1899 Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement
A01=Asseel Al-Ragam
Author_Asseel Al-Ragam
British imperial history
British indirect rule
Category=NHG
Category=NHTQ
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
Gulf urban studies
Kuwait urban history
twentieth-century Kuwait
urban history
urban studies
Product details
- ISBN 9781399554978
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2026
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This book rethinks Gulf urbanism by placing the infrastructure, planning and spatial politics of Kuwait at the centre of analysis. Offering an alternative to oil-centred narratives, it examines the impact of British indirect rule on the built environment after the signing of the 1899 Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement. It explores how British indirect rule, regional realignments and land politics reconfigured Kuwait’s urban landscape and disrupted longstanding ties to its hinterland.
Drawing on extensive research in colonial and local archives, the book focuses on the period from 1904 to 1971, from the arrival of the first Political Agent to the British withdrawal from the Gulf. It shows how indirect rule operated through networks of intermediaries who transferred and adapted a range of administrative and planning models from across the British Empire, playing a central role in shaping urban growth while also negotiating – and sometimes containing – competing spatial futures. By situating Kuwait within imperial networks, trade routes and regional infrastructures, the book offers a new framework for understanding Gulf cities beyond oil.
Asseel Al-Ragam is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Kuwait University, where she also serves as Vice Dean for Planning, Consultation and Training, and Director of the Design Development and Research Lab. Her research focuses on the urban history and planning of Kuwait, with particular interest in knowledge circulation, sustainable urban development, public space, and socio-political dynamics in the built environment. She has held research fellowships at Sciences Po, Paris (2022–2024) and ENSA Malaquais (2011–2012), and her work has been supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) and the LSE Middle East Centre. She sits on the international advisory board of Manazir Journal and is co-author of Kuwaitscapes (2022), a public engagement card game published under a Creative Commons licence. Her publications include contributions to the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and the International Journal of Heritage Studies.
