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'Koweit: A Report' [‎43v] (95/140)

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The record is made up of 2 volumes (60 folios). It was created in 1903. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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6
sary, in order to understand the connection of events, to sketch,
as briefly as may be, the rise and development of that strange
phenomenon the Wahabi movement and power.
It was about 1740-50 that Sheikh Mohammed, son of Abdul
Wahab of Basrah, disgusted with the laxity and corruption of
Turkish Islam, first started the puritanical movement which has
ever since borne his father’s name. The Wahabis carried their
victorious propaganda far and wide. They first came into con
tact with the British Government as the custodian of the peace
of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . From their stronghold in the Nejd, 250
miles inland from El Katr, and from their capitals Dereiyah and
Riadh, on that mountainous plateau, they soon made their in
fluence felt along the maritime littoral and, at different times in
the 19th Century, subjugated or extorted tribute from almost
every Arab tribe from El Katif to Cape Mussandim, and from
Cape Mussandim to Ras al Hadd.
It was in 1787 that the first mention of the Wahabis is
found in the Bombay Records. The British Government was
careful not to involve itself in hostile proceedings against the
Wahabi Amir. By 1818 Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , marching from Egypt,
had captured the Wahabi capital and razed it to the ground, had
sent the Wahabi Amir in chains to Constantinople, where he
was decapitated, and had apparently stamped out the heretical
and schismatic authority. Within a few years, however, Turki,
son of the deceased Amir, had expelled the Egyptian Governor,
was proclaimed Sultan of Nejd, and by a judicious payment of a
small tribute to Egypt, retained the throne, till murdered in 1831.
> His son and successor, Feysul, was at first rash enough to re
pudiate the Egyptian Suzerainty ; whereupon Nejd was again in
vaded, El Hasa and Katif temporarily occupied by Egyptian
troops, and himself banished to Egypt. In 1843 he managed to
return, and from then till his death in 1865 continued to rule in
Nejd, and to push his sovereignty far and wide among the sur
rounding tribes.
hour times in this period, the vigorous remonstrances of
Great Britain, and the apparition of a naval force off the threaten
ed ports, whether of Bahrein or Muscat, were required to com
pel the retirement of the aggressive Sultan.
His son, Abdullah bin Feysul, succeeded him in 1865, and
entered into an agreement with Great Britain not to molest the
Arab tribes under British protection, particularly those of
Muscat. A prolonged struggle ensued between Abdullah and
his brother Saood, in which the latter was at first successful but
Abdullah, flying to Turkey, invoked that expedition from
r&i TT which ended in the formal and permanent occupation
of El Hasa by Turkey.
, T, h ? C °, n ? ict b , eing renewed upon Saood’s death in 1874,
Abdullah ultimately regained the throne, and held it until 1886
when events occurred which heralded the rise of another power
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Content

Two copies of a report, marked as secret, on Koweit [Kuwait]. The report was compiled in the Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General's Department, by Captain H H Dowding, The Essex Regiment. It was printed at the Government Central Printing Office, Simla, 1903.

The report contains information on the geography, history, politics, military strength, administration, resources, climate, and communications of Kuwait. It includes appendices on routes and prominent families in the region.

The volume also contains a number of photographs and maps:

  • A photograph of the foreshore of Kuwait (folio 3)
  • A photograph of Mobarek-Bin-Subah [Mubārak bin Ṣabāḥ Āl Ṣabāḥ], Shaikh of Kuwait, and his youngest son Naser (folio 9)
  • A photograph of the residence of the Shaikh of Kuwait (folio 17)
  • A rough diagram of the village of Jehara (folio 31)
  • A map of Kuwait Harbour (folio 32)
  • A map of Kuwait and surrounding country (folio 33).

At the rear of the volume is an index, arranged alphabetically and with reference to the original pagination (folios 26-28).

Folio references given are for the first of the two copies. The second, identical copy runs from folio 34 to 66.

Extent and format
2 volumes (60 folios)
Arrangement

The report contains a table of contents (folio 6) and an index (folios 26-28) which is arranged in alphabetical order. Both refer to the original pagination.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: this file consists of two physical volumes. The foliation sequence commences at the front cover of volume one (ff 1-33) and terminates at the inside back cover of volume two (ff 34-66); these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Koweit: A Report' [‎43v] (95/140), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/383, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100075142659.0x000060> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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