Tribes and tribulations: Bedouin losses in the Saudi and Iraqi struggles over Kuwait's frontiers, 1921-1943

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 145-167

  Toth, Anthony B ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION; POLITICAL CONFLICT; POST-WAR; SOCIAL CHANGE; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

ASIA; EURASIA; IRAQ; JORDAN; MIDDLE EAST; SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC;

EID: 29344468040     PISSN: 13530194     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13530190500281424     Document Type: Review

References (107)

1. United Kingdom, British Library, India Office Library and Records (IOR), R/15/1/531, Kuwait Political Agent H.R.P. Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 8 March 1933.
2. See Anthony B. Toth, 'Last Battles of the Bedouin and the Rise of Modern States in Northern Arabia, 1850-1950', in Dawn Chatty, ed., Nomadic Societies in the Middle East and North Africa: Entering the 21st Century (Leiden: Brill, In press).
3. For a brief overview of some of these factors, see Toth, 'The transformation of a pastoral economy: Bedouin and states in northern Arabia, 1850-1950', D.Phil., Oxford, 2000, especially Chapter One, pp. 36-93.
4. See also, Toth, 'Conflict and a Pastoral Economy: The Costs of Akhwan Attacks on Tribes in Iraq, 1922-29', Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, 11:2 (Fall, 2002), pp. 210-227.
5. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, "the backbone of Kuwait's military policy was a foreign policy of calculated neutrality, tilting towards but never wholly siding with whatever power seemed most useful, while keeping channels of communication open with all parties." Jill Crystal, Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 21.
6. University of Oxford, St Antony's College, Middle East Centre Archive (MECA), H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Administration Report for the Kuwait Political Agency for 1918 (henceforth, Kuwait administration report).
7. See also IOR, R/15/1/514, Telegrams from the Political Agent, Kuwait, to the British Embassy, Baghdad, 9 Jan. and 13 April, 1918.
8. A contemporary account of the Jahra conflict, witnessed in part by an American missionary in Kuwait at the time, appears in MECA, C.S.G. Mylrea Papers, Typescript of 'Kuwait Before Oil', Chapter 9, by Dr. C. Stanley G. Mylrea, written between 1945 and 1951.
9. See also, Alexei Vassiliev, The History of Saudi Arabia (New York: New York University Press, 2000), p. 254.
10. United Kingdom, Kew, The National Archives, Colonial Office Records (CO), 732/46/8, Dickson to Political Resident, Persian Gulf, 18 March 1930.
11. Recent studies normally mention the blockade only in passing as mainly an economic issue that deprived the ruler of Kuwait of important trade-related revenues at a crucial time in the amirate's history. See Crystal, Oil and Politics, p. 38-39, who called it an 'embargo', while noting that attacks occurred as well;
12. and Kiren Aziz Chaudhry, The Price of Wealth: Economies and Institutions in the Middle East (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997), p. 53, who says it was a 'customs war'.
13. The most extensive discussion of the blockade, focusing on diplomatic matters, appears in Joseph Kostiner, Saudi Arabia, 1916-1936: From Chieftancy to Monarchical State (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 152-154 and pp. 179-181.
14. CO 732/46/8, Dickson to Political Resident, Persian Gulf, 18 March 1930. The offering consisted of ten thoroughbred mares, 15 thoroughbred camels, 400 bags of coffee and 1,000 bags of rice.
15. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1918;
16. and Ibid., Report on the trade of Kuwait for the year 1932-1933.
17. In 1929 Dickson estimated at 300 the number of Al Sabah's fidawiyya, the ruler's paid retainers. Another group that participated in defences of Kuwait was known as the 'uraybdār, who were an 'unpaid conglomeration of families with tribal background' that numbered around '700 well-armed fighters'.
18. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1929.
19. See, for example, H.R.P. Dickson, Kuwait and Her Neighbours (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1956), pp. 285-330, who covers the attacks and responses in some detail.
20. John Bagot Glubb, War in the Desert (London: Hodder and Staughton, 1960), while focusing on the Iraq area of conflict, also deals with attacks on Kuwait.
