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The Missing Founding Father: Religious and Cultural Shifts in the Construction of Kuwait's National Narrative

Volume 12|Issue 25| Jul 2026 |Research Papers

Abstract

This study examines the religious and cultural history of Kuwait as part of a broader process of constructing the national narrative in the post-independence period. It argues that, in recent scholarship, documents are no longer treated merely as a source of facts but are instrumentalized in the production of national meaning, aimed at establishing a cultural and religious origin predating the modern state. The study argues that the issue lies not in whether a scholarly or religious presence existed in Kuwait, but in how this presence has been transformed into a foundational depth within a later national discourse. It therefore scrutinizes the conditions under which Kuwait has been described as a "seat of learning," and rereads the geographical attributions in manuscripts as flexible historical indicators rather than fixed national identities. It also examines the construction of the "founding father" in Kuwaiti cultural and religious history, interrogating the case of Uthman ibn Sanad, which reflects a modern effort to anchor the state's legitimacy and memory more than it does a pre-existing historical reality. Accordingly, advancing historical scholarship requires restoring a critical approach to documents, rather than using them to reproduce dominant narratives.

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Assistant Professor in the History Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.​

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