In an interview with the Iraqi newspaper Al-Zaman on December 19, 2002, Fakhri Shehab, who was an advisor in the financial department of the Kuwaiti government, said that when he first met the head of the department, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah in 1959, he felt that the man was born to be a leader of a state. This was years before His Highness assumed power as Emir of the State of Kuwait after the death of Sheikh Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah in 1977.
So what is the story of this man? How was he associated with Sheikh Jaber and worked under his command? What roles did he play in Kuwait until he became an immortal name in its economic and financial history?
Dr. Fakhri Ahmed Shihab is considered one of the great economic figures of Iraq, but his unstable Iraqi homeland did not benefit from his knowledge, brilliance and experience except occasionally, while Kuwait benefited, before and after its independence, from his economic philosophy in achieving a development boom that included people and stones and reflected positively on the well-being of society, present and in the future. .
Fakhri Shihab was born in Basra, in the far south of Iraq, in January 1921, where he grew up and completed his basic education. After graduating from high school in the thirties of the twentieth century, he decided to study law in order to become a lawyer or a judge, and for this purpose he moved to Baghdad and joined it in 1939 at the College of Law of the University of Baghdad, which is considered one of the oldest and oldest colleges of the university, and even boasts of its precedence over many law faculties in universities. Arab and foreign, as it was founded in 1908.
The lamentation of Jassim Al-Saqer
Among those who accompanied them in his college at the time was “Jassim Hamad Yousef Al-Saqer” (1918-2006), who would later become one of the men of economics, politics and journalism in his country, Kuwait. Let us read what Shihab himself wrote in the lamentation of the falcon at the time of his death in 2006, about the circumstances of their acquaintance and separation. “Our friendship began and lasted for sixty-seven years. We got to know each other and loved each other when we met at the beginning of the academic year at the Faculty of Law in Baghdad, days before the outbreak of World War II. We were familiar with our shared love for some subjects in the study programs and the preference of some professors over others. This friendship continued after our graduation in 1943, and the days separated us for a long time. I traveled abroad, and he returned to Basra, where he took his headquarters and contributed to its social and commercial life to a significant extent. Many friends and admirers gathered around him. Years separated us and then brought us together in Kuwait, a quarter of a century after our friendship began. This relationship continued, and we were in constant dialogue about the emerging events on the stage of Arab and international politics. We agreed on many matters and conclusions, but we differed on many others. We participated in business and disagreed as well. We met and worked together when the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development was established. He and I were the first to sit down with him to resolve the first request submitted by Jordan a day after the fund was formed, and the fund had no employees, secretariat or administration at that time. And throughout our communication, our work, our agreement and our differences, our friendship and love for each other, and our respect for each other, did not change with the change of circumstances and circumstances.
Travel to Egypt
After completing his university studies in Baghdad in 1943, Shihab felt an overwhelming desire to obtain more science and knowledge in his field of specialization, so he traveled to Egypt in 1945 to obtain a master's degree in law from Fuad I University (now Cairo), but what happened Being in Egypt, he felt an inclination to specialize in economics, and therefore he decided that economics would be the pillar of his postgraduate studies, and he had already obtained a master's degree in it.
Once again, we find that his passion for high academic achievement drives him to continue studying to obtain a doctorate degree in economics, as evidenced by his move to England for this purpose, where he joined the prestigious Oxford University, which not only awarded him a doctorate with distinction, but also hired him as a teacher in its Faculty of Economics, to enter history As the first Iraqi to study in this world-renowned university and work in it, thanks to his tireless scientific effort and his unique ability to dazzle others with his personality and culture. Noting that his employment at Oxford opened the door for him to teach in other prestigious foreign universities such as the American University of Princeton.
settle in London
Thus, the man settled in London and married there a British woman (she died years ago, and she was kind to him and supported all his living burdens), with whom he had two daughters (one of whom lives in Britain and the other resides in the United States).