21. The formal claim for compensation is found in CO 732/46/8, 'Statement showing the various claims of Kuwait against H.M. King Ibn Saud for damage done by Najd raiders (organized or otherwise) committed on Kuwait nationals, as well as claims for damage done to Kuwait trade generally as a result of the blockade of the Port of Kuwait by H.M. King Ibn Saud's land forces from 1921 to the end of 1929, that is for the period of His Excellency Shaikh Ahmad al-Jabir as-Subah, C.S.I., C.I.E., Rule only'. They are divided into six categories: Claim I (A), Ikhwan attacks; Claim I (B), siriyya attacks; Claim II, loans to 'Abd al-'Aziz while he was conquering Hail; Claim III, loss of customs revenue; Claim IV, loss of trade; Claim V, peace offering made to 'Abd al-'Aziz in 1923.
22. CO 732/46/8, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 18 March 1930.
23. Ibid.,
24. H.V. Biscoe to Lord Passfield, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 13 May 1931.
25. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Report on the trade of Kuwait for 1932-33.
26. UK National Archives, Air Ministry Records, United Kingdom, The National Archives, Kew, Air Ministry Records (henceforth, AIR), 23/269, Reports of RAF Special Services Officer (SSO) Basrah, 8 Jan. 1925.
27. Political Diaries of the Persian Gulf, vol. 7 (Farnham Common: Archives Editions, 1990), p. 8, Summary of Persian Gulf news, Bushire, 19 Feb. 1922.
28. See AIR 23/272, Reports by SSO Basrah, 20 March 1926, for a report, called 'barely reliable' by the SSO, of 'Abd al-'Aziz's efforts to prevent Ikhwan musābila in Kuwait.
29. See also, AIR 23/273, Reports of SSO Basrah, 31 July to 4 Aug. 1926.
30. Ibid., 27 March 1926.
31. Ibid., 14 August 1926.
32. The report added that 'Abdullah al-Nafisi, 'Abd al-'Aziz's agent in Kuwait, is cognizant of this business but finds it to his advantage to appear ignorant of it'.
33. CO 732/46/8, Claim 1 (A).
34. AIR 23/273, Reports of SSO Basrah, 10 July 1926.
35. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1927.
36. Halah Fattah, The Politics of Regional Trade in Iraq, Arabia, and the Gulf, 1745-1900 (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997), pp. 71-72; pp. 195-197.
37. AIR 23/273, Reports of SSO Basrah, 17 Oct. 1926.
38. AIR 23/274, Reports of SSO Basrah, 22 Jan. 1927.
39. Kostiner, Saudi Arabia, p. 124.
40. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1928.
41. Ibid., 1929.
42. According to this report, 'one of the chief objects of the Ajman and Mutair during their recent rebellion, was to throw off the Nejd yoke and once again come under the control of Kuwait'.
43. CO 732/37/2, Extract from Report on the Administration of the Southern Desert, March 1929.
44. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1929.
45. Ibid.
46. 1930. 'The late rebels in particular were in a very bad way owing to having lost most of their livestock, and found it impossible to fetch supplies from Hofuf or Jubail as the King would have liked them to do'.
47. See also IOR R/15/1//481, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 11 June 1930, which gives specific details. On June 5, Brayh Mutayr tribesmen with 60 camels arrived in Kuwait to purchase supplies; on the 7th, 'Ajman and 'Awaynah with 25 camels arrived; on the 10th, 15 Mutayr arrived, and a 'large number of Awazim tribesmen managed to reach Kuwait in the last three weeks'.
48. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1931.
49. IOR R/15/1/481, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 11 Dec. 1930.
50. 'The trade which Kuwait is anxious to recover is the heavy caravan traffic that used to ply between the coast and the Nejd province of Qasim. This is the one trade that will bring recovery to her, not the supplying of the bedouin with their petty needs of dates and rice'. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1930.
