A previously unknown photograph of two unidentified sheikhs of the Trucial Coast, in a photograph album compiled by a British Navy officer, captioned "Sheik of Sharjah and Staff". The photograph, measuring 84 by 108 mm, was taken aboard H.M.S. Argonaut during Lord Curzons state tour of the Gulf in 1903. The only previously known comparable photograph, a very rough group portrait taken aboard H.M.S. Hardinge on the same day, is kept at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich (Al-Qasimi, plate 3: identified as showing Sheikh Saqr, the ruler of Sharjah). A further photo, held at the British Library, shows the full audience of Curzons reception, but no specific Gulf state ruler ruler is recognizable, as they sit with their backs to the camera ("Durbar on board R.I.M.S. Argonaut, Shergah", BL Visual Arts coll., 49/1/7). Exceedingly few photographs of Muscat, Oman and the Trucial Coast survive from the pre-war years; the present example must therefore be considered the first portrait of any ruler of the Trucial States and an extremely important survival, documenting the early history of the future United Arab Emirates.
The album, compiled by Captain Charles Courtenay Bell (1883-1966), covers the first decade of his career in the Royal Navy. Its Gulf section comprises five images of Muscat and Oman, also including a fascinating, uncommon snapshot of pearl divers in action. These images must date from November 1903, when H.M.S. Argonaut was employed to escort the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, on his important official tour of the Gulf. From Muscat the fleet moved further up the littoral to the Trucial States: there, anchored off Sharjah on 21 November, Curzon commenced a durbar aboard the Argonaut. The rulers of "Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Um al-Quwain" (Al-Qasimi, p. 39) were invited aboard. It was surely this event that gave Bell (or one of his shipmates) the chance to photograph the two seated sheikhs, flanked by dignitaries and looking straight into the camera. Not a single portrait of the rulers of Abu Dhabi or Dubai survives from this era, nor indeed does any earlier portrait of any ruler of todays United Arab Emirates. Hence, this chance discovery in the present album provides us with the hitherto unknown portrait of two as yet unidentifiable Gulf sheikhs who participated in the Durbar aboard the Argonaut (one of which was identified by the albums owner - possibly in error - as the "Sheik of Sharjah").
Minor foxing to album leaves, with photographs unaffected; some light fading only. Otherwise in excellent condition. Cf. Kristopher Radford, "Curzons Cruise: The Pomp and Circumstances of Indian Indirect Rule of the Persian Gulf", in: The International History Review 35.4 (August 2013), pp. 884-904. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, Tale of a City, vol. I (English ed., Bloomsbury, 2017).