Sabah I bin Jaber

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Sheikh Abu Abdullah Sabah I bin Jaber Al Sabah (Sabah I; c. late-1600s-1762) (Arabic: أبو عبد الله صباح الأول) was the first emir of Kuwait's royal al-Sabah dynasty. The official Kuwaiti history states that he was unanimously chosen for the position of sheikh.

[edit] Reign of Sabah bin Jaber

In the beginning of the 18th century, an Arabic tribe known as "al-Utoob", their leader Sabah bin Jabir, belonged to the "Sabah" branch of this tribe (hence al-Sabah dynasty of Kuwait as it became known later). The tribe migrated from central Arabia looking for fertile lands to settle on. They first went to Qatar, then they headed towards the southern borders of Iraq (under control of the Ottoman Empire during that time). There they first went to Um Qasr, a small Iraqi city in the north. They sent emissary to the Ottoman authority in Iraq to grant them the permission to stay in it, but the Ottoman empire refused to do so. Thus, in 1752 they had to leave south to an abandoned fort known as "kut" (the name of the country originated from this fort) which lay in a land that was owned by the strong tribe of bani-Khaled. Bani-Khaled allowed the "al-Utoob" to settle in the area.

The newly settled tribe quickly sent its leader, Sheikh Sabah bin Jaber, to the Ottoman governor of Iraq in order to declare his allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan, who was also the Caliph of all Muslims. He did this in order to gain a legitimate status. Thus Kuwait became a virtually independent city with Sabah bin Jaber as its first ruler, in spite of it nominally being under Ottoman control. Upon his death in 1764, Sabah I was succeeded by his youngest son, Abdullah bin Sabah.