This paper discusses the tripartite relationship between the sheikhdoms of al-Zubayr, Kuwait, and the Najd region. These entities shared several characteristics, including common demographics due to the presence of Najdis in Kuwait and al-Zubayr and partially shared identities and cultural norms due to successive waves of migrations from Najd to both Kuwait and al-Zubayr since the seventeenth century. This paper raises the following question: What was the political and cultural impact of the southern Iraq/Northern Peninsula sheikhdom of al-Zubayr on Kuwait and Najd during the period from the 1800s to the first half of the 20th century? To investigate this relationship, I researched and analysed primary materials (both in Arabic and English), such as unpublished manuscripts, private and public archives, public documents (British and Ottomans), and oral history records. This research suggests that despite the collapse of the sheikhdom in the 1920s, historical evidence suggests that al-Zubayr had a significant impact on the political and cultural development of the region. At the intellectual level, sources point to the anti-Wahhabi movement in al-Zubayr, spearheaded by religious scholars such as Mohammed bin Fairuz. In addition, the paper shows that Zubayri intellectuals developed modern educational institutions, which had a significant impact on the development of Kuwait’s education system. The religious scholars of al-Zubaryr seemed to have a significant influence on Kuwait’s clerics, such as Abdullah AlDuhayan and Abdulaziz Alrushed in Kuwait, as well as other scholars from Najdi origins. At the political level, this paper sheds light on the role played by intermarriages, such as the alliances between the al-Sabah and al-Thaqib families. Sources also indicate that al-Zubayr offered safety and protection to Kuwait’s political opponents and vice-versa. Likewise, Najdis and Zubayris played significant roles in political disputes between Kuwait and Najd, such as those involving al-Rasheed and al-Saud. Although the sheikhdom collapsed, al-Zubayr had a lasting mark on the formation of present-day Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, this paper questions the prevailing narratives in the Gulf region, viewing Iraq as somehow disconnected from this seemingly cohesive group, and the Iraqi narrative, on the other hand, merely presenting al-Zubayr as part of al-Basra. On the contrary, historical evidence strongly suggests that al-Zubayr had a significant influence at several levels. Nonetheless, because the sheikhdom has collapsed, its significance may have been somewhat neglected by historians.