IOR/R/15/5/26

This file contains correspondence between British officials regarding the conflict between the Ruler of Kuwait, Shaikh Mubarak Al Sabah, and Shaikh Sa'dun Al Mansur of the Muntafich [Muntafiq] tribe as well as political developments in Kuwait and the Ottoman Province of Basra related to protracted tribal unrest and fighting in that region more broadly.

The majority of the correspondence in the file is between British officials (including the Political Agent in Kuwait, Captain William Shakespear, and the Political Resident, Major Percy Zachariah Cox), but also enclosed are copies of a series of letters (in Arabic with English translations) that were exchanged between Shaikh Mubarak and the Ottoman Governor of Basra in 1911 (folios 85-96,120-121 & 124-125).

In addition to correspondence, the file contains several relevant extracts from the diary of the Political Agency in Kuwait, including detailed descriptions of a number of armed clashes between the forces of Shaikh Mubarak and Shaikh Sa'dun.

The file also contains a memorandum entitled 'Disturbances on the Tigris' written in 1909 by Francis Edward Crow, the British Consul in Basra (folios 8-13) and a cutting in Arabic from the Cairo newspaper Al Moayed from 19 June 1910 that gives details of a battle between a force under the leadership of Shaikh Jaber Mubarak Al Sabah and Shaikh Sa'dun Al Mansur (folio 71).

The file also contains correspondence concerning the robbery of a British individual named William Hickey in Kuwait in 1910 (folios 63-65).