Shortlived Arms of the Emirate of Kuwait

[Marcus Karlsson]

A Coat of Arms previously unknown to me (and I guess to the greater part of all here on the Forum) the Arms of the Emirate of Kuwait in use 1956-1962.


Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

[Chris Green]

When these arms were created, Kuwait was a British Protectorate, so it is quite likely that the design was done by a British person living there, though I very much doubt if the College of Arms was ever involved. The dhow is typical of the region and falconry was a popular pastime among the wealthy. The helmet is typical of the Middle East. Strangely the achievement includes no mantling, though in Kuwait anyone who wore a helmet without it would rapidly have succumbed to heat-stroke! The red banners are a mystery (do we have an Arabist who can help?). In this region red is usually associated with the Hashemites. But the al-Sabah rulers of Kuwait are not Hashemites.

[JMcMillan]

The red banners are a mystery (do we have an Arabist who can help?). In this region red is usually associated with the Hashemites. But the al-Sabah rulers of Kuwait are not Hashemites.

The banners are one of the variant national flags of Kuwait used 1921-61. The large inscription says "Kuwait," the smaller lettering along the hoist is the Muslim creed, the shahada: "There is no god but God, Muhammad is the prophet of God." The name reads correctly on the dexter banner and is mirror-imaged on the sinister; the shahada reads correctly on both.

I don't think I'd agree that the arms were short-lived. They're still in use, just on a different shaped shield, different artistic treatment, and without the external accoutrements.



(The inscription at the top says "State of Kuwait.")

I don't think that red flags in the Arab world necessarily imply a Hashemite connection. In the Persian Gulf, at least, they are said to originate in the color of the Kharajite Ibadis of Muscat and Oman. They controlled a sizable empire in the 18th-19th centuries, including a good stretch of the Gulf littoral. All the shaykhdoms of the region flew solid red flags up to the early 1800s. White markings were added pursuant to the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 with the UK (still visible in the flags of Bahrain, Qatar, and the component emirates of the UAE except Fujayrah, which still flies solid red).

[Marcus Karlsson]

Well Joseph, the essential elements may be similar but to me they are not the same. Fore one thing the Shield has been removed, creating an emblem not a Coat of Arms.

[Chris Green]

The emblem is perhaps more typical of the region than the CoA. But the principal element of the one is still to be found in the other.

[JMcMillan]

Well Joseph, the essential elements may be similar but to me they are not the same. Fore one thing the Shield has been removed, creating an emblem not a Coat of Arms.

Can a shield not be of any shape? Does the round shield turn this coat of arms into an emblem?

[Marcus Karlsson]

The emblem is perhaps more typical of the region than the CoA. But the principal element of the one is still to be found in the other.

Yes I agree that the Emblem is more typical to the region.

[Marcus Karlsson]

Well Joseph, the essential elements may be similar but to me they are not the same. Fore one thing the Shield has been removed, creating an emblem not a Coat of Arms.

Can a shield not be of any shape? Does the round shield turn this coat of arms into an emblem?

Yes the Shield can have different shapes but still be recognisable as a Shield. Maybe I'am a bit on the conservative side, so be it, but I have hard to interpret the round area in the modern Kuwait emblem as a Shield.

[Chris Green]

I think we can be reasonably confident that the Kuwaiti government would not consider their emblem to be a shield any more than the Soviet Union considered its emblems to be shields. The Kuwaitis obviously recognise the difference between the one and the other since they include a miniature shield in the national tinctures beneath the main cartouche frame. They have of course chosen to use the principal elements of the old shield in the new emblem. I think we can agree that while there are occasions when western CoAs are depicted as round, that is not relevant here.

For those who aren't sure, a cartouche frame looks like this:



There is a remarkable resemblance:

[Jonathan Webster]

Another interesting thing about the Arms of Dominion of Kuwait during the protectorate period is that the Protectorate period is that the Kuwaiti Emir assumed them via (illuminated) Letters Patent. If you go to the fantastic heraldry site [url]hubert-herald.nl[/url] you can see a picture of the Letters Patent as well as the above picture. I particularly like that it has a Helmet and Crest; and that these are middle-eastern in flavour.

Regarding the present Arms of Kuwait, whilst I would have no trouble regarding a round shield as a shield (as indeed surely a shield can be more or less any shape, otherwise the baroque monstrosities of the 18th to early 19th century would not count as shields); but surely it is the shield at the bottom that is the Arms of Kuwait; rather than the design within the wings?