Publisher's Synopsis
Text in Arabic. This book documents the period between 1900 and 1950, which saw Kuwait's emergence from a vulnerable sheikhdom negotiating a precarious independence amongst neighbouring power to a nation state with the highest per capita income in the world. This is an outstanding visual record of a crucial time before the centuries-old way of life, centring on pearling, fishing, boat-building and trade by land and sea, was swept away. Kuwait's people, with no natural resources of their own, not even fresh water, managed by skilful use of their geopolitical position and traditional skills to make Kuwait not only the foremost Arabian port in the Gulf, but also a force to be reckoned with in north-east Arabia. The photographs are organised broadly by chronology and photographer.
