🇶🇦 Qatar

Abandoned coastal settlements in Qatar have yielded Mesopotamian material from the Ubaid period, with Al Da'asa the most important such site. It is believed to have served as a small seasonal encampment, evidencing the peninsula's earliest links to the wider Gulf world.

Sasanid rule drew Qatar into imperial commerce, with the peninsula supplying at least two commodities: precious pearls and purple dye. Under Sasanid reign Christianity spread through eastern Arabia, monasteries were built, and the region became known as Beth Qatraye.

The Muslim conquest of Persia in the middle of the seventh century brought down the Sasanian Empire. Qatar thereby passed definitively out of Persian imperial control and into the Islamic caliphate.

Muhammad sent a Muslim envoy to the eastern Arabian ruler Munzir ibn Sawa Al-Tamimi requesting that he and his subjects accept Islam. Munzir obliged, and most Arab tribes of the region converted, permanently reorienting Qatar's religious and cultural identity.

Exploiting its commercially strategic position in the Gulf, Qatar developed into a pearl-trading centre. Pearling would remain the peninsula's economic foundation for over a millennium, until the twentieth century.

Abbasid-era prosperity from pearling and the Basra-to-India shipping route funded over 100 stone-built houses, two mosques and a fort at Murwab. Chinese porcelain, West African coins and Thai artefacts found in Qatar attest to the reach of this trade, which declined as the caliphate's fortunes waned in Iraq.

Much of eastern Arabia was controlled by the Usfurids in 1253 before the prince of Ormus took the region in 1320. Qatar's pearls provided the kingdom with one of its main sources of income.

Portugal reduced Ormus to vassalage in 1515 and went on to seize a significant portion of eastern Arabia in 1521. Following the Portuguese conquest of Bahrain and the fall of the Jabrid dynasty, the Arabian coast up to Al Hassa came under Portuguese rule.

In 1550 Al-Hasa's inhabitants accepted Ottoman authority rather than Portuguese domination. Ottoman attempts to dominate the wider region were nonetheless checked by the Portuguese reconquest of the castle of Tarout, or Al Qatif, in 1551.

A Portuguese map by Luis Lázaro depicted the 'city of Qatar' as a fortress, possibly the fort of Ruwayda. It is the earliest known representation of the peninsula on a European chart.

Having retained only a negligible military presence, the Ottomans were driven out by the Bani Khalid tribe and their emirate. Bani Khalid authority over the peninsula thereafter remained weak.

Members of the Al Khalifa of the Utub tribal confederation settled at Zubarah while Bani Khalid authority over the peninsula was weak. The settlement became the base from which the family later dominated both Qatar and Bahrain.

Allied Arab tribes based in Qatar took Bahrain in 1783, after which the Al Khalifa imposed their authority there while retaining jurisdiction over Zubarah. Qatar was thereafter treated as a dependency of Bahrain for some eighty years.

Sworn in as crown prince of the Emirate of Diriyah, Saud moved to extend Wahhabi territory to the Persian Gulf and Qatar, defeating the Bani Khalid in 1795. The Wahhabi were then attacked on two fronts by the Ottomans and Egyptians in the west and the Al Khalifa and Omanis in the east.

When the Wahhabi amir thinned his garrisons in Bahrain and Zubarah to meet the Egyptian advance, Said bin Sultan struck the eastern coast and set fire to Zubarah's fort. The Al Khalifa were effectively restored to power thereafter.

The bombardment destroyed the town and forced hundreds of residents to flee. It marked the first significant British military intervention in Qatari affairs.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Thani established the House of Thani and became its first leader, founding the dynasty that has ruled Qatar ever since and providing a local focus of authority distinct from the Al Khalifa of Bahrain. The family's accession to the throne in 1878 is commemorated as National Day, and Qatar later became a British protectorate in 1916.

The Al Khalifa and the ruler of Abu Dhabi sent a naval force against Qatari rebels at Al Wakrah, looting both towns in violation of the Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship of 1861. The Qatari counter-attack and the scale of the hostilities drew direct British intervention.

Pelly censured Bahrain for breaching its agreement and negotiated directly with Qatari sheikhs represented by Mohammed bin Thani. The resulting peace treaty implicitly recognised Qatar as separate from Bahrain and acknowledged Mohammed bin Thani's position, the first stage in Qatar's development as a sheikhdom.

Military and political pressure from the Ottoman governor of the Vilayet of Baghdad brought Qatar under Ottoman authority. The Ottomans imposed Tanzimat reforms on taxation and land registration to integrate the area into the empire, despite local tribal disapproval.

