Battle of Al Jahr

The battle of Al-Jahr was one of the key battles of the so-called Frontier War - the armed conflict between Najd and Kuwait, which began when in September 1919 the Kuwaiti emir Salem al-Sabah announced his intention to build a commercial coastal city in the Balbul district on the southern borders of the emirate. However, the ruler of Nejd Ibn Saud opposed this, saying that the territory where the city is planned to be built does not belong to Kuwait; al-Sabah, however, insisted that the Balbul territory belonged to Kuwait in accordance with the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 (after which Kuwait finally became a British protectorate). Having received a letter from al-Sabah with the intention of building, Ibn Saud turned to Major John Moore, a British political agent in Kuwait, informing him of the claims of the Kuwaiti emir and asking him to investigate the situation. A British political agent told al-Sabah that Balbul belongs to the Al-Katif region , which is part of Nejd and has nothing to do with Kuwait. In this regard, Salem al-Sabah was forced to abandon construction plans in Balbul.

After the dispute over the construction of the city in Balbul was settled, the situation somewhat stabilized, however, in May 1920, a new dispute arose over the border between Nedjd and Kuwait, when representatives of the ikhvan religious militia migrated to the southern territories of Kuwait and wanted to build a fortress near the village of Jarat-Aliya, in which large sources of water formally related to the Salem possessions. These territories were part of Kuwait in accordance with the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 and were the residence of the mutair tribe. When al-Sabah stated that he forbids the Ihwan from building near a village in Kuwait, their leader Haif ibn Shakir stated that he would not stop the construction unless he received an order from Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud. Realizing that the ikhvans were carrying out their actions at the behest of ibn Saud, al-Sabah turned to a British political agent, told him about the encroachments of the ikhvans into Kuwait and asked them to influence them to stop construction. The agent agreed and sent a telegram to Baghdad , where, after World War I, there was the British High Commissioner for the Middle East. In total, three telegrams were sent to Baghdad, but the High Commissioner in Iraq did not give an answer to any of them, so he considered this case to be worthless of the clashes between the neighboring Bedouin clans. As a result, Salem al-Sabah assembled an armed detachment of 300 horsemen in order to intimidate and expel the construction of the ikhans from the country. They managed to defeat the forces of ibn Shakir on May 9, but the survivors reported this to the prominent ikhvan commander Faisal al-Duweih, who launched an attack on southern Kuwait with an army of 2,000 people. These troops met with the Kuwaiti horsemen who had defeated Ibn Shakir before, and on May 18 they inflicted a crushing defeat at the Battle of Hamda, which opened the way for the Iwans to the south of Kuwait, which was soon occupied by them.

After the defeat of Salem al-Sabah, on the one hand, on May 29, 1920, he sent a letter to ibn Saud in which he asked him to give an order to al-Duweih and announced his readiness to begin negotiations, on the other - on May 22 he ordered the construction of new fortifications around the capital Kuwait (then known as the Third Walls) secretly sent ambassadors to the emirate of Jebel Shammar to the enemies of ibn Saud, the Rashidis, and the commander of Tuval ibn Rashid was sent to help him; al-Sabah also ordered his commander, Dujai al-Sabah, to speak to the Red Fort near the village of Al-Jahra to camp there. When Ibn Saud found out about this movement of Kuwaiti troops under the command of Tuvala and Dwyai, he stated through a British mediator that he was ready for negotiations and did not pretend to territories that had never previously belonged to the Saudi house, but demanded that Kuwaiti troops withdraw their garrison from Jahra. Al-Sabah refused and, in turn, demanded that Ibn Saud order the Ihvans to retreat south. When the negotiations came to a standstill, Ibn Saud ordered the people of Faisal al-Duweikh to move out of Jarat-Aliya and launch an offensive on the south of Kuwait. The Kuwaitis, under the command of Tuvalu and Dujai, advanced to meet them, however, the ihvans were well prepared for battle, therefore, in order not to risk, the Kuwaiti commanders decided to retreat and returned with troops to Jahra. The Ihvans continued their offensive to the south of Kuwait towards Jahra, and by the time they arrived in southern Kuwait, Salem al-Sabah personally was already under the walls of this city. The battle for the city began in the early morning of October 10.

The forces of the Ikhvans totaled from three to four thousand people who defended the Red Fort and Al-Jahra (including the soldiers of the emirate of Jebel Shammar - it was precisely Kuwaitis who were about 500 people) there were no more than one and a half thousand. The Ihvans advanced on two flanks and managed to inflict significant losses on Kuwait, taking control of the entire settlement of Al-Jahra, with the exception of the fort, in which about 600 people remained under siege under the command of al-Sabah personally. Despite the numerical superiority, when attempting to storm the fort, the ikhvans suffered a sensitive defeat, which forced Faisal al-Duweikh to begin negotiations on October 14; he, however, demanded that the defenders of the fort surrender him, threatening another assault. Realizing the possibility of approaching the Ihwan reinforcements, al-Sabah decided to seek help from the British, whose protectorate was Kuwait, and this help was received. On October 22, the approaching forces, under the personal command of the British High Commissioner in Iraq, Arnold Ulison, which also included three warships and several aircraft, forced the ikhans to retreat.

Despite the liberation of southern Kuwait from the Ihvans, the Border War did not end there: for example, in December 1920, the Ikhvans, under the command of the same Faisal al-Duweikh, captured the settlement of Ibn Majid in northern Kuwait, looted it, and then moved to the city of Ez- Zubair, which was part of the British Mandated Territory of Iraq, even achieved some success, but was eventually defeated by the British.

On December 2, 1922, between the Kuwait and Najd with the mediation of the British, the Ukair agreement was signed, which clearly demarcated the border between the two states; According to this agreement, a neutral zone was also formed between Kuwait and Najd (later Saudi Arabia), which lasted until 1970.

The battle of Al-Jahr is considered a key battle of the Border War: if the Kuwaiti forces lost, according to historians, the emirate would be included in the Saudi state ^[1] .

The battle of Al-Jahr paid considerable attention in his work to Abdul Aziz al-Rashid (1887-1938), considered the first modern Kuwaiti historian; he personally participated in the defense of the Red Fort, and in 1926 published the fundamental work History of Kuwait (تاريخ الكويت ،).

• تاريخ الكويت ، عبد العزيز الرشيد ، (Abdul Aziz al-Rashid, “The History of Kuwait”).
• معركة الجهراء دراسة وثائقية ، بدر الدين عباس الخصوصي ، ١٩٨٣ ، صفحة ٥٣ (Badr al-Din Abbas, “The Battle of Al-Jahr: A Documentary Study.” 1980).