Page 123 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920

m
FOB THE TEA.B 191%
], a relative of the former Native Residency Agent in Bahrain, and a
orsiflB clerk employed by the local Agents of the British India Steam Navigv
t’oa Oompaay- The incident took jdaco on the hJ^hway by the Shaikh's

return from Mohammerah, energetic steps were at once taken by tho
?atter and such of the offenders as were then discoverable were suitably
iniflhed; some of the articles robbed were recovered and returned together
£th the value of the mining ones. From the general talk in the town it was
•jdent that Shaikh Mubarak’s action in the matter had a most salutary effect
to emphasizing the fact that he would not countenance an assault on a British
prot6g£ whether committed by townspeople or men of his own following.
rphe Kuwait “ Madrasseh ” referred to in last year's report has now
Kowait School come into being, but the fact falls far
short of the ideal originally proposed.
One Saiyid Muhammad Rashid, the proprietor of the Egyptian religious
periodical “ Al-Minar," visited Kuwait* in May, and it was intended by seme
Jf the subscribers to the institution that he should supervise the selection
of teachers. Local opinion became divided, however, and the result has been
toat the “ Madrasseh " is now no more than the ordinary Arab school, in which
instruction in the Koran and the elements of reading and writing is imparted
:o small boyB. A party still desires a proper modem education likely to he of
more real benefit in after life, but the bigoted Muhammadans’ idea that know­
ledge of the Koran is all sufficient prevents any real progress. In April plans
and estimates for the building were prepared, and about October a house, with a
large quadrangle and some 6 or 8 large and several smaller rooms, was finished
at a cost of about Rs. 30,000 and the school was opened for the public. At
present some 170 to 180 boys are on the roll and the teaching staff consists of:—
the Principal, by name Yusuf bin Esa bin Husein, a local Kuwait Arab; an
expounder of the Koran and the Hedaya by name Shaikh Muhammad Naj-
muddin, a British Indian subject from Lahore who receives the respectable
monthly wage of £T. 17 with free quarters at the school premises ; one Saiyid
Umar, a Smyrna Turk, who teache3 Koran-rea&ing and intonation and writing,
on a salary of £T. 7 and two other Baghdad Arabs.
Fhe Saiyid Muhammad Rashid referred to above, accompanying Muham-
mad bin Salim, the Bombay Agent of Shaikh Mubarak, arrived in K uwait on
the 9th May and next day delivered a lecture attended by Shaikhs Jabir and
Kasir (Shaikh Mubarak's sons) and some 1,000 Arabs of all classes. He
lectured on the rites and the propagation of the Islamic faith, and in the course
of it warned his hearers against foreign missionaries and others like them who
endeavoured to obtain a footing in Muhammadan countries. The lecture was
not actively anti-European or anti-Christian, but its tone undoubtedly indicated
that foreigners should be discouraged. Though the Saiyid remained more
than a month in Kuwait, his subsequeut lectures were confined stricihr to
interpretation and elucidation of the Koran and Hadaya, possibly on a hint
from Shaikh Mubarak, whose guest he was.
A project for the enlargement of one of the boat harbours, which had been
suggested to the Shaikh some eighteen months ago, took, shape in December
vhen work was begun on the boat-harbour from a little east of the
house almost up to the Shaikh’s palace. The old wall has been moved seawards
—____
and about three times the former area has been made available for boats, which
^iil now be afloat almost the whole 24 hours instead of only at high tides as vraa
formerly the case. Owners of houses on the foreshore and boat-owners were
required to subscribe towards the expenses, and some Ra 28,000 was collected
before the commencement of the work. The scheme has effected a great
public improvement and is of material assistance to pearl-boat owners. It ia
e*pected that the work will cost about Rs. 36,000 to 40,000 to complete.
The improvement in local currency matters, mentioned in last year’s
report, continues and rupees are no longer
Euimag*. discounted in Kuwait, whilst exchange
become steadier. The one-anna Indian nickel coin has become very
Popular. Specie remittances, proceeds of pearls, etc., are generally ixnpoart-
m