In his work Shipmasters of Kuwait, Khaled H. Bourisly describes Hawally when it was a rural area. He writes that, “the thriving urban area of Hawally was a little village before the 1940s set in. It had many water-wells and was a major source supplying drinking water for the entire Kuwait City. During our childhood, I remember my parents taking us kids for picnics near… the lush, green areas of Hawally village. But nothing remains of that little, quaint village today. Hawally has become one of Kuwait’s major business centers and is home to shops, smalls, theater complexes, restaurants, coffee shops and apartments housing expatriates of various nationalities.”

Construction of Al Othman Mosque in Hawally began in 1958, one year after the Old City Wall was torn down. The first three photographs below come from Voice of the Oud by Jehan S. Rajab and the fourth from Kuwait Today: A Welfare State, published by the Ministry of Guidance and Information in 1964. I took the photos of the mosque above between 2020 and 21. It is interesting to see how different the surrounding area is now, although it looks like Al-Humaidiya Complex across the street might be the same.

Al Othman mosque is included in a mural located in Promenade Mall, which is shown below. The first black and white image comes from this instagram account and the second from 248. The final two images come from Kuwait: Miracle on the Desert, published by David C. Cooke in 1970, which calls Al Othman “the largest and most beautiful” mosque in Kuwait. This book was published before the Grand Mosque was built in 1986.

A postcard for sale on eBay

Another postcard

These come from The Kuwait Urbanization by Saba George Shiber.

The following are postcards found on ebay, instagram, the Tareq Rajab Museum, and delcampe.

Here is another old postcard, with Al-Othman’s door on the right. In the bottom left photograph you can see Al Muthanna school, which a modern complex was built atop beginning in 1979.

In 2022, I participated in a workshop entitled “Hawally Bound,” during which we created a map of the city. I made a block print of the Al Othman mosque’s door, which you can see below.