GENARACIÓN RESIDUOS PELIGROSOS Kg./ 1.000 Km

which has been under pressure since the time of Sheikh Mubarak, who had absorbed all the powers of the society to his own hands. The Sheikh A h m a d Al- Jabir period marked a suitable moment for the

influential families to insist on participation in decision-making w ith the ruler by means of a council,^

The life of this class was circumscribed by many local traditions and other concerns. The

ruling families, for example, held status, wealth, and the power that goes with them, It is the largest single economic unit in any Gulf state. The shiekhdom is hereditary, thus no member of another family can become an Emir. The tribal authority of the Sheikh is strong, and he can truly say "L'etat, c ’est m o i u ; but, because of the commercial nature of the state which tolerated many different social groups, the

Sheikhs were less despotic than might have been expected. The appearance of a ruling group in Kuwait

was due to five factors:

(1) It created a society by being part of the original settler group, hence able to establish itself more effectively comparing to others,

(2) It was protected b y the Bani-Khalid tribe. After Bani-Khalid collapse, it was able to establish itself as an independent entity,

(3) its tribal solidarity as members of a powerful tribe

a dominant form of solidarity, as Ibn Khaldon says; group feeling results only from b lood relationship ,.. the goal to which

group feeling leads is royal authority.,,^ and as demonstrated by the transfer of authority from the single to the dual family,

(4) the economic development which prov i d e d the group with further wealth which added to their power, i,e.

trading activities, administrations, and later oil, and, (5) the British agreement of 1899, w h ich provided

further support to the position of the ruler.

Through time, this group, was able to occupy the highest position in the social hierarchy. When the oil era started new changes came into existence

providing further privileges to this group (see Chapter 4). Hay (1959) said;

Although a ruler may have little trouble with his people, his relations are often

a thorn in his flesh. There may be a few who are of real assistance to him, but his main trouble was that of the influential families c l a s s ,2

This issue leads us to study the second important group in the society - the influential families.

3, The Influential Families

Nearly all those who have written about Kuwait,

1, Ibn Khaldun, translated by Rosental, 196 7, p, 98. 2, Sir Rupert Hay, (1959), o p . c i t ., p p , 29-30,

have agreed that this group is socially and economically important. It is known by more than one name. To

the ruling family they are ’’People who want power and m o n e y ” , whilst to the working class, they are ”At-

tujjar” , (merchants), the source of capital and vital to livelihood,

Over time, this class has seen gradual changes in terms of their status in the society. Their status originally depended totally on their tribal background, but was coupled later first w i t h economic status and then on their relations w i t h the ruling class. During the first years of the establish­ ment of Kuwait, they were equal both socially and

economically to the Al-Subahs. As we have seen, this was before the development of the authority of the

ruling class. They participated in administration and in regulating town affairs, when Al-S u b a h were merely chosen to oversee the town. Later on they became subordinate after Al-Subah due to migration of the leading two influential families, A l-Khalifah and Al-Jalahmah,^ They kept on striving for access to power and this long-term hidden conflict with the ruling class led to an open dispute in the time of Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jabir (1921-1950). The class group of influential families had some characteristics which placed it above other classes and below the ruling class.

1, The remaining kin of Al-Jalahmah are even today occupying high positions in the society. They include Al-Nisf (former Works M i n i s t e r ) ,

For instance,

From the start, the merchants played a great role in running the daily affairs of Kuwait, so there was no danger of its ruler, in the case of the Sheikh becoming a despot* Kuwait was a community where merchants had

the upper hand because of the weal t h which they accumulated in the early

days of the rise of their town, and so their influences on the political attitudes of their ruler was important. A n d members of the ruling family might also be called merchants, in the sense that they have always had their own b u s i n e s s .^

When compared to the ruling class before the discovery of oil, they were far more significant, for they represented the social and economic power within the society through their enterprises and owner­

ship of product aspects, such as capital., ships of trade and pearl fishing. They were greater in number when compared to the ruling family group, combining about 15 families. In terms of their tribal background they also descended from notable tribes similar to Al- Subah - which provided them with the social prestige which is very important in a tribal society. On the

contrary, many individuals of Al-Subah tended to strengthen their position in the society through

marrying into these families as well as into Badu tribes to gain more power. The Subahs themselves were not

economically distinguished when compared to this class. Suffice it to say that some members of this class once

1. Abu-Hakmah, A., MThe Development of Gulf States", in D f Hopwood (ed,), 1972, The Arabian P e n i n s u l a , pp. 33-4.

owned more than all the A l - S u b a h s ’ wealth. Merchants such as Hlal Al-Mutairi who lived in the time of

Sheikh M u b arak was said to own e i g h t . m i l lion Rupees,^" Many of the Al-Subahs had gone into business partnership with these merchants.

This is why the members of this class regarded themselves as "equal t o ? or better than the Subahs", for they believed that "the Sheikhdom had always been theoretically elective and w o u l d no longer put up with

2

the S u b a h s ’ stronghold on the economy". They were annoyed by the ruling class especially during M u b a r a k ’s rule who tended to require high taxes and duties on .

3

their enterprises. The Al-Subahs obtained their income

1. Al-Shamlan, S, (1978) Pearl Diving in Kuwait and the G u l f , V o l . 2, p p . 80-1, See also Y. Al-Qinai (1946) , o p . c i t

,?

2. H e w i n s , R, (1.96 3) ? A Golden Dream:. The Miracle of K u w a i t , p. 306,

3. For example in the early 1900s Sheikh Mubarak inforced