LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Kuwait: Saudi Arabia
built 630 days ago
Because of its location at the head of the Arabian Gulf, Kuwait was an important entrepot on the trade routes between the West and the East. In the early 18th century, the Utub, the ancestors of many of today’s premier Kuwaiti families, arrived in the area where they founded a settlement of traders. At that time the area from Qatar to Kuwait was ruled by the Beni Khalid, a tribal federation of nomads and settled clans who controlled trade along the Gulf coast. Due to a weakening of the Beni Khalid by internal dissention and general political turbulence in the area, the Utub were able to assert their independence gradually. This independence became absolute in the mid-18th century.
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The ruling family of Kuwait is of ancient lineage, being ruling tribal Shaikhs for upwards of five centuries. Like their neighbours, the Saudis of Arabia, and Al-Khalifa of Bahrain, the Sabah are a section of the 'Aniza tribe. The Saudis belonging to the Masalikh sept, the Khalifa and Sabah to the 'Amartat.
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According to official OPEC figures, Kuwait has about 101.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, including the Kuwaiti share of proven reserves in the Divided Zone. This gives Kuwait the fifth-largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran, and Iraq. Estimated capacity before the occupation was about 2.4 million bpd. During the Iraqi occupation, Kuwait's oil-producing capacity was severely reduced. However, tremendous recovery and improvements have been made. Oil production was 1.5 million bpd by the end of 1992, and pre-war capacity was restored in 1993.
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The state of Kuwait (dawlat al-Kuwayt) is located at the northern tip of the Persian Gulf. Its name in Arabic means "small fort," perhaps referring to an outpost left by sixteenth-century Portuguese sailors. Kuwait borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
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Kuwait is situated northeast of Saudi Arabia at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, south of Iraq. It is slightly larger than Hawaii. The low-lying desert land is mainly sandy and barren.
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During the third millennium B.C.E., what is now Kuwait was part of a highly developed culture based on maritime commerce and linked to ancient Sumer. Kuwait's modern history began in the early eighteenth century when several clans of the al-Utub tribal grouping (part of the Aniza tribal confederation to which the Al Saʿud belong), left drought-and famine-stricken central Arabia and settled on the northern Gulf coast. The Al Sabah were formally established as rulers in 1756. They directed Kuwait's affairs in consultation with members of other paramount clans who, like them, had become merchants.
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