51. CO 732/46/8, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 18 March 1930.
52. Ibid.
53. CO 732/46/8, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 18 March 1930, Political Resident, Bushire, to Passfield, Colonial Office, 13 May 1931. In order to provide some perspective on the estimated trade of Kuwait, let us look at Dickson's figures for the year 1932-33. He estimated that total imports by sea amounted to Rs. 3,114,689 (2.1 per cent higher than the previous year), and total exports by sea were Rs. 1,111,881 (a decrease of 30.3 per cent from 1931-32). MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Report on the trade of Kuwait for 1932-32.
54. For a good overview of the economic problems faced by 'Abd al-'Aziz during this period, see Jamal Mahmud Hajar, al-Sa'udiyun wa-al-'azmah al-maliyah, 1929-1933 (Alexandria, Egypt: Dar al-Ma'rifa al-Jama'iyah, 1993).
55. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1931.
56. IOR R/15/1/48, Kuwait Intelligence Summary, 17 April 1931.
57. Ibid.,
58. 2 May 1931. The practice was one of the perquisites of high officials and members of the royal family. '[I]t is a custom in Nejd for the local amir to select a particularly succulent piece of grazing, and forbid tribes to enter it, reserving it solely for the use of his private animals or those of his retainers'. MECA, John Bagot Glubb Papers, Transjordan monthly report, March 1933.
59. This phenomenon also appears to have heralded a growing modern trend toward raising camels in a ranch-like environment rather than through long migrations over open rangelands.
60. AIR 23/277, Reports of SSO Basrah, 11 April 1931.
61. Ibid., 25 May 1931.
62. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1931.
63. AIR 23/277, Reports of SSO Basrah, 25 May 1931.
64. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1931.
65. Ibid..
66. Later in this same report, Dickson stated that on July 26 some Brayh Mutayr from Najd who had been attempting to slip into Kuwait to purchase supplies were raided by the Dhafir under Jedaan, suggesting that Dhafir cooperation with blockade efforts started earlier than September.
67. Ibid.
68. AIR 23/277, Reports of SSO Basrah, 1 November 1931.
69. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration report for 1931.
70. This had a number of causes, including declines in the ruler's gold reserves, and effects on the local currency and commodity markets of the world depression. Some factors are discussed in a series of despatches from A. Ryan in Jeddah to A. Henderson in London between March and September 1931, found in FO 371/15299. In addition, the late 1920s and early 1930s were also years during which 'Abd al-' Aziz was attempting to reduce the number of currencies used in his domains, which could have created fluctuations in the exchange rates. See Chaudhry, Price of Wealth, pp. 65-8.
71. IOR R/15/1/48, Kuwait intelligence summary, 2 May 1931. It also had political consequences. According to this report, 'There is a growing tendency on the part of the tribes in the hinterland to put all the blame on Bin Saud for the way the Rial has lost its purchasing power'.
72. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Kuwait administration reports for 1921-1931.
73. IOR R/15/1/531, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 30 May 1933.
74. Ibid.
75. IOR R/15/1/534, Kuwait Political Agent Gerald de Gaury to Political Resident, Bushire, 12 June 1936.
76. Kostiner, Saudi Arabia, pp. 180-181.
77. IOR R/15/1/531, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 31 January 1934.
78. While the focus of this section will be on efforts to hinder bedouin trade and smuggling, it should be noted that this activity provided Iraqis with yet another opportunity to threaten to absorb Kuwait. Some examples of this rhetoric appeared in Iraqi newspapers. For one excerpt, see IOR R/15/1/534, Kerr to Rendel, 20 May 1936. 'In our opinion the most successful method [for dealing with the problem of smuggling from Kuwait] would be for the Iraqi Government to act for the striking of the name of Kuwait off the list of Arab principalities and try to annex Kuwait to Iraq'. Al Karkh, 18 May 1936.
79. There are many other examples of this same sentiment in other publications.
80. See Ibid., de Gaury to Political Resident, Bushire, 12 June 1936.
81. IOR R/15/1/531, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 8 March 1933.
82. Ibid., 30 May 1933.
83. Ibid., 30 May 1933.
84. IOR R/15/1/531, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 31 Jan. 1934.
85. Citing another report by Dickson (FO 371/16852, ' A Note on the Contraband Problem of Iraq with her Neighbours, and in Particular How it Affects Kuwait', 1933), one author has stated that 'smugglers based on the Hasa coast of Saudi Arabia' used the migrations of the Shammar and Dhafir as cover for their activities. Richard Schofield, Kuwait and Iraq: Historical Claims and Territorial Disputes (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1993), p. 67.
