Kuwait has been inhabited for millennia, but began to emerge as an Arab shaikhdom relatively late, after the arrival of the `Utub clans of central Arabia during the first decades of the 18th century. Entering the historical record first as a junction of caravan and sea routes, it quickly grew to be a commercial rival to Basra at the head of the Gulf. --

Ever since Kuwait emerged in the 18th century as a young maritime state with an extreme dependence on the sea, it has been renowned for the consummate skills of its sailors and dhow-builders. Kuwait's shipwrights became justly famed for the beauty, seaworthiness and practicality of their vessels, and the Kuwaiti boum became a symbol of Kuwait's maritime prowess on all the dhow routes linking Arabia, Iran, India and East Africa. This book describes in detail how Kuwaiti shipwrights built their vessels, in particular the boum .As with dhows everywhere, this was done entirely by hand and eye, without drawings of any kind. There are chapters on celebrated master builders and famous dhows, on sails, rigging and launching, and on tools and timber. There is also an extensive glossary of Kuwaiti nautical terms. Today the era of Kuwait's sailing dhows is long gone. In The Art of Dhow-building in Kuwait Dr Ya'qub Al-Hijji, himself a Kuwaiti maritime historian, provides a timely memorial of the craft industry which sustained this unique maritime nation. It is lavishly illustrated with drawings, colour photographs and remarkable old black-and-white images.The latter, from the first half of the 20th century, include many by Alan Villiers, and form an eloquent pictorial elegy on the passing of a great maritime tradition.

This open access book contains a set of chapters covering all aspects of geosciences related to Kuwait and adjacent regions, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states. It covers basic information about the geology including a wide range of geoscientific disciplines such as marine geology, structural geology, hydrogeology and geophysics related to the region. This book is aimed at researchers and students, as well as professionals in the field of hazard mitigation and petroleum exploration.

Music and Traditions of the Arabian Peninsula provides a pioneering overview of folk and traditional urban music, along with dance and rituals, of Saudi Arabia and the Upper Gulf States of Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. The nineteen chapters introduce variegated regions and subcultures and their rich and dynamic musical arts, many of which heretofore have been unknown beyond local communities. The book contains insightful descriptions of genres, instruments, poetry, and performance practices of the desert heartland (Najd), the Arabian/Persian Gulf shores, the great western cities including Makkah and Medinah, the southwestern mountains, and the hot Red Sea coast. Musical customs of distinctive groups such as Bedouin, seafarers, and regional women are explored. The book is packaged with downloadable resources and almost 200 images including a full color photo essay, numerous music transcriptions, a glossary with over 400 specialized terms, and original Arabic script alongside key words to assist with further research. This book provides a much-needed introduction and organizational structure for the diverse and complex musical arts of the region.

The Emirate of Kuwait hardly resembles the city-State it was at the start of the 20th century. The discovery of oil in 1938 rapidly transformed the tiny tribal sheikhdom of the Al-Sabah into a modern oil-producing state where, by the early 1980s, citizens were enjoying one of the highest standards of living in the world. While much has been written on the reasons why and how the Al-Sabah became a ruling dynasty, little is known about the nature of their authority and its relationship to Kuwait's social structure. Rivka Azoulay shows how despite the rapidity of change in the oil-rich, family-run emirate, it is the pre-oil dynamics of social and political life that dictate how society operates. The author shows that Kuwait's ambitious diversification plans to reduce oil-dependence by 2035 require a renegotiation of the regime's pact with society, which threatens the pre-oil alliances upon which the Al-Sabah's regime has been built.