IOR/R/15/5/140

The file contains correspondence related to a court suit raised in Basra Court by Rafiyaa bint Ali al-Zuhair and other members of al-Zuhair family complaining against the Ruler of Kuwait. The suit in question concerns a portion of the Shaikh’s Faddaghiya estate on Shatt al-Arab, and the Bashiya land to which members of al-Zuhair family lay claim to. The Secretariat of the High Commissioner for Iraq passes the case to the Political Agent, Kuwait, upon the request of the Iraq Ministry of Justice. In turn, the Political Agent passes the case to the Shaikh of Kuwait and to the Political Resident, Bushire.

The correspondence includes a report (ff 26-50) with full details related to the Shaikh’s Faddaghiya estate in Iraq, accompanied by two attachments. The first attachment includes communications with Abdul Aziz al-Salim Al-Badr, the Shaikh’s agent in Basra who provided the Agency with details of the way by which Faddaghiya estate had been bought by Shaikh Mubarak in 1908. The second attachment includes the correspondence with Mirza Muhammad, agent in Iraq to Shaikh Khaz'al, recommending two lawyers, Messrs Jacob Gabriel and Arteen, to help the Shaikh with the case. The Political Agent, Kuwait, also sent two short histories of the Bashiya and Faddaghiya estates (ff 88-96) to the Political Resident, Bushire. According to the reports, the Faddaghiya estate was owned by Aisha, wife of Ahmad Pasha Al-Zuhair. Ahmad Pasha sold the estate to Shaikh Mubarak of Kuwait although he did not hold a Power of Attorney from his wife at the time of the sale.