During this period, specifically the late fifties of the twentieth century, Kuwait had turned into a workshop and development thanks to its huge oil revenues, and Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber was then in charge of the Finance Department concerned with economic planning and spending on development projects, so one of his assistants, the Kuwaiti oil expert, Faisal Mansour, suggested to him Al-Mazidi sought the help of the Iraqi financial expert residing in Britain, Fakhri Shihab, who has long experience and high degrees in economic and financial matters, as the name of the man was circulating at the time in Iraq and abroad as one of the Arab geniuses in the fields of economy and money.
Moving to Kuwait
Despite his comfortable life in Britain and his satisfaction with his academic work in Oxford, he preferred to respond to the call of the neighboring Arab country to his hometown as long as the latter sought to seek his experience. Accordingly, he moved from Britain to Kuwait to serve as an advisor to Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad from the late fifties until the death of His Highness in 2006. During this long period of his life, his relationship with senior Kuwaiti officials became closer, led by, of course, Sheikh Jaber, who issued an order granting him Kuwaiti nationality in 1959, so he became a holder of two nationalities. Iraqi and Kuwaiti.
In his advisory capacity, his membership in the Kuwaiti Currency Board (established by an Amiri decree in 1960 and replaced in 1968 by the Central Bank of Kuwait), and his membership in the economic work team surrounding Sheikh Jaber, and in cooperation with his colleagues, Shihab gave Kuwait the juice of his knowledge and experience, proposing many consistent proposals. with his economic philosophy. Fortunately for him and for Kuwait, most or all of his proposals were adopted, foremost of which was the need to properly utilize the state's financial surpluses.
Generations Fund
For example, he saw that Kuwait lacked natural resources and had only one resource (oil) that could be depleted sooner or later, and therefore suggested the necessity of accelerating the use of oil revenues in various forms of development and the development of natural and human infrastructure, to create supportive sources of income and spending derived from oil.
It is he who suggested the need to deduct 10% of the current income to form a reserve fund of savings for future generations, based on the latter’s right to the wealth of her country, and also to avoid any suffering in times of adversity, adversity and financial hardship. He is the owner of the idea that the government invests generously in education by sending Kuwaiti high school graduates to study abroad while covering all their expenses and basic necessities without luxuries and entertainment.
He is the one who called for the Kuwaiti government to establish a Kuwaiti fund for economic development in order for Kuwait to have a regional role in developing the least-income countries in the region and other developing Arab countries, and this is the proposal that Kuwait implemented after its independence in 1961 when the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah issued a decree establishing “Kuwait Development Fund” and the appointment of its board of directors by Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad as Chairman and Abdulaziz Al-Bahr as General Manager, and Jassim Al-Saqr, Faisal Al-Mazidi, Musaed Al-Saleh and Ahmed Sayed Omar as members (later headed by Harvard graduate Abdullatif Yousef Al-Hamad). It is worth noting that this fund, whose tasks expanded later and became similar to the World Bank, made a remarkable change in the lives of the Arab peoples, attracted talent, and employed people with high culture and experience, forming teams to identify the development needs and urgent projects of other countries.
Economic link
In addition to the above, Shihab was an economic link between Kuwait and the outside world. From his job position, he contributed during the sixties and seventies to the establishment of various financial companies that played a vital role in the prosperity and prosperity of Kuwait. Before that, he was behind the idea of establishing the Supreme Council for Planning, which was born in 1962 by virtue of Emiri Decree No. 56 as an alternative to the Construction Council, whose missions ended and the curtain came to an end in 1961. Rather, Shehab personally participated in defining the nature of the Planning Council’s work, functions and specializations, in the wake of A recommendation made by a delegation from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development that had visited Kuwait, headed by the international expert “MacDir Maud” to develop the first scientific economic report on the country’s economic path, noting that it was Shehab who suggested to the Minister of Finance Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad to bring in the international mission to develop that report.
However, the biggest work he accomplished for the benefit of Kuwait during his Kuwaiti years was engineering the process of converting the old monetary system from the Indian rupee (pre-independence currency) to the current monetary system represented in the Kuwaiti dinar, which has been adopted as a national currency since 1960. This is why he has the right to be called « Godfather of the Kuwaiti Dinar,” and that this title becomes synonymous with his name, along with other titles such as “Kuwaiti Economics Engineer” and “Economics Monk.”
