Intelligence handbooks were compiled for the use of British officers for military purposes. The handbooks were compiled partly on the basis of existing authorities such as Lorimer«s Gazetteer, earlier travel records and recent military intelligence, and partly from what was called "native information". They provide detailed descriptions of the regions, settlements, routes and inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf. Originally all these documents were classified secret. They are now made available to historians and researchers as richly detailed surveys of a land and a culture.