Page 64 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

2 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
Gulf; they arc in special treaty relations with the United Kingdom.
«.! Kuwait, which until the early part of 1961 belonged to this category,
is now an independent State and a member of the United Nations.
j
Similarly, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman is an independent
State, but she is not a member of the United Nations and still main­
tains very close treaty relations with the United Kingdom dating back
to the eighteenth century.
In this study the expression ‘the Arabian Gulf States’ (or the Gulf
States) refers to the eleven States altogether and ‘the Shaikhdoms’
refers to the Gulf Protected States, including Kuwait before 1961.
The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, which is not included in the
expression ‘the Gulf Protected States’, will be referred to, briefly, as
Muscat. Concerning Kuwait, this study deals, basically, with her
former status as a British Protected State (i.e., before attaining full
independence on 19 June 1961).

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES

(a) Evolution of the States
The political evolution of these States into their present position
within the British sphere of influence took place during the first half
of the nineteenth century. However, it appears that they had achieved
various degrees of political independence (in certain cases with loose
Ottoman suzerainty) long before they had any contact with the
British Government. The history of the gradual emergence of these
States may be traced briefly below:
Muscat
The present Sultanate of Muscat and Oman was originally known as
the Imamate of Oman. The Imamate was governed between a.d. 751
and 1792 by elected Imams of the Ibadi (originally the Kharijites)
sect of Islam. The present reigning Sultan, Sayyid Sa'id ibn Taimur,
belongs to the dynasty of A1 Bu Sarid which was originally founded
in 1774, by Ahmad ibn Safid. The latter, having succeeded in ex-

as ‘States’—in contradistinction to British Protectorates which are, generally, of
more dependent status—they are, in fact, only quasi-sovereign States, since they
do not have all the attributes of statehood in the international sense of the word.
For example, they do not control their external affairs. It is agreed that protection
over the Gulf States ‘developed out of the needs initially to check the slave iradc
and to prevent regional warfare, and later to obtain and preserve special com­
mercial interests and advantages’. See Fawcett, J. E. S., The British Commonwealth
in International Law (1963), p. 120. However, it may be assumed that the sovereignty
of the Gulf States, which has been partially suspended for the duration of pro­
tection, will revive in full when British treaties of protection are finally brought to
an end’. In support of this assumption, see below, p. 40 for the manner in which
British protection over Kuwait was terminated.