First Published in 1998. Harold Ingrams is an officer of the Colonial Administrative Service who has had a varied career. In the war of 1914--18 he served for five years with the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and was wounded in Belgium in 1916. He entered the Colonial Service in 1919 and held appointments in Mauritius and Zanzibar, descriptions of which appear in this book. In Zanzibar Ingrams came into contact with Arabs from southern Arabia, and he learnt from Hadhrami visitors of their native land, so close to the activities of the outer world, and yet so remote from them, so prosperous and so poor, so civilized and so savage. The Hadhranlaut is indeed a country of contrasts, with its wealthy Seyyids and its impoverished peasants, its handsome towns, country houses and estates, and its turbulent tribes, banditry and blood feuds. Although part of the British Protectorate of Aden, the wide valley of the HadhranIaut had claimed isolated by its natural barriers of mountains on the south and desert on the north.

Offering a new perspective on a little-studied society, On the Edge of Empire examines the gradual incorporation of the Qu`ayti and Kathiri sultanates of Hadhramawt in the southern Arabian Peninsula into the British Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Boxberger shows how changes in political and social institutions fostered contestation at all levels, from rivalries over territory and political power, to heated debates over religious and educational reform, to efforts to regulate wedding customs and women's dress. Based on extensive fieldwork, this ethnographic and historical narrative draws upon a wide variety of sources, including British documents and accounts; local documents, manuscripts and rare printed materials; extensive interviews with Hadhrami elders from all walks of life; and proverbs, poetry, and tribal lore. Clearly written and richly textured, this book is a welcome contribution to the study of Yemen, the historical ethnography of the Middle East, and the literature on the Islamic societies of the Indian Ocean littoral.