File 2297/1919 ‘Persian Gulf Residency Monthly Reports. 1912-20.’ [‎384v] (773/1044)

Kuwait.
From 1st to 31st March.
[Furnished by Captain W. H. I. Shakespear, LA.]
208. With reference to paragraph 20, Shaikh Mubarak returned from Failiyah
in his yacht on the 31st March.
209. In the first week of March it was reported that orders were received at
Basrah from Constantinople to register and to issue title deeds for properties bought
by Shaikh Mubarak in Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. without taking an Ottoman nationality
certificate by him. This privilege is said to have been accorded to him in consi
deration of the subscription which Shaikh Mubarak recently sent in aid of the
sufferers in the Turko-Balkan war.
210. With reference to paragraph 80, Shaikh Nasir bin Mubarak is said to
have written to Assistant Surgeon Daud-ur-Raman Khan enquiring if he would
come and take charge of the proposed Arab charitable dispensary at Kuwait and
asking that, if he is unwilling, to recommend a suitable Muhammadan medical
officer to hold charge of the same. Assistant Surgeon Daud-ur-Rahman Khan
who is a Sunni Muhammadan was in medical charge of the Kuwait Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
during 1904-07 and was much liked and held in high esteem by local Arabs.
211. On the 31st March, Shaikh Mubarak brought with him a Turkish doctor
by name Assad Beg from Basrah and an engine-driver by name Shaikh Muhammad,
a British Indian subject, from Ahwaz. The former, it is stated, will be placed in
charge of the proposed Arab charitable dispensary and the latter, who is said to
have been working before in the &5'. “ Nasrat ” in the Karun river, will be
employed as chief engineer in the Shaikh’s yacht.
212. An Arab by name Khalid bin Khamiss who has formerly acting as a
pilot in the British India steamers in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , murdered one of his male
slaves on the night of the 17th. Khalid, it appears, was drunk at the time he
committed the crime and that his slave was preventing him from going out of r he
house whereupon he got angry, took a revolver and shot the slave and quietly threw
his body in an underground latrine in the house. The next mornig the slave’s wife
who was living in the same house reported the crime to Shaikh Jabir. The latter
arrested and imprisoned the murderer confiscating all his property and subse
quently expelled him from Kuwait. Khalid left for Bahrain by mail steamer on
the 25th whence, it is said, he will go and settle at Katr.
213. In the third week of March it was reported that a severe fight had taken
place at Haniyah between Shaikh Ajaimi bin Sa’adun of the Muntafick and his
cousins, sons of Falah bin Nasir, in which the former is said to have lost over 100
men killed and the latter about 80 men killed. Shaikh Ajaimi, who was completely
defeated, appears to have had the Umti.ir bin Husein, Us-Saiyid, and Hokra
tribes with him and his cousins the Ba’adur, An’naim, Ziad and Safa tribes.
214. With reference to paragraph 25, one of the pirates named Kathair bin
Marzuk died in prison on the 24th and another is reported to be very ill.
215. Bin Sand has been raiding east of Riadh and is reported to have looted
the Shamir section of the Ajman tribe successfully. He is said to have out with
him at least a thousand of the townsmen from Nejd villages, as well as Bedouins of
the Kahtan, Sbi’a, Umtair and some sections of the Ajman tribes.
216. The desert shows the want of later rain and the season is very late every
where, being as much as a month or more behind average. It is doubtful whether
much fodder will become available even if copious rains were to fall now. The
Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in the course of his tour found Bedouin flocks and five-stock
looking poor. Further south, however, the country seems to have received a
considerable amount of rain and Bedouin of the Umtair, Sbi’a and even Kahtan
tribes are all in the vicinity of the Dahana ridge and southern Suman districts.
Such of their cattle and live-stock as the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. saw during his tour were
in first class condition.