Constantinople declined to support Al Thani's expedition against Abu Dhabi-occupied Khor Al Adaid, fearing British intervention. The rebuff soured Qatari-Ottoman relations, deepened further when the Ottomans backed Mohammed bin Abdul Wahab's attempt to supplant Al Thani as kaymakam in 1888.

Believing the Ottomans sought to usurp control of the peninsula, Jassim renounced his office and withheld taxation. The open breach precipitated the Ottoman punitive expedition of the following year.

After Mehmed Hafiz Pasha imprisoned Jassim's brother and 13 tribal leaders and sent 200 troops against Al Wajbah Fort, Qatari infantry and cavalry drove them back through Shebaka to Al Bidda, besieging and forcing their surrender. Though Qatar did not gain full independence, the resulting treaty formed the basis of its emergence as an autonomous country within the Ottoman Empire.

Under the convention the Ottomans undertook to abandon their claim and withdraw the Doha garrison. The outbreak of the First World War meant nothing was done to carry it out, and the dwindling garrison remained in the fort.

With British gunboats in the harbour, the pro-British Abdullah convinced the remaining Ottoman troops to leave; British troops arriving next morning found the fort deserted. Ottoman rule in Qatar was ended in practice.

The treaty brought Qatar under Britain's Trucial System of Administration, reserving foreign affairs and defence to the United Kingdom while allowing internal autonomy. Britain guaranteed protection from aggression by sea and deliberately vague 'good offices' against attack by land.

The introduction of cultured pearls destroyed the market for Gulf natural pearls, collapsing Qatar's principal industry. The peninsula was left economically destitute until oil revenues arrived after the Second World War.

Alongside the concession, Abdullah signed a treaty with the British government granting Qatar protection against internal as well as external threats. The concession opened the way to petroleum exploration on the peninsula.

Oil was found in the Dukhan Field at the end of the 1930s, but exploitation and development were delayed by the Second World War. The find laid the foundation of the hydrocarbon economy that transformed the country.

Commercial oil exports began in 1949 from the Dukhan field, discovered a decade earlier, and revenues quickly replaced the declining pearl trade as the country's principal income. The money funded the country's first government departments, public services and the expansion and modernisation of Qatar's infrastructure through the 1950s. In the same year the appointment of John Wilton as the first British political officer in Doha strengthened Anglo-Qatari relations.

The announcement prompted Qatar to join talks with Bahrain and seven Trucial States on a Federation of Arab Emirates. Regional disputes led Qatar and Bahrain to withdraw and pursue separate statehood, while the remaining states formed the United Arab Emirates.

The first census of the independent era counted a population of just over 111,000, following earlier Ottoman-era urban enumerations of 9,830 in 1892. The figure marks the baseline against which Qatar's extraordinary later population growth is measured.

The provisional constitution declared Qatar an independent, Arab and Islamic state with sharia as its basic law. Khalifa bin Hamad was named prime minister the following month, establishing the machinery of a sovereign government.

Sheikh Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani announced independence on 1 September 1971, and Qatar became fully sovereign two days later after Britain ended its Gulf protection treaties. He was deposed by his cousin Khalifa bin Hamad the following February.

Qatar terminated its special treaty arrangements with the United Kingdom by agreement and became fully independent on 3 September 1971, ending arrangements inconsistent with full international responsibility as a sovereign state. Ahmad bin Ali announced independence from his villa in Switzerland, as Qatar moved from a British protectorate noted mainly for pearling to a state with significant oil and natural gas revenues.

Khalifa took power with the tacit support of Britain, Saudi Arabia and the House of Al Thani. The change consolidated rule in the hands of the branch of the family that would govern the modern state.

Qatar University remains the oldest and largest institution of higher education in the country. Its establishment began the domestic development of a skilled national workforce.

The council was established with five other Arab states of the Persian Gulf in response to regional instability following the Iranian revolution and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War. It remains the main framework for Gulf diplomatic and economic coordination.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s the Qatari economy was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum revenues by Amir Khalifa, who had ruled the country since 1972.

Qatari forces took part in the Gulf War coalition against Iraq, with Qatari tanks rolling through Khafji in January 1991 and providing fire support to Saudi National Guard units engaging Iraqi troops in one of the war's largest ground engagements. Qatar also hosted coalition aircraft from the United States, France and Canada, establishing its role as a Western military partner.

The $1.5 billion first phase of the North Field project boosted the economy and began the exploitation of the world's third-largest proven gas reserves. North Field gas underpinned the record economic growth of the following decades.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani seized power from his father Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad in a bloodless coup on 27 June 1995 while his father was abroad, backed by the armed forces, the cabinet, neighbouring states and France. An unsuccessful counter-coup followed in 1996. Hamad launched a period of moderate liberalisation, establishing the Al Jazeera news network in 1996 and introducing Qatar's first written constitution, approved by referendum in 2003.

