Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History as a Living Inheritance
The history of Qatar, in many respects, is the history of the Bedouin, who traverse a land
'taking only memories, and leaving only footprints', footprints that are dusted away by
frequent sandstorms. As such, history in Qatar is easier to spot in the living rather than the
dead, for example, by the racing of camels at Al-Shahaniya, the trading of falcons in
Doha's souqs, the hospitality towards guests in the coffeehouses of the city, and the build-
ing of camps (albeit with TV aerials and 4WDs) in the sand dunes of Khor al-Adaid.
Documents indicate that Qatar played an important role in the early spread of Islam
through the assembling of a naval fleet used to transport the warriors of the Holy Jihad.
Again, however, Islam is carried rather more stoutly in the conservatism of the modern
people than in any monuments to that era.
Even the Portuguese, who left forts in every country in the Gulf like modern business-
men leave calling cards, bequeathed only hearsay to Qatar's coast line. The Turks helped
drive out the Portuguese in the 16th century and Qatar remained under the nominal rule of
the Ottoman Empire (and the practical governance of local sheikhs) for more than four
centuries. Yet the comings and goings of even that great empire have made little impres-
sion on Qatar's sands of time, metaphorically or physically. Indeed, what is remarkable
about the history of Qatar is not what has been left behind but the almost magical erasure
of any visible sign of 6000 years of its human evolution.
Al-Thani Family Dynasty
and the British
The transience of historical record changes in the mid-18th century with the arrival of the
ruling Al-Thani family. Al-Khalifa (the current ruling family of Bahrain) controlled much
of the Peninsula until the arrival, in the mid-18th century, of the charismatic Al-Thani
family, which remains in power to this day.
Al-Thani is a branch of the ancient Tamim tribe of central Arabia. Originally they were
nomadic Bedu, but the region's sparse vegetation led them to settle in the Peninsula's
coastal areas around Zubara, where they fished and dived for pearls. The first Al-Thani
emir, Sheikh Mohammed bin Thani, established his capital at Al-Bida in the mid-19th
century, thereby laying the foundations of modern Doha.
Sheikh Mohammed strengthened his position against other local tribes by signing a
treaty with the British in 1867. In 1872 the second Al-Thani emir, Jasim, signed a treaty
with the Turks allowing them to build a garrison in Doha (Doha Fort). The Turks were ex-
pelled under the third Al-Thani emir, Sheikh Abdullah (the emir who lived in the palace
