Jaber bin Mubarak Al-Sabah

Jaber II Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah (1860 – 5 February 1917) was the eighth ruler of the Sheikhdom of Kuwait from the Al-Sabah dynasty, the eldest son of Mubarak Al-Sabah and the ancestor of the Al-Jaber branch of the Al-Sabah family, ruling from 28 November 1915 until his death on 5 February 1917, when he was succeeded by his brother Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, as the English article describes him. ^{1 2} Although his reign was very short, he is remembered for the relief with which he opened it — abolishing the one-third property tax his father had imposed — and for economic reforms he initiated. ^{1 2}

Jaber was his father's right hand. As a young man he took part in the 1896 killing of his uncles, the ruler Muhammad and Jarrah Al-Sabah: the Arabic article has him go to his uncle Jarrah's room with Shallash bin Hajraf, fire and miss, be wrestled for his rifle by Jarrah and his wife, and kill Jarrah after Shallash stabbed him in the back; his father then charged him with taking the people's allegiance and with pursuing the fugitive Yusuf al-Ibrahim. ² The Arabic article dates that night to dawn on 17 March 1896, while his father's Arabic article dates the same night of 25 Dhu al-Qa'da 1313 AH to 7/8 May 1896 — both datings are stated in the museum's records rather than merged. ^{2 3} He deputised for his father in Kuwait while Mubarak campaigned against the Rashidi amir at the Sarif campaign, and commanded Kuwait's army in his father's last years: his first expedition was the battle of Ju Lubn in 1904, and he also led Kuwait's army at Hadiya in 1910, with Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, alongside him in both expeditions, as the Arabic article recounts. ²

Jaber succeeded his father on 28 November 1915 (the night of 21 Muharram 1333 AH). His first acts were to exempt the people from the one-third tax on properties with which his father had burdened them, to return some confiscated houses to their owners, and to open the treasuries and distribute money among the people, winning their love and veneration, as the Arabic article recounts. ² When the Amir of Ha'il, Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Rashid, approached al-Jahra without notice, Jaber, fearing attack, called the Kuwaitis to arms and they rallied to him, until it emerged that al-Jahra merely lay on Ibn Rashid's road. ² In the First World War he stood in contrast to his father: more independent, he shifted his allegiance to the Ottomans and facilitated camel caravans between Kuwait and Syria and Istanbul, and toward Najd, the Hejaz and Iraq, breaking the British blockade of the eastern Mediterranean and securing vital supplies to the Ottomans in Syria, until British protests culminated in a meeting in Kuwait City on 23 November 1916 between Sir Percy Cox and Kuwait's leading men, which ended without resolution. ² He headed Kuwait's delegation to the Subayhiyya conference, at which Kuwait mediated between the Ottomans and Abdulaziz Al Saud — that conference belonging to his father's reign, as did the 1914 Kuwait conference with Cox, Abdulaziz and Sheikh Khaz'al of Mohammerah — and the English article credits him with economic reforms begun in his short reign and records his appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Star of India in the 1916 Birthday Honours, awarded on 23 November 1916. ^{2 1}

Jaber died on 5 February 1917 — dated in the Arabic article to 13 Rabi' al-Thani 1335 AH, where tabular conversion gives 12 Rabi' al-Thani — after a fever that gave him little respite, at half past three in the afternoon, and his brother and deputy Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah succeeded him with the people's allegiance. ^{2 1} By his two wives — Sheikha Sheikha bint Abdullah Al-Sabah and a daughter of Banu Khalid — he had Sheikh Ahmad, who became Kuwait's tenth ruler, Sheikha Mariam and Sheikh Hamud; his descendants are known as the Al-Jaber branch, one of the two ruling branches of Kuwait, and his son Ahmad and his branch grandsons Jaber, Sabah, Nawaf and Mishal have ruled Kuwait. ^{2 1}

This section is read as a presentation of positions reported from the sources, not as a verdict of the museum.

His contemporary, the Kuwaiti historian Abd al-Aziz al-Rashid, described him, as the Arabic article quotes: he was so forbearing that he overlooked many faults, so sound of heart that he knew neither rancour nor hatred, and his humility and his distance from injustice raised him in his subjects' eyes to the level of veneration. ² Set against that testimony stands his youthful part in the killing of his uncles, which both his own Arabic article and his father's English article recount without adjudicating. ^{2 4} The sources differ in details the museum states rather than merges: the Arabic article's First World War section says he "died in January 1917" against its own lead and death section (5 February 1917, with the English article and Wikidata); Wikidata carries a second, unsupported birth year of 1873; the Urdu stub misdates his accession to 28 February 1915; and the 1896 killing is dated 17 March in his article and the night of 7/8 May in his father's. ^{2 5 6 3} His faith is recorded as unknown as to school in his data record: none of the three articles states a religion or school for him, and his Wikidata item — unlike those of the other rulers in this group — carries no religion value at all; the absence is recorded, not filled, and the value stays unknown under the two-source rule and the doubt rule. ^{1 2 5}

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.
• Later translations and edits of this article need periodic review with clear update dates.