 1820s, no further surveys of the waters round Bahrain were done for many years. The Bombay Marine, renamed the Indian Navy on 1st May 1830, did not make any more surveys in Bahrain waters until the late 1850s when Constable and Stiffe conducted surveying operations in the schooner Marie 1858-60 and Whish conducted his survey of Bahrain Harbour in 1859, and these were the basis for Admiralty Chart 20, issued in 1862. Further surveys were made in 1872-4 by the Royal Navy schooner Constance, by the Royal Indian Marine ship Investigator in 1901-2, by HMS Redbreast in 1904-5, and by HMS Ormonde in 1932. All these surveys resulted in the following charts: Chart 20 (with editions in 1862, 1875, 1903, and 1914); Chart 3380 (with editions in 1903 and 1916); Chart 3540 (with only one edition, in 1905); Chart 3792 (with an edition in 1936).
In the 1930s, the Naval Intelligence Division of the British Admiralty began producing memoranda and intelligence reports, with restricted circulation, for strategic government planning, and the Arabia Intelligence Reports are an example of these. The Arabia Intelligence Report of October 1941 has been traced, and maps from an earlier edition have also been located in the India Office Records in London. These maps were not the result of new surveys but merely a précis of existing information; the charts of the whole of Bahrain Island are on the scale of 1 inch to 1 mile, and are as follows: Bahrain Island, January 1933; Bahrain Island, January 1937. After 1937, the maps produced by the Geographical Section, General Staff, in Britain, by the Bahrain Petroleum Company, and by the Bahrain Government provided more than adequate cover of the land mass of Bahrain Island, and Admiralty charts ceased to have any relevance for a study of the topography of Bahrain.