Territorial Foundations of the Gulf States by Richard Schofield

Author:Richard Schofield [Schofield, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138221277
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

The history of sovereignty over Kuwait

It seems that at the end of the seventeenth century three families of the Utub tribe, driven by a great drought in central Arabia, settled in Zubarah on the west coast of the Qatar peninsula. These three families were the al-Sabah, the al-Khalifah and the al-Jalahimah. Some 50 years later, after disputes with the Qatari tribes, they moved to Kuwait, in about 1716.5 The dominant tribe there were the Bani Khalid, but within 50 years the three families, together with some other local tribes, managed to supplant them; and in about 1756 they designated Sabah ibn Jabir, of the al-Sabah, as chief. Ten years later the al-Khalifah emigrated back to Zubarah, to be followed by part of the al-Jalahimah. In due course they moved over to Bahrain, but that is another story. Meanwhile, the al-Sabah were left as the dominant family in Kuwait – a position that they continue to this day.

However, in the latter part of the nineteenth century the Ottoman Turks decided to strengthen and expand their control over Arabia – partly to compensate for their loss of the Balkans.6 In 1871 Midhat Pasha, the Turkish governor of Baghdad, launched an expedition into the Hasa, in the interior of the Arabian peninsula, and the Shaikh of Kuwait, Shaikh Abdallah, gave him extensive assistance. For this he was rewarded with considerable date gardens in the region of the Shatt al-Arab, and was appointed as Ottoman qaimmaqam (sub-governor) of Kuwait, attached to the wilayat or province of Basrah.7

Though it seems that Ottoman control was fairly nominal, this is where the problems stem from. Before proceeding, it may be useful, therefore, to take a closer look at the nature of that control at the turn of the century (without, however, evaluating its legal significance at this stage). The most outwardly visible signs of Ottoman influence were three. In the first place, there was the acceptance by the shaikh of the title of qaimmaqam. According to one viewpoint, however – that of Stavrides, Legal Adviser to the British Embassy in Constantinople – this was little more than an honorary title and was accepted only because the shaikh held property in non-Kuwaiti Ottoman territory.8 Secondly, the Ottoman flag was flown.9 In so far as this was on Kuwaiti ships, this was nothing new, having been adopted as a flag of convenience at an earlier stage.10 Thirdly, an Ottoman customs house was established at Kuwait; however, it was apparently not maintained for long.11 It appears that, in 1900 and 1901, the population of Kuwait was included in Basrah province by the Ottoman authorities for census purposes.12 On the other hand, it would appear that Kuwait was not treated as part of Basrah for currency purposes. The basis of the currency in Ottoman Iraq was the Turkish pound or lirah, which circulated in the form of Turkish gold coins; there was a prohibition against the use of foreign coins under which Indian coins were sometimes seized.13 In Kuwait, however, Indian

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