Overview

Though inhabited for millennia, Kuwait began to emerge as an Arab shaikhdom relatively late. Entering the historical record during the early 18th century as a junction of caravan and sea routes, it quickly grew to be a commercial rival to Basra at the head of the Gulf. As its prosperity increased, it had to negotiate a precarious autonomy amongst its larger neighbours - the Ottomans in Iraq, the Saudis and Rashidis in central Arabia, and the British who, from 1820, set about establishing an effective maritime peace in the Gulf. By the end of the 19th century, despite their complete lack of natural resources of any kind, even water, Kuwait's people had managed to exploit their geopolitical position to turn their town into the busiest dhow port on the Gulf. Its greatest ruler, Mubarak Al-Sabah (r. 1896-1915), deftly manipulated Turkey and the European powers to achieve both British protection and, by 1914, sovereignty for his tiny state. Without the sea, Kuwait's rise would have been impossible. Its society was formed by the trade in Iraqi dates, and by its dhow-building and pearling industries, which attracted both Arabs and Persians to the town. Focusing chiefly on the first decades of the 20th century, Yacoub Al-Hijji paints a vivid portrait of the merchants, captains, navigators, dhow builders, sailors, pearl divers and fishermen of this remarkable shaikhdom. In explaining their techniques, and analysing how they organized themselves according to the customary law and traditions of a tribal, pre-bureaucratic era, he conveys a compelling picture of the bustle and hardships of a way of life which, during the 1940s and 1950s, was to be erased by prosperity from oil.

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Reviews

Al-Hijji has written the first comprehensive treatise on Kuwait's historic relationship with the sea from the state's establishment until the avent of oil...Kuwait and the Sea takes up an important position on the shelf of both Middle East and Indian Ocean historiography...Al-Hijji's deep respect and admiration for the country's seafaring past and his regret over its historical erasure permeate the text of this insightful study. Farah Al-Nakib, The Middle East in London, July - August 2010 Don't let the textbook-like title put you off. Dr Al Hijji's approach is both scholarly and highly readable. His book paints an intriguing portrait of Kuwait's pre-oil maritime occupations. The book fills an important gap in the economic history of the Arabian Gulf before oil, a subject that Dr Al Hijji notes has largely been ignored in Western literature on the Gulf. Claudia Farkas Al Rashoud, Arab Times, May 10th 2010

Author Information

Dr Yacoub Yusuf Al-Hijji was born in old Kuwait City in 1947, and attended the American University of Beirut. Returning to Kuwait, he joined the government groundwater department as a geologist. Furthering his studies at University College, London, he then went to the United States, attaining his M.Sc. in hydrogeology from Ohio University, and his Ed.D. from Boston University. In 1983 he joined Kuwait University as faculty member. He currently works as a consultant at the Centre for Research and Studies on Kuwait (CRSK). Dr Al-Hijji is an authority on Kuwait's rich maritime heritage, and now devotes much of his time to its study. He has written several articles and books about it, in both Arabic and English, among them The Voyage of Al-Ghazeer and The Art of Dhow Building in Kuwait.

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