The painting above comes from Kuwait: Arts and Architecture

The name “Kuwait” is derived from the word “Kut” which means “small fort,” a reference to a historic structure. In Shipmasters of Kuwait, Khaled Bourisly writes that a small fort was built in 1613 and that, “this year is often used in historical texts to mark the beginning of Kuwait as a small nation.” In the early modern period, tribes known as the Bani Utub from the Najd region of present-day Saudi Arabia migrated to what is now Kuwait. At the time, the Bani Khalid controlled the region. According to Jehan S. Rajab in her work Voice of the Oud, Ottoman authorities at this time referred to the region as “The Land of the Tribes” and it was considered a “wilderness” outside the Ottoman Empire. According to Farah Al Nakib in her work Kuwait Transformed, when the Bani Utub arrived, there were some fishermen’s forts and the small fort. With time, the settlement grew and by the mid 18th century, the Sabah family was selected to provide political leadership to the town. Nakib goes on to say that when the Sabah family came to power, they began to inhabit the fort. Unfortunately, nothing of this structure remains.

According to Mubarak Al Sabah: The Foundation of Kuwait by Souad Al Sabah, during the reign of Sheikh Mubarak al-Sabah (r. 1896 – 1915), “Kuwait underwent a wide-ranging process of social change. The first state school was founded, inaugurating modern education in the country, the first national welfare society was created, and the first hospital was established to provide healthcare for all.” At the turn of the century, American Christian missionaries were active in the Gulf region. According to the paper The Arabian Mission’s Effect on Kuwait Society by Khaled Albateni, a group of students from New Brunswick Seminary established the “Arabian Mission” in 1890. They published a magazine called Neglected Arabia (later Arabia Calling) and founded stations in Basra, Amarah, Muscat, Bahrain, and Kuwait. In Kuwait, they built the country’s first hospital.

The older photograph below is in a work by Sulaiman Al Awadhi. The newer one comes from this website.

Roberto Fabbri writes in his article Fragmentarium, “the American Mission Hospital was built by the Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church. The land was granted in 1911 by the late Amir Mubarak at the far edge of town after a missionary doctor successfully operated on his daughter. The missionary regarded Kuwait as the door to evangelize Arabia, but their aspiration was met with skepticism from the local population. The first medical facility was erected between 1913 and 1914… in steel frames and concrete… the technique aroused great interest in a city habitually built in mud bricks.” According to An Illustrated History of Kuwait, the location of the hospital is on the possible site of the earlier kut. Over time, the simple structure was made larger and more complex, with its distinctive arches, as you can see below.

The photographs above come from Yarmouk Cultural Center and this website

The first male doctor to work at the American Missionary Hospital was Dr. Arthur Bennett and the first female doctor was Dr. Eleanor Calverley, who was known in Kuwait as Khatun Halima. Fabbri continues, “the last construction in the compound, Mylrea Memorial was inaugurated in October 1955. Al-Amricani remained operational until 1967 when it was deemed obsolete and subsequently closed.” After the hospital closed, the building served as a location for Family Bookshp for a time. According to 248, “the Family Bookshop started off as bible shops around the region by the Danish Missionary Society with the one in Kuwait opening up in 1910. There were two Family Bookshops in Kuwait. One at the American Mission Hospital (now the Amricani Culture Center) which opened in 1969.”

Beginning with the First Master Plan, much of “Old Kuwait” was destroyed, but the American Missionary Hospital was spared, although it sat vacant for many years.

These images come from Voice of the Oud, this website, A 25 Year Era of Kuwait’s Modern Advancement

In Mobilities of Architecture, Lukask Stanek writes that, in the 1980s “calls abounded… to preserve the little that was left of the old Kuwait [prefigured by some forewarnings by Saba George Shiber in the 1960s]. The 1981 revision of the master plan declared the Behbehani compound, the American mission, the traditional suq and part of the Sharq frontage as conservation areas. The Al-Ghanim Dasman, the Naif Palace and all historical mosques were to be preserved.” The old hospital was renovated, here’s what it looks like today:

Since 2011, the old American Missionary Hospital has housed a wonderful museum as part of Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah (“House of Islamic Antiquities”). According to Kuwait: Arts and Architecture, A Collection of Essays, Sheikh Nasser, “began collecting in 1975 with the primary aim of returning Islamic objects to Islamic soil. He and his wife assembled over 20,000 pieces.” They placed their collection, known as Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, in the National Museum in 1983. “The collection drew Islamic art scholars from across the globe.” When Iraq invaded in 1990, some pieces were out of the country on an international exhibition. The pieces in the National Museum were, “carted off to Iraq ‘for safekeeping.’ Immediately after the liberation of Kuwait, negotiations began between the UN and Kuwait concerning the restitution.” DAI hosts annual Cultural Seasons, during which they organize lectures, musical performances, workshops and more.

A few decades after the American Missionary Hospital was opened, the Kuwaiti government built the first state-led hospital. According to An Illustrated History of Kuwait, the hospital (known as the “Old Amiri Hospital”) opened in 1949. The 1951 Illustrated London News article below was found on alamy and the postcard on eBay. Roberto Fabbri writes that, “the traditional local typology was the courtyard house, introverted and centripetal towards the inner patio” which can be seen with the design of this building. The hospital remained in operation until 1970.

The ruins of that historic hospital stand beneath Tijaria Tower today. You used to be able to walk right in to explore, but now there is a protective gate around it. In her article Souq Brutal, Sara Saragoça Soares writes of the nostalgia that developed for older buildings after the invasion, saving them for demolition.

You can see more photographs of the abandoned hospital in this flickr gallery, in this video, and on the blog of Maha Alessa. On this instagram post, Maha Alessa shares some pictures of a school in Qatar that is almost identical to the old Amiri hospital in Kuwait. These photos were taken in 2005 and come from the flickr of Simon W. They show the hospital before it had a protective gate around it.