86. IOR R/15/1/534, Extract from Kuwait intelligence summary no. 15, 1-15 September 1935. The merchant who bought the camels was reputed to be involved 'with various smuggling organizations and is reported to have secretly sold the camels back to their respective Bedouin owners at cost price'.
87. Ibid.,
88. Batemen, British Embassy, Baghdad, to Anthony Eden, 9 July 1936.
89. 'Smuggling had a significant impact both on the border question and on Kuwait-Iraq relations more generally during the 1930s'. Schofield, Kuwait and Iraq, p. 66.
90. IOR R/15/1/534, Political Agent, Kuwait, to Political Resident, Bushire, 19 April 1936.
91. According to a report from Iraq, there were 535 cases of smuggling in 1933. In 1934, this amount rose to 1,041 cases, of which 87 were by sea. The value of the smuggled goods captured in Iraq in 1934 was about £15,000, reflecting a potential loss of customs revenue of £10,000. IOR R/15/1/533, British Ambassador, Baghdad, to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 19 Feb. 1935.
92. For examples of Kuwaiti complaints against Iraqi violations of territorial waters and attacks on Kuwaitis, see IOR R/15/1/534, Political Agent, Kuwait to Political Resident, Bushire, 19 April 1936.
93. One bedouin, Murshid al-Shammar, counted at least seven incursions by Iraqi desert police in just the first two weeks of May 1934. IOR R/15/1/ 531, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 15 May 1934.
94. IOR R/15/1/531, Dickson to Political Resident, Bushire, 15 May 1934.
95. IOR R/15/1/532, Translation of a letter from the Ruler of Kuwait to the Political Agent, 6 August 1934, in Watts, Political Agent, Kuwait, to Political Resident, Bushire, 11 August 1934.
96. IOR R/15/1/533, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to British Embassy, Baghdad, [n.d.].
97. Schofield, Kuwait and Iraq, p. 66.
98. IOR R/15/1/535, Ruler of Kuwait to Political Agent, Kuwait, 29 August 1936. (Text edited for clarity by author.)
99. In Kuwait there were three kinds of waqiyas, depending on what was being bought. All were based on the weight of the riyal. The waqiya used for 'imports from the desert' had the weight of 80 riyals, or nearly 5 lbs. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Report on the trade of Kuwait for 1932-33.
100. IOR R/15/1/535, de Gaury, Political Agent to Political Resident, Kuwait, 29 September 1936.
101. Ibid.
102. IOR R/15/1/536, de Gaury to Political Resident Bushire, 11 February 1937. As part of the investigation, an Iraqi police commandant attempted to trick and denigrate bedouin witnesses. According to the British report, 'A particular success [of the commandant] was to ask the witnesses to describe the Police uniform. [The bedouin] it appears are unable to do so. They just said "The Police were dressed like Police", or "in coat and trousers", which was always a triumph for the Commandant. 'The bedouin told their stories and maintained their dignity in most cases. One did not. Luckily the Commandant failed to understand the meaning of the abuse [of the bedouin witness] and the threat to "make him as emasculated as he looked", if he was ever seen on the frontier again. (Not that he himself had ever crossed it without leave.) He recoiled from the vehemence of the man, until I stopped it. ... It was obviously in his mind a match of Iraqi versus Kuwaiti and of town versus country, that the Commandant was attending - rather than an impartial investigation'.
103. IOR R/15/1/536, de Gaury to Political Resident, Bushire, 19 February 1937.
104. IOR R/15/1/537, Iraq Ministry of Foreign Affairs to British Embassy Baghdad, 23 March 1938;
105. and Ibid.,
106. de Gaury to Political Resident, Bushire, 26 May 1938.
107. MECA, H.R.P. Dickson Papers, Dickson to C.N. Jackson, Political Agent, Kuwait, 30 Dec. 1944.