Sheikh Jābir al-Aḥmad al-Jābir al-Ṣabāḥ (born June 29, 1926, Kuwait City, Kuwait—died Jan. 15, 2006, Kuwait City) was a member of the rulingṢabāḥ family ofKuwait andemir (1977–2006).

Sheikh Jābir was the third son of Sheikh Aḥmad al-Jābir al-Ṣabāḥ, who ruledKuwait from 1921 to 1950. Beginning in the late 1940s he held a number of important public positions, including ministries in the government overseeing financial and economic affairs. When Iraq claimedsovereignty over newly independent Kuwait in 1961, he led a delegation to theArab League to negotiate a settlement. He becameprime minister in November 1965, and the following year he was formally designated crown prince andheir apparent to his cousin Sheikh Sạbāḥ al-Sālim al-Ṣabāḥ. By the early 1970s the emir, suffering from poor health, had handed over most of the government operations to Sheikh Jābir, and upon Sheikh Ṣabāḥ’s death, on Dec. 31, 1977, Sheikh Jābir became emir.

Early in his rule Sheikh Jābir stressed unity among Arab countries, but he soon found his policies caught in the cross fire of theIran-Iraq War (1980–88). He was also forced to deal with internaldissent, particularly from Kuwait’s Shīʿite minority, and with opposition from theNational Assembly (parliament). In 1986 he dissolved the parliament and imposed press censorship, which led to periodic protests against the economic and political power of the Ṣabāḥ family. When Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Sheikh Jābir escaped toSaudi Arabia, where he lived in exile until his return in March 1991. Pressure for reform continued, and in elections held in October 1992 opponents won a majority of seats in the National Assembly. In elections in 1996, however, pro-government forces gained some of the ground they had lost, but in May 1999 Sheikh Jābir once again dissolved the parliament. Although antigovernmentsentiment was high in the new parliament, elected in July, the opposition was divided and Sheikh Jābir retained his authority. The emir was noted for his public support for the rights of women (against the wishes of moreconservative elements in the country); in 1999 his decree to grant women theright to vote was rejected, but in 2005 women were extended the right to stand and vote in parliamentary elections. In 2001 Sheikh Jābir suffered astroke and thereafter carried out virtually no public activities.