Violet Line (1914)

Map showing the 1905 Anglo-Turkish tribal boundaries and the Violet Line.

The Violet Line was a boundary line agreed between the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire in March 1914. ^{[1] [2]} It started from the termination of the Blue Line agreed to at the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 and extended to the border between the Ottoman Yemen Vilayet and the British Aden Protectorates.

Specifically, the line went north-east (at 45°) from the village of Lakamat Al Ash’ub ( 13°49′40″N44°45′17″E / 13.827888°N 44.754798°E / 13.827888; 44.754798 ) and began where it intersected with the previously agreed tribal boundary in 1905. It then continued until it met the Blue Line at the 20th parallel. ^[3] Together with the Blue Line, the Violet Line effectively divided the Arabian peninsula in two. This boundary between the Ottoman and British empires is what eventually led to the border between North Yemen and South Yemen.

References

1. Richard Schofield (31 March 1999), Negotiating the Saudi-Yemeni international boundary, Al-Bab, retrieved 30 March 2020
2. Harry Brown (October 1994), The Iraq-Kuwait boundary dispute: historical background and the UN decisions of 1992 and 1993, IBRU Boundary and Security Bulletin, retrieved 1 April 2020
3. "Anglo-Turkish Convention respecting the Boundaries of Aden, &c.". Aden frontier proposed ratification of the 1905 boundary settlement. File 3463/1913 (in French). London: India Office. 9 March 1914. pp. 9–11. British Library ref IOR/L/PS/10/407. Retrieved 5 February 2026.

Further reading

• Anscombe, Frederick F. The Ottoman Gulf: the creation of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
• Kelly, J. B. Eastern Arabian Frontiers New York: Frederick A Praeger, 1964.
• Kelly, J. B. Sovereignty and Jurisdiction in Eastern Arabia International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs) 34.4 (1958): 16–24.
• Kelly, Saul B, ed. (2020). "The Anglo-Turkish Conventions of 1913–14" . Desert Dispute: the Diplomacy of Boundary-Making in South-Eastern Arabia. Gerlach Press. pp. 8–46. ISBN   978-3-95994-078-8. JSTOR   j.ctvw1d52r.4.
• Hurewitz, J. C., ed. The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: A Documentary Record, 2nd edn. Vol. 1: European Expansion, 1535–1914. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975, pp. 567–570.
• Schofield, Richard. Kuwait and Iraq: Historical and Territorial Disputes. London: Chatham House, 1991.
• Slot, B. J. Mubarak al-Sabah: Founder of Modern Kuwait 1896-1915. Arabian Publishing Ltd, 2005.
• Tallon, James N. "Allies and Adversaries: Anglo-Ottoman Boundary Negotiation in the Middle East, 1906–1914" in Justin Q. Olmsted Britain in the Islamic World Imperial and Post-Imperial Connections London: Palgrave, 2019, 89–105.
• Wilkinson, John C. Arabia’s Frontiers: The Story of Britain’s Boundary Drawing in the Desert, London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 1991, 100–108.