A photograph I took on Failaka in January of 2023 holding a small copy of Failaka Island by Jehan Rajab, an art piece created by Dana Al Rashid, an image from this twitter thread that mentions Khidr

In the northwest of Kuwait’s Failaka Island used to stand a maqam (or shrine) dedicated to Al Khidr (alternatively spelled in English as Khizr, Khader, Khudhur). He is a mysterious figure best known for his interactions with Prophet Musa in verses 65-82 of Surah Al-Kahf, the 18th chapter of the Qur’an. In Where the Two Seas Meet, Hugh Talat Halman writes that, “in the Qur’anic story of Moses and the long-lived ‘green man,’ Moses follows al-Khidr on a journey of teaching and companionship that repeatedly tests his patience. In that journey al-Khidr teaches Moses about the mysteries of death, divine justice, predestination, and divine mercy.” The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) reported that, “al-Khidr was named the ‘green man’ because, when he sat on barren land, the ground would turn green with vegetation.”

Al-Khidr is believed by many to be immortal and there are many places around the world that are associated with him. According to Nirmala Janssen, who wrote this Gulf News article, Khidr stayed on Failaka Island, “for some time to make the island verdant and provide it with the underground fresh water that Failaka enjoys even though the mainland was parched.” Jehan Rajab writes in Failaka Island that, “local lore had it that Al Khidr, on route to Friday prayer in Mekkah, stopped every Thursday night in Failaka.” In her thesis dissertation, Zubaydah Ali M. Ashkanani explains that since it was believed Khidr stopped at Failaka on Thursday, people would stay the entire night there; perhaps Khidr would appear in their dreams and their prayers would be answered. She writes, “Khidre (khidre is a derivitive of akhdar, which means green)… is an immortal “wall” i.e. saint. He symbolizes fertility and and greenery. Khidre was known to perform many miracles, such as giving a child to someone who has not been able to have one for a long time, treating hopeless cases of sickness and saving ships in stormy and violent seas.”

These images come from Persian manuscripts, which you can read more about here

In his thesis The Archaeology of Kuwait, Majed Almutairi writes that the maqam was built in the late 19th century, “by a rich Saudi woman who was married to a man from Failaka Island. The purpose of this construction was to be a lighthouse located on a high-ground to guide ships to port that were passing near this part of the island where there are coral reefs and dangerous rocks. She also ordered a well to be dug near this building. After her death another woman took over the building and she told the story that there is a carved rock with a picture of a pot and stick belonging to al-Khidr. This place became a shrine, which some people make a pilgrimage to, often sacrificing sheep and asking for help. Locally, the Al-Khidr shrine was known to protect fishermen and cure disease and problems, such as infertility.”

In 1908, John Gordon Lorimer wrote in Gazetteer Of The Persian Gulf,

“there is the Muqam-al-Khidhar, which overlooks the boat harbour of Zor, and is now a roofless tower threatened by the encroachments of the sea. Persians do not resort to it but it is frequented by Arab sailors who come to perform their vows, made in sickness or in danger at sea, by sacrificing a sheep or a goat, by burning incense and by feeding the poor. The tutelary spirit is probably the same Khidhar who has a shrine on Abbadan island; in Failakah, however, his reputation is chiefly as a patron saint of mariners”

Image from Failaka Island in the Postcards by Dr. Hassan Ashkanani, it is part of this archive

Almutairi continues, “In the 1930s, the island’s governor ordered the destruction of this building because of the ‘unrealistic actions’ of some people. This destruction left only a pile of stones. Shortly after, some people started collecting the stones and practicing their beliefs again.”

In 1937, the English travel writer Freya Stark visited Kuwait. In her work Baghdad Sketches, she describes the country as, “nothing but desert and sea.” Stark also details visiting Failaka,

“the island… carries in its atmosphere a feeling of Echo, of something that has vanished not by violence but imperceptibly, so that an intangible essence still hangs in the air… Khizr has the privilege of never having died so that his body is nonexistent and his abode uncertain, and he is inconveniently independent of a tomb. Shrines, however, are built which he sometimes visits. His festival on Failichah is in the spring time, ‘when the old year turns to the new,’ and it used to be a goal for pilgrims, especially from Persia and Baluchistan… the little square room and egg-shaped dome above it have crumbled to their original mud has been rebuilt many times, and their origin is forgotten… The Sunnis of Failichah, half deprecating the idolatrous flavour of the worship, half anxious not to offend some unknown sanctity, have marked the way to the shrine with small heaps of seaweed along the open shore–an offering touching in its poverty–and rebuild the shrine itself with money sent by grateful mothers, so that their minute temple stands in ever-renewed loneliness and newness, like a small human query uplifted against the flatness of the landscape and the sea”

1 Voice of the Oud by Jehan Rajab (she states this was taken in ’37, so it was likely taken by Stark), 2 Mohammed Alkouh, 3 Baghdad Sketches by Freya Stark, 4 Kuwait by the First Photographers (photograph by Stark)

Here is a video I made in December of 2024 using Stark’s description:

In 1958, P.V. Glob and Geoffrey Bibby went to Failaka as part of the Danish Archaeological Expedition. During their time on the island, they visited the shrine. Majed Almutairi writes that Glob, “described people sacrificing sheep with women putting their hands in the sheep’s blood and staining the shrine walls to cure disease. Also he stated that there was Bronze Age pottery on site.” Later excavations uncovered more than 70 Dilmunite stamp seals and other ancient artifacts at the site.