Qatar launched the pan-Arab satellite news network Al-Jazeera in 1996 under Amir Hamad, beginning as an Arabic news and current affairs channel and growing into a global network of speciality channels. It became the principal instrument of Qatari soft power and regional influence, alongside Qatar's pursuit of a leadership role in mediating regional conflicts.

The services, suspended amid regional airspace restrictions triggered by Iranian attacks, restarted on 8 August 2026. The airline said passengers should check for updates as Gulf carriers continued adjusting schedules after months of war-related disruption.

The service, unveiled on 7 July 2026, lets passengers move through key checkpoints using facial recognition instead of presenting a passport or boarding pass at each stage. It forms part of a wider push towards paperless air travel.

The former emir, who ruled Qatar from 1995 to 2013 and turned the country into a major energy, investment and diplomatic power, died on 12 July 2026. He handed power to his son, the current emir Sheikh Tamim, in a peaceful transfer 13 years earlier.

Explosions were heard in the Qatari capital on 17 July 2026 after a ceasefire collapsed and fighting between Washington and Tehran resumed, with a child injured by shrapnel. Iran also struck US-linked sites in Bahrain and Kuwait the same week.

Of the total, 3.02 million were foreign expatriates and migrant workers, with citizens a small minority. Foreign workers constitute around 95 per cent of the labour force and continue, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to face abuses under a restrictive Kafala system.

The vessel was hit on 1 April 2026 about 17 nautical miles north of the industrial port; one of the projectiles failed to explode, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said. The incident reflected wider disruption to Gulf shipping during the war.

The ministry lifted restrictions on 12 April 2026 after weeks of disruption to shipping caused by regional hostilities. It said operators must continue to follow safety guidance while normal maritime traffic resumed at Qatari ports.

On the third day of the Iran war, the Qatari Ministry of Defence announced that two Iranian drones had hit Ras Laffan Industrial City and the Mesaieed Industrial Area. The strikes targeted the core installations of Qatar's hydrocarbon export economy.

The declaration on 4 March 2026 followed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war, through which all of Qatar's LNG shipments transit. Qatar supplies about one-fifth of the world's LNG, and buyers faced delayed cargoes for months.

The agreement, signed on 8 December 2025, would connect Riyadh and Doha by rail for the first time. Officials said the project would strengthen economic integration between the two Gulf states alongside existing land and air connections.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on 10 October 2025 that the Qatar Emiri Air Force would base personnel and aircraft at Mountain Home Air Force Base. The arrangement deepens defence ties built around Qatar's hosting of Al Udeid Air Base.

The 9 September 2025 airstrike targeted senior Hamas negotiators meeting to discuss a US ceasefire proposal. The intended targets survived, but the attack killed six people, including a Qatari security officer, in the first Israeli strike on a Gulf state.

Three years after the first partial election, the Council returned to being wholly appointed by the emir, ending the country's short-lived experiment in electing members of the advisory body. Qatar ranked second-last among Middle Eastern countries on the V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index in 2025.

Doha brokered the exchange between Washington and Tehran, for which President Joe Biden publicly thanked Sheikh Tamim in October 2023. The deal demonstrated Qatar's established role as an intermediary between adversaries.

The designation formalised decades of defence cooperation centred on Al Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of US Central Command housing about 10,000 American personnel. It confirmed Qatar's standing as a principal Western security partner in the Gulf.

The tournament ran from 20 November to 18 December 2022 across eight stadiums built or renovated for the event, with Argentina beating France in the final on penalties. Estimates of Qatar's total infrastructure spending vary widely, ranging from $200 billion to $300 billion.

Two thirds of the Council's seats were filled by election, the first national poll in the country's history. The experiment lasted only three years before being reversed.

The countries, known as the Quartet, signed the Al Ula declaration on 5 January 2021, restoring diplomatic and travel ties cut in 2017. The dispute had centred on Qatar's relations with Iran and its support for regional Islamist movements.

Having joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1961, Qatar withdrew in January 2019. The exit reflected its pivot from oil towards natural gas, of which it holds the world's third-largest proven reserves.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen severed diplomatic ties with Qatar and closed their air, land and sea borders on 5 June 2017, accusing it of supporting terrorism, backing the Muslim Brotherhood and being too close to Iran. Qatar denied the allegations, and the crisis strengthened rather than weakened its relationship with Iran, which supplied material and political support. The standoff lasted more than three years, ending with the al-Ula declaration of January 2021 without Qatar meeting any of the original 13 demands.

