Kuwait

Kuwait began in the early eighteenth century as a settlement of Arab clans at a sheltered natural harbour ("Kuwait" comes from a word for a small fort). The Al Sabah family were chosen to lead it around 1752, and the town grew into a busy trading and shipbuilding port, its economy resting on pearl diving, long-distance dhow trade, and its role as an outlet for goods moving to and from inland Arabia and Mesopotamia.

Fearing Ottoman encroachment, the ruler signed a protection agreement with Britain in 1899; Kuwait remained a British protectorate until full independence in 1961, which Iraq immediately contested. The collapse of the pearl trade in the 1930s coincided with the discovery of vast oil reserves, and exports from 1946 transformed a poor town into one of the wealthiest states in the world.

In August 1990 Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait, citing border and oil disputes and Kuwait's refusal to forgive war debts. A US-led coalition liberated the country in the 1991 Gulf War; retreating Iraqi forces set hundreds of oil wells ablaze and looted the country. Kuwait rebuilt with its oil wealth and has since navigated repeated standoffs between its ruling family and its assertive elected parliament, which the new emir suspended in 2024.

Kuwait is a Gulf Arab, Muslim society — Sunni majority with a significant Shia minority — that is socially conservative but has a strong civic and intellectual tradition. Alcohol is banned, dress in public is modest, and Ramadan is strictly observed, but Kuwaitis are proud of a history of a free-ish press, a lively theatre and television industry watched across the Gulf, and open political argument.

The diwaniya is the country's defining institution: a regular evening gathering, historically male, in a room set aside for the purpose, where friends, family, and constituents meet to talk, and where much political business and networking actually happens. Family and tribe matter, hospitality is elaborate, and the weekend (Friday and Saturday) turns on family visits and, in winter, desert camping — a national pastime, with elaborate tented "spring camps."

Roughly two-thirds of residents are foreign workers, mainly from India, Egypt, other Arab countries, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, and Kuwait's cuisine, languages on the street, and daily rhythms reflect that mix.

Almost the entire population lives in the built-up area around Kuwait City and its suburbs; the rest of the country is flat desert, some of it oil field, some reserved. The city is car-centred and mall-centred, with a corniche along the Gulf, the old souq at its heart, and residential districts spreading inland.

The economy is overwhelmingly oil — Kuwait sits on some of the largest reserves in the world, and the Kuwait Investment Authority is one of the oldest and biggest sovereign wealth funds — with generous public-sector employment, subsidies, and no personal income tax for citizens. Diversification has been slow, and political gridlock between the ruling family and parliament has stalled major projects for years.

Daily life runs early and late in summer to dodge the heat, with the working day, the diwaniya, the mall, and the mosque as its fixed points, and a distinct divide between the lives of citizens and of the expatriate majority.

Kuwaiti cooking is Gulf Arab with strong Persian, Iraqi, and Indian influence. The national dish is machboos — spiced rice, close to a biryani, with fish (often hamour or zubaidi) or lamb or chicken, cooked with dried lime (loomi), saffron, and baharat spice, and served with a tangy tomato daqoos sauce.

Murabyan (spiced shrimp and rice), mutabbaq samak (fish with rice and caramelised onions), jireesh (cracked-wheat porridge with meat), and harees in Ramadan are other staples. Balaleet — sweet vermicelli with a thin omelette — is a breakfast favourite, and gers ogaily (a cardamom-and-saffron sponge) and dates with cardamom coffee finish a meal.

There is no alcohol; strong karak tea, cardamom coffee (gahwa), fresh juices, and laban buttermilk are the everyday drinks.

Kuwait's landmark is the Kuwait Towers, the water-and-observation towers on a Gulf promontory, with a viewing sphere and a revolving café. Along the corniche are the Scientific Center with its large aquarium and dhow harbour, the Al Shaheed Park with its underground museums, and the huge Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre complex, one of the largest museum projects in the region.

The old city core has the restored Souq Al-Mubarakiya, good for spices, textiles, and traditional cafés, the Grand Mosque, and the Sadu House textile museum. The Tareq Rajab Museum holds a fine private collection of Islamic art and manuscripts, and the Liberation Tower marks the end of the Iraqi occupation.

A short ferry ride away, Failaka Island has Bronze Age Dilmun and Hellenistic Greek ruins, alongside villages abandoned during the 1990 evacuation and left as they were — an eerie, tank-scarred time capsule. In winter, the desert itself is the attraction, with Kuwaitis camping, riding, and picnicking across it under mild skies.