A little over a century ago, Kuwait moved on camels, horses and donkeys, and on carts pulled by them. Then a car arrived — and before long it had a nickname, a poem written about it, and, a few years later, a driving test that cost two rupees.
1911: a second-hand Minerva
The researcher Basim Al-Loughani, in his book on the history of the car in Kuwait, records that the first car used in the country was imported by Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah in 1911: a second-hand Belgian Minerva. It did not last long; it kept breaking down.
1912: “the Elephant”
The second car was also a Minerva, a gift to Sheikh Mubarak from the merchant Jassim bin Mohammed Al-Ibrahim in 1912. An Indian driver came with it and taught Ali Hussein Khanfar to drive; Sheikh Mubarak then sent Khanfar to Bombay to finish his training with the Al-Ibrahim family. People called the huge machine “the Elephant”, and the poet Zain Al-Abideen Baqer wrote verses saying a stranger who saw it would take it for one.
1917: a car in private hands
Mohammed Al-Sayed Omar taught at the Mubarakiya School, went to Bombay to learn to repair watches and machinery, then worked in Basra. In 1917 he came home by steamer with a car he had bought there, an Overland — making him one of the first ordinary Kuwaitis to own one. He carried passengers in it, then hired it out to anyone who needed it.
A driving certificate for two rupees
Before Kuwait had a traffic department, Al-Sayed Omar taught people to drive and tested them himself. Whoever passed received a small slip torn from a dedicated book, with his name, trade and the date written on it and the examiner’s signature at the bottom. The fee was two rupees — one for the test, one for the certificate — and both went to him, since he answered to no government office.
When the Municipality was founded in 1929, its director, Sulaiman Al-Adsani, called him in, took over his certificate books, paid him for them and kept him on as examiner. From then on certificates came from Municipality books and were valid only with the director’s signature, and the examiner kept half the fee.
The road to Basra
In 1925 Hamed Al-Naqeeb obtained a concession from Sheikh Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to run cars between Kuwait and Basra. A joint-stock company was formed with a capital of 100,000 rupees in shares of 100 rupees each. The Kuwait News Agency dates its first passenger service to 27 February 1925, in a Ford; Al-Loughani’s book puts the first crossing on 4 Sha’ban 1344 AH. Al-Sayed Omar ran the company’s garage from its opening until 1927.
Photo: a 1911 Belgian Minerva at Autoworld in Brussels — the same make that reached Kuwait, not the car itself. Rutger van der Maar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Basim Al-Loughani, on Mohammed Al-Sayed Omar, Kuwait’s first mechanic, Al-Jarida, 6 January 2012 · on the first car used in Kuwait, from Al-Loughani’s book, Al-Rai, 28 May 2010 · Kuwait News Agency — On This Day, 27 February.
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