Glob published Al-Bahrain: De danske ekspeditioner til oldtidens Dilmun in 1968. The following is a section from his work, but it has been translated from Danish using google translate, so likely contains some inaccuracies:

“The first night, a full moon, we spent at Failaka, a group of women and children had just come across the sea to the island to offer their wishes and sacrifices to al Khidr. The sanctuary itself, which lies on one of the outermost rocks, is a cylindrical tower a few meters high, built of stone and cement. In the middle of the flat top, which is surrounded by a wall, stands a smaller cone-shaped tower, which is open to the east, from which a staircase leads up to the platform. If the women had stayed there, there were always clear traces of the slaughter of goats or sheep. Blood had flowed down the steps and the imprints of the women’s bloody hands were on the whitewashed insides of the tower wall, where new writings in blood or coal had been added to the earlier ones. Incense had been burned in a hole in the small tower. Broken rosewater bottles lay scattered about on the ground. Struck between the stones of the tower were small tufts of hair. A new banner of the sacred green color hung over it. That the site of al-Khidr’s sanctuary is an ancient cult site is shown by numerous clay vessels on the surface from both the Dilmun culture and the Greek settlement, but the area is covered by old Islamic graves and therefore cannot be examined. However, there is the possibility of excavation in the near future, where remarkable finds undoubtedly lie hidden beneath the surface.”

Bibby published Looking for Dilmun in 1969. He wrote,

“surely the women who pass the Tuesday night vigil at the shrine of Al-Khidr in prayer for a child are also seeking immortality of a sort. And the faith that their prayers will be answered is one with that which led Gilgamesh, forty-five centuries ago, across the seas to the servant of the Horned One, to Ziusdura, the immortal dweller in Dilmun.”

From Bibby’s work, and P.V. Glob’s

In 1929, a man named Harold Dickson was appointed the British Political Agent to Kuwait. In her work Voice of the Oud, Jehan Rajab tells us that Dickson visited Failaka for the first time in 1935. He died in 1959, but his wife Violet continue to live in Kuwait until she was evacuated during the invasion in 1990. In 1971, Dickson published a book entitled Forty Years in Kuwait. She writes,

“the ancient shrine of Al Khidr is situated on a promontory on the western shore of Failaka island some distance away from the village. After its demolition two decades ago because of rumors of immortality there, it has slowly been restored but not in its original form. Today there exists a surrounding wall plastered over with white lime from the base rocks up to about six feet above the floor of the shrine. The inner side of the wall is plastered and smeared with henna, but not handprints. In the center of this enclosure there is a small… shrine about three feet in height, with a square base and pointed top in which a flag-pole stands, with pieces of green silk flag and black bits of thin veil hanging limply to it in the hot sunlight. A small opening in the base of the altar permits incense to be burnt on the charcoal embers. A strong perfume of rosewater exists, and smashed on the rocks below the shrine are the remains of green glass rosewater bottles of Persian origin. At times, pieces of women’s hair can be found tied in a piece of black veiling to the flag pole, and before the surrounding wall was plastered over clumps of women’s hair could be seen tucked away among the rough stones. This custom I would say is done possibly to fulfill a vow made on some previous visit or else to atone for some sin–as is done by women on the great Pilgrimage to Mecca. On the steps leading up to the shrine were stains of blood where sacrifices were frequently being offered, again in fulfillment of vows.”

1 this article, 2 this article, 3/4/5 Failaka Island by Jehan Rejab, 6 Alymamah

In 1972, the American archaeologist Theresa Howard Carter published The John Hopkins University Reconnaissance Expedition to the Arab-Iranian Gulf. She wrote, “the site is named for the shrine of al-Khidir (St. George)… barren women still worship at the circular polychrome plastered edifice. An artificial breakwater extends the land beyond the shrine, affording a better-protected harbor.” That same year, Zahra Freeth (the daughter of Violet and Harold), published Kuwait: Prospect and Reality. On the shrine, she writes,

“During their first reconnaissance, the archaeologists noticed the shrine of Al-Khidr, the Green Man. It had been destroyed several times, but the inhabitants had always rebuilt it and their Shia brethren from far and wide, even as far as India, continued to visit it to play homage to the Green Man, and to plead for the propagation of male children. Was its significance any deeper than the idolatry of which the Sunni Muslims of the mainland accused its adherents?”

1 The John Hopkins University Reconnaissance Expedition by Carter, 2 Alymamah, 3 seen on reddit

It was reported that people came from as far as Kharg Island to visit the shrine and that, “the Maqam was kept clean and well maintained by Salha Al Bnaya (Salha the Girl). She was a slave woman from Africa and she never married and devoted herself completely to Al Khidr and to helping other women. Salha Al Bnaya took care of the place until she died.” In Acquiring Modernity, Dana Aljouder writes, “rumors of archives travel through word of mouth, much like the oral storytelling of our ancestors. Other times, officials hoard information and lock it away, such as the Khudhur Shrine documentary: a silent film of a woman dancing in front of the Shrine, owned by the Amiri Diwan. Speculations abound regarding the protection of the film. Did they bury it because of the dancing female or the pagan Shrine?”

These images come from Voice of the Oud by Jehan Rajab

In 1976, the government ordered the permanent destruction of the shrine. Below is a map drawn by H.R.P. Dickson that shows where it once stood. Ashkanani reported that in 1985, a military observation post was built on the site and people were prohibited from visiting. Janssen writes,

“The Maqam is gone. In its place lie some of the green painted coral stones that once made up the spiral monument. Only old photographs and memories in a fast fading generation remain. The memory of Salha Al Bnaya, however, is alive in the sign of a nearby resort that is developing quickly. Motel Salha Al Bnaya the red and white sign reads.”