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67
FOR THE YEAR 1018.

CHAPTER XL
OF THE KUWAIT POLITICAL
ADMINISTRATION REPORT
AGENCY FOR THE YEAR 1918.
Kuwait is the diminutive of Kut and
Political and Tribal.—The name
means a small fort, it sufficiently indicates
Introduction. the insignificant origin of the thriving
town of Kuwait, the capital of the principality which novz shares its name. In
old English records and books’ Kuwait is generally called • Graine o
it Qrane ”, doubtless from the island of Qurain, a short distance to the west ot it.
The boundaries of Kuwait as defined
Boundaries. in the Auglo-Turkish Convention of 1913
are as follows :—
The line of demarcation starts from the side of the mouth of the Khor
Zubair towards the north-west and passes immediately to the south
of Umm Qasr, Safwan and Jebal Sanam in such a manner as to
leave the wells of these places in the Vilayet of Basrah ; arrived at
the Batin it follows it towards the south-west to Hafar al Batin
which it leaves on the side of Kuwait: from this point the said
line goes to the south-east leaving to Kuwait the wells of Es
Sifa,~El Qarah, El Haba, Wabrah and Aota, and joins the sea
near Jcbal Maniiah.
The islands of Warbah, Bubiyan, Mashjan, Failakah, ’Auhab, Kubhar,
Qaru, Maqta* and Umm-al-Maradim with their islands and adjacent waters axe
comprised in Kuwait territory.
As more than a petty town Shaikbdom the Sultanate of Kuwait is quite
modern. The actual ruler, indeed, is only
Grow tb the third either to be generally styled
Sultan or to claim a wider area of jurisdiction than the immediate neighbour­
hood of the fort and townlet which an ancestor, driven by the Turks out of his
small holding at Umm Qasr on the Kbor ’Abdullah, built on tbe south side
of the Grane inlet early in the eighteenth century. Growth has been fostered
by the increased trade of the Gulf since piracy was suppressed and the pearl­
fishing industry encouraged and by the interest taken in the place by all
concerned in the question of the Baghdad Railway’s outlet on the sea.
Nominally Kuwait was, until about twenty years ago, included in the
Ottoman province of Basrah, the Shaikh
Political.
as de facto ruler being accepted by the
Porty as Governor de jure, and in 1871, when Midbat Pasha occupied Hasa, the
then Shaikh subscribed to this interpretation of his status. But the Gov­
ernment of India, which had never accepted it, insisted on dealing with
him directly when the Baghdad Railway question began to loom on the horizon,
and has since supported his house against the Turks with whom the late Poltan,
Shaikh Sir Muharak-es-Sabah, K.C.S.I., K.CJ.K.,' repudiated, alh relations on
the outbreak of war in 1914u. In 1899 the; latter entered into-an* agreement
with us and four years later he accepted a British Political Agent at his court.
He subsequently regarded himself as under British protection, and made
important exclusive concessions to us.
In November 1916, Mubarak died and was succeeded by his eldest son,
Jabir, who died in February 1917 and
Ruler.
was in turn succeeded by his brother,
Salim, the present ruler.
The settled population of the Sultanate is estimated at about 65,000 of
PopaUt’on. whom about 60,000 are resident in Kuwait
.
# town* Of the latter about 26.000 are
^-Rjraifeis, 16,000 Persian and Bahrainis and 10,000 Najdis, Bedouins' an l
Natives of ’Iraq.