[1][2] Prior to settling in Kuwait, the Al Sabah family were expelled from Umm Qasr in southern Iraq by the Ottomans due to their predatory habits of preying on caravans in Basra and trading ships in Shatt al-Arab.

[1] According to another oral tradition, told to the Political Agent by Shaikh Abdulla, the Sabahs fled drought in central Arabia in the early 1700s.

The government was able to direct an underground armed resistance made up of both military and civilian forces and was able to provide public services to the Kuwaiti people who remained, such as emergency care through the funds that it had saved from oil revenues.

[6] In the meantime, Sheikh Jaber and his government lobbied to receive military support action against Iraq before and during the Gulf War.

When the war ended on 28 February 1991, Sheikh Jaber remained in Saudi Arabia while declaring three months of martial law.

[15] Since then, "numerous associates of his have been targeted and detained by the Kuwaiti authorities on various charges,"[11] most notably members of the so-called "Fintas Group" that had allegedly been the original circulators of the fake coup video.

[11][16] In December 2015, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad was convicted of "disrespect to the public prosecutor and attributing a remark to the country's ruler without a special permission from the emir's court," issuing a suspended six-month prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti Dinar.

[25] In July 2020, the US Department of Justice filed an asset forfeiture claim against The Mountain Beverly Hills and other real property in the United States, alleging a group of three Kuwaiti officials, including Sheikh Khaled Al Jarrah, set up unauthorized accounts in the name of the country's Military Attache Office in London, known as the 'Army Fund.'

[27] On 13 April 2021, a Kuwaiti court ordered the detention of former prime minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah on corruption charges related to the 'Army Fund.

[28] Chieftain Sheikhs of the House of Sabah have been leading the Military of Kuwait since the early establishment of defense infantry and cavalry forces.