In February 1937, a peace between the Hadramawt sultanates, the Qu[ain]aytī and Kathīrī and their tribes, totally unprecedented in the history of that region, was brought about essentially by the efforts of two men: Sayyid Sir Abū Bakr al-Kāf and Harold Ingrams, the first political officer in Hadramawt. This peace was known universally thereafter as “Ingrams Peace”, although the word “truce” is much in evidence in the contemporary documents studied below.

The prime object of this article is to examine in some detail some of the contemporary British documents directly or indirectly relevant to the phenomenon (for such it undoubtedly was!) of the late 1930s–early 1940s called “Ingrams Peace”. It is quite unashamedly a view of events through British eyes, through the eyes of the key players in the drama. They are allowed as far as is possible to speak for themselves. Let us first introduce the characters involved and set the scene.