Shihab remained residing in Kuwait, living alone, rejecting all attempts by his two daughters to join them and reside with them in the West, preferring seclusion and loneliness while continuing to provide his economic and financial advice to whoever he wanted, and being keen to supply the Arab and foreign press and academic periodicals with political and economic articles in the three languages that he was fluent in ( Arabic, English and French). Meanwhile, Samirah was a writer, radio, fine foreign songs, classical music, and a hobby of writing Sufi poems.
Geriatrics
In his later years – and despite his interest in his health and his avoidance of eating meat of all kinds and his keenness to take a long sleep every day – he suffered from old age diseases, so his hearing and vision weakened and his movement decreased, which forced him to seek the services of an Indian young man who hired him to come to his house daily in order to read It has the latest and freshest versions of international press news. He also hired two women of Indian nationality to take turns taking care of him and taking care of his food and grooming, so they performed their duties well, especially in light of Shihab’s treatment of them with sophistication, civility and paternal tenderness.
Shehab continued in this manner, contented without complaining of any serious health problems, and happy with the few surviving acquaintances who used to ask about him from time to time (including Kuwaitis who used to come to him every year to celebrate his birthday, out of love, loyalty, and appreciation). for what he gave to Kuwait).
However, on the evening of Tuesday, October 11, 2022, he suddenly suffered a sudden health crisis, as a result of which he passed away at the age of 101. It was natural, in the case of a person like him, for social media to ignite with the news of his passing, with grief, lamentation and remembrance of his exploits and the nobility of his morals, and a supplication that the Lord bless him with the abundance of his mercy. For example, Souad Fahd Al-Mojel, a writer for the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas and a former professor at Kuwait University, called him, saying, “He moved to the other world and in peace, Dr. Fakhri Shehab. We had celebrated his 101st birthday with him last February. They leave and leave a void that no one else can fill. The late is an economist par excellence and was responsible for converting the Kuwaiti currency from the rupee to the dinar.
His status among the princes and sheikhs of Kuwait
In an indication of his position with the princes and sheikhs of Kuwait, which he loved and devoted to and refused to leave, and out of pride in what he presented to their country of great deeds, His Highness the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber, sent a telegram of condolence to the family of Dr. Shihab, in which he expressed his sincere condolences and sincere condolences on the death of their loss, His Highness recalled his life's journey full of giving and his contributions to setting the frameworks of the country's economic system.
A year before his death, specifically on the third of January 2021, a delegate from the Kuwaiti newspaper “Al-Rai” visited him in his silo in the Al-Shaab Al-Bahri area to conduct a dialogue with him and learn about his conditions. What was mentioned in the newspaper report was that Shihab donated to the University of Oxford, which awarded him his doctorate, his rare collection of Persian antiques and carpets, in fulfillment and gratitude for its favor to him, and that our friend stays up at night, wakes up at the ends of the day, and his day does not begin until six in the evening, and that Kuwait for him is distinct from All other Middle Eastern countries in many things he tried to highlight through his articles in English. As the newspaper told us, Shihab startled her envoy at the end of the interview by asking, “Why didn’t you ask me about my crimes?” When he asked him about his crimes, his answer was, “Many, including that I lied a lot during my childhood years.”
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the list of jobs held by the late included – except for what we mentioned above – his work as a consultant for more than one side. He worked as an economic advisor to the United Nations Secretariat, an economic and financial advisor to the Iraqi Council of Ministers, the Iraqi government, the Government of Panama, and the Japanese Mitsui Company in Tokyo and London, which is one of the largest general trading companies in Japan.
The most prominent works in which he participated:
Architect of currency conversion process from rupee to dinar
Behind the idea of establishing the Supreme Council for Planning
Create a reserve fund of savings for generations
Written by: Dr. Abdullah Al-Madani abu_taymour@