Page 723 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

67
FOR THE YEAR 1910,

CHAPTER XI.

ADMINISTRATION REPORT OP THE KUWAIT POLITICAL AGENCY
POR THE YEAR 1919.
Political and Tribal.—The name Kuwait is the diminutive of Kut and
means a small fort:—it sufficiently indi­
Introduction.
cates the insignificant origin of the thriving
to>\n Kuwait, the capital of the principality which now shares its name. In old
English records and bookR, Kuwait is generally called “ Giaine ” or “ Grane ”,
doubtless from the island of Qurain, a short distance to the west of it.
The boundaries of Kuwait arc as follows :—
The line of demarcation starts from the side of the mouths of the Khor
Zubair towards the North-
Boundaries.
West anJ passes immediate­
ly 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 balin which it leaves on the side of Kuwait;
from this point the said line goes to the South East leaving to
Kuwait the well9 of Es Safa, ElQarab, El Haba, Wabrah, and
Anta, and joins the sea near Jebal Manifah.
The islands of Warbah, Bubyan, Maslijan,. Pailakah, Aubah, Kubbar,
QaTu Maqta and Umm al Maradim with their islands and adjacent waters
are comprised in Kuwait territory.
A letter was received on 7th Pebruary from Shaikh Sir Abdul ‘as Aziz as
Sa’ud; objecting to the building of a Qasr at Balbul (near Jebal Manifah) by
Shaikh Salim on the grounds that the. proposed site was in his territory. The
matter was referred to the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad who has intimated
that the question awaits a general settlement with Bin Sa’ud.
As more than a petty town shaikhdom, the Sultanate of Kuwait is quite
Qrowth> modern. The actual ruler, indeed, is
only the third either to be generally styled
8ultan or to claim a wider area or jurisdiction than tho immediate neighbour­
hood of the fort and townlet which an aucestor, driven by the Turks out of his
small holding at-Umra Qasr on the Khor ‘ Abdullah ’ built on the south side
of the Grane inlet early in the eighteenth country. 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.
Political.—Nominally Kuwait was, until about twenty-one years ago,
included in the Ottoman province of Basrah, the Shaikh as de facto ruler being
accepted by the Ports as governor de jure, and in 1871, when Midhat Pasha
occupied HaRa, the then Shaikh subscribed to this interpretation of his status.
But the British Government 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 Sultan, Shaikh Sir Mubarak 6s Sabah, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., repudiated
all relations on the outbreak of war in 1914, 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.
Euler.—In November 1915, Mubarak died and was succeeded by hi«
eldest son, Jabir, who died in Pebruary 1917 and was in turn succeeded by h:a
brother Salim, the present ruler, '