House of Sabah

The House of Sabah (Arabic: آل صباح‎ Al Sabah) is the ruling family of Kuwait. They are a clan from the Utub tribe which migrated to Kuwait in the early 18th century, from Najd (current day Saudi Arabia). The Utub tribe is part of the larger Anizah tribal confederation. After reaching Kuwait, they entered in an alliance with the other families of the Utub such as Al-Khalifa and Al Jalahma. They have ruled Kuwait since 1718 when Sabah I became Sheikh (chief) of Kuwait. Subsequent sheikhs are the descendants of Sabah I. The sons of Sabah I were Salman, Mohammad, Mubarak, Malik and Abdullah.

The Emir of Kuwait is the head of the executive branch. He is nominated by a family council headed by the most senior and prominent members of the Al-Sabah. The leadership is not strictly hereditary and although many Emirs have succeeded their fathers, the family chooses the leader from each succeeding generation. For example, the late Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah appointed his cousin, Sheikh Sheikh Saad, as heir apparent.

The Kuwaiti parliament has a say in the appointment of the emir. Although customs prohibit the use of such measures, the parliament (per article 3 of the constitution) has a constitutional right to approve or disapprove of an emir's appointment. The parliament effectively removed then crown prince Sheikh Saad after the death of Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah in early 2006 due to Saad's inability to rule because of illness.

Some (not all) members of the ruling family receive a monthly stipend from the Amiri Diwan and a year-end bonus. The prime minister is selected by the emir of the state of Kuwait and he could be any Kuwaiti citizen. But historically all prime ministers have been appointed are from Al-Sabah family, Precedents dictate that the Al-Sabahs hold key cabinet posts such as the ministry of defense, the foreign ministry, the ministry of interior, the oil ministry and, most importantly, the office of prime minister. With an estimated multi-billion dollar fortune, mainly from oil revenues, the Al-Sabahs are known for aiding other royal houses in the region who have little or no natural resources like oil for nothing in return. In 1991, right after the Gulf War, a Time magazine article stated that the Al-Sabah family have an estimated wealth of $90 billion, with investments mostly in the United States. "The al-Sabah family by now was unimaginably rich, with an estimated wealth of some 90 billion dollars. They had invested about 50 billion dollars in the stocks of US companies." By 2010, almost 20 years later, the estimated wealth of the Al-Sabah family is unknown, but many observers predict that it has tripled, or even quadrupled over the years, as the Al-Sabah's have the largest shares in almost all the blue chip corporations in the Western world, with tens of billions of dollars invested in companies from Citibank to Daimler AG to Merrill Lynch.