Doha News, widely considered the only independent and reliable source of news within Qatar, was locally blocked in late 2016. It was allowed to relaunch in May 2020 with a different team and an unspecified new owner, but had by then toned down its critical reporting.

Qatar contributed 1,000 troops, 200 armoured vehicles and 30 Apache helicopters to operations against the Houthis and forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh. It withdrew its forces in 2017 after being expelled from the coalition during the diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia.

The new airport replaced the ageing Doha International Airport as the base of flag carrier Qatar Airways, which employs over 46,000 people. A first expansion phase in 2022 added a terminal, hotel and tropical garden to handle rising passenger traffic.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani stepped down on 25 June 2013 after 18 years in power, handing authority to his 33-year-old son Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in a peaceful transfer unusual in the Gulf for taking place through voluntary abdication rather than death or removal. Tamim prioritised domestic welfare, advanced healthcare and education systems, and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.

Male Qatari citizens called up serve a term of national service, extended in 2018 to one year, with about 2,000 conscripts passing through the armed forces annually. The measure followed the Arab Spring and formed part of a broad military expansion.

Qatar experienced none of the domestic unrest seen elsewhere in the Near East and North Africa in 2010–11, due in part to its immense wealth, yet Doha prided itself on supporting many of the popular revolutions, particularly in Libya and Syria. It deployed six Mirage 2000 fighters to the NATO air campaign against Gaddafi and sent special forces to train Libyan rebels, and became a major funder of weapons for rebel groups in the Syrian civil war, sharpening tensions with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.

Qatar became the first Arab and Muslim-majority country to be awarded the tournament, despite never having qualified for the finals. The award drove $220 billion of infrastructure spending and also brought intense scrutiny of migrant labour conditions, with The Guardian reporting in 2021 that some 6,500 migrant workers had died.

QSTP opened with seed capital of $800 million and 21 host organisations in Education City, linking universities with industry. It was intended to assist the country's transition towards a knowledge economy, following the creation of the Qatar National Research Fund in 2006.

From 2008 Christians were allowed to construct churches on ground donated by the state, and a Roman Catholic church was inaugurated that year. The move reflected the religious needs of an expatriate majority population.

The Vision named environmental development as one of four main goals for the following two decades and set a target of 20 per cent of energy from solar power by 2030. It also frames the diversification of the economy away from oil and gas.

By 2007 oil and natural gas revenues had enabled Qatar to achieve the highest per capita income in the world, completing its transformation from a poor pearling protectorate into one of the richest states on earth.

Doha brokered talks between the rival Palestinian factions in 2006 and helped unite Lebanese leaders into a political agreement during the 2008 crisis. Mediation became a defining instrument of Qatari foreign policy and middle-power standing.

Family law was formally codified in 2006. Women nonetheless remain subject to extensive legal and social discrimination under a male guardianship system.

Omar Ahmed Abdullah Ali, an Egyptian resident with suspected ties to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, carried out a suicide bombing at the Doha Players Theatre in March 2005, killing a British teacher. It was Qatar's first experience of a terrorist attack and prompted a tightening of domestic security measures.

The QIA was created to invest hydrocarbon surpluses abroad, and by 2012 ranked twelfth among the world's richest sovereign wealth funds with $115 billion in assets. Its holdings came to include Harrods, Barclays, Heathrow Airport, Volkswagen and Paris Saint-Germain.

Qatar served as CENTCOM headquarters and one of the main launching sites for the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Shortly before the invasion the Qatari government had offered Saddam sanctuary, illustrating its hedging diplomacy.

The constitution provided for the direct election of 30 of the 45 members of a legislature; the first written constitution was drafted in 2005. Elections to the Shura Council were nevertheless repeatedly postponed for nearly two decades.

The council was established to oversee reform and expansion of Qatar's education system. It formed part of the state's drive towards a knowledge-based economy.

During the 2000s Qatar settled its longstanding border disputes with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the former through a 2001 International Court of Justice ruling.

The municipal council elections, deliberately held on International Women's Day, allowed both men and women to vote. Women's suffrage in municipal elections had been endorsed by Emir Hamad the same year.

The ministry's abolition allowed the press occasionally to criticise the economy or the status of foreign workers. Journalists nonetheless continued to face what Reporters Without Borders describes as a draconian system of censorship.

Membership of the convention committed Qatar to international biodiversity obligations. It subsequently produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in 2005.

The first LNG cargoes to Japan opened Qatar's career as a global gas exporter. Gas exports would drive the fastest GDP growth in the world during the following decade.