Poet and businessman : Abd al-Aziz al-Babtain and the formation of modern Kuwait

This book reviews and analyses the modern history of Kuwait by telling the story of Abd al-Aziz Sa’ud al-Babtain (b. 1936), a businessman, philanthropist, and poet whose own story closely interweaves with the history of the state. ’The Poet and Businessman’ takes a uniquely wide-ranging view of this history and is a rare study of an individual from a generation in the Gulf who experienced it firsthand and witnessed the benefits of the discovery of oil. It was this discovery, which came with costs alongside the many benefits, that has played a crucial part in the socio-economic and cultural development of Kuwait and across the wider Gulf region. Constructing an overview of the modern history of Kuwait in parallel with the life of Abd al-Aziz Sa’ud al-Babtain, Stenberg succeeds in filling a lacuna in contemporary scholarship on the Middle East, especially on a neglected area of Arabian history. The result is a balanced account of the state of Kuwaitenriched by the story of a remarkable and influential individual.