Page 83 - Arabian Studies (II)

The Authority ofShaykhs in the Gulf: 73

had left represented a substantial part of the population of Kuwait.
He sent two missions to try to persuade them to return, the second
led by one of his own sons. Two of the merchants agreed. But Hilal
al-Mutayrl made conditions. He was a very important merchant and
also had close connections with the Mutayr tribe, which spends part
of the year in Kuwait territory. HilaPs first condition was that the
Shaykh of Bahrain should swear an oath that he would allow no one
to harm Hilal if he returned to Kuwait. With the consent of
Mubarak’s son, the Shaykh of Bahrain complied. But then Hilal
made a second condition, asking the Shaykh of Bahrain to swear that
‘if anyone splashed Hilal with water, the Shaykh of Bahrain would
splash him with blood’. The implications of the second oath were too
serious for the son to accept without consulting his father, for it was
implied that Hilal would live in Kuwait under the complete
protection of the Shaikh of Bahrain. The son returned to Kuwait. In
Kuwait, one of the merchants who had left with Hilal pointed out to
Mubarak that if Hilal failed to return not only would Kuwait lose a
great deal of wealth, but also, so long as he remained in Bahrain,
Hilal was likely to attract other peope who were dissatisfied in
Kuwait to join him there.
Finally, on the pretext that he was going to pay a visit to the
Shaykh of Bahrain, Mubarak went in person to persuade Hilal to
return. Hilal told the merchants who had accompanied the shaykh
that if Mubarak would make a reconciliation with him in the
presence of the Ruler of Bahrain he was prepared to go back to
Kuwait. It is a situation reminiscent of the position when a neutral
shaykh in the desert acts as guarantor of a truce: if one side breaks
the truce, the neutral must intervene on the side of his opponent. A
meeting was arranged and Mubarak and Hilal al-Mutayrl were
reconciled in the presence of the Shaykh of Bahrain, three of his sons
and a number of Kuwaiti notables.
The situation in which secession could exercise such enormous
power depended partly on ecological circumstances, in that people
moving away could take their livelihood with them. But it also
depended partly on social circumstances, in that there had to be
various different shaykhs and they had to be prepared to grant
protection. Here, bedouin customs relating to the granting of
protection are extended so that they become an element within a
settled polity. The polity, however, is one that extends beyond the
boundaries of individual states, just as in the tribal sphere the
corresponding customs apply beyond the limits of the tribe.
In tribal life, customs of protection are one way in which even the
enemies of a tribe are brought in to support tribal solidarity. In a