Middle East History
Qatar
More than 50,000 years ago, people first settled in Qatar. The peninsula has produced settlements and tools from the Stone Age. Ancient Mesopotamian artifacts from the Ubaid era (c. In abandoned coastal settlements, artifacts from that time period (6500–3800 BC) have been found. The most significant Ubaid site in the nation is Al Da'asa, a settlement on Qatar's western coast that is thought to have housed a modest seasonal settlement.
Trading relationships between the people of Qatar and the Kassites in present-day Bahrain are attested by Kassite Babylonian artifacts from the second millennium BC discovered in the Al Khor Islands. Three million broken snail shells and Kassite pottery sherds were discovered. Due to a Kassite purple dye industry that existed on the coast, it has been proposed that Qatar is the earliest known location of shellfish dye production.
The Persian Gulf region came under Sasanian Empire rule in 224 AD. Qatar contributed at least two goods to the Sasanids' commercial endeavors: priceless pearls and purple dye. Many people in Eastern Arabia were converted to Christianity during the Sasanid era as a result of Mesopotamian Christians spreading the faith in that direction. During this time, monasteries were built and new settlements were established. During the latter centuries of the Christian era, Qatar included a region known as Beth Qatraye (Syriac for "house of the Qataris"). In addition to Bahrain, Tarout Island, Al-Khatt, and Al-Hasa, the region also included Qatar.
Muhammad requested that Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi and his subjects accept Islam in 628 by sending a Muslim envoy to the ruler of Eastern Arabia. The majority of the Arab tribes in the area converted to Islam as a result of Munzir granting his request. The Sasanian Empire would collapse in the middle of the century as a result of the Muslim conquest of Persia.
Periods of early and late Islam (661–1783).
In the Umayyad era, Qatar was noted as a prominent horse and camel breeding facility. Beginning in the eighth century, it began to profit from its strategically advantageous location for trade in the Persian Gulf and eventually developed into a hub for the trade of pearls.
The Abbasid era saw significant growth in the region's pearling economy around the Qatari Peninsula. During this time, ships sailing from Basra to India and China would dock in Qatar's ports. In Qatar, people have uncovered Chinese porcelain, West African coins, and Thai artifacts. According to archeological evidence from the ninth century, the people of Qatar may have had more money to spend on better homes and public structures. In Murwab, during this time, more than 100 stone-built homes, two mosques, and an Abbasid fort were built. As the caliphate's prosperity dwindled in Iraq, it also did so in Qatar. Yaqut al-Hamawi, a Muslim scholar from the 13th century, mentions Qatar in his book Mu'jam Al-Buldan, making reference to the Qataris' exquisitely striped cloaks and their prowess in improving and finishing spears.
The Usfurids ruled over a large portion of Eastern Arabia in 1253, but the prince of Ormus took over the region in 1320. One of Qatar's main sources of income was the sale of pearls. The Kingdom of Ormus became a vassal state under Manuel I of Portugal in 1515. Later, in 1521, Portugal took control of a sizeable portion of Eastern Arabia. Choosing the Ottomans over the Portuguese in 1550, the residents of Al-Hasa voluntarily submitted to their rule. The Ottomans were driven out of the region by the Bani Khalid tribe in 1670 despite having only a minimal military presence there.
Bahraini and Saudi rule (1783–1868).
Members of the Al Khalifa family of the Utub tribal confederation moved to Zubarah in Qatar in 1766 from Kuwait. Despite the fact that their distant ancestors ruled the largest village, the Bani Khalid had only tenuous control over the peninsula at the time of their arrival. In 1783, clans of the Bani Utbah from Qatar and affiliated Arab tribes invaded and seized Bahrain from the Persians. The Al Khalifa imposed their rule over Bahrain and kept control of Zubarah.
Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz expanded Wahhabi territory eastward toward the Persian Gulf and Qatar after taking the oath of office as the Wahhabi crown prince in 1788. The Wahhabi were attacked from two directions after defeating the Bani Khalid in 1795. The western front was attacked by the Ottomans and the Egyptians, while the eastern front was attacked by Al Khalifa in Bahrain and the Omanis. The Wahhabi amir decreased his garrisons in Bahrain and Zubarah in order to redeploy his troops in 1811 after becoming aware of the Egyptian advance on the western frontier. The ruler of Muscat, Said bin Sultan, took advantage of this opening and attacked the Wahhabi garrisons on the eastern coast, torching the Zubarah fort in the process. After that, The Al Khalifa were in fact put back in charge.
Doha was destroyed and hundreds of residents were forced to flee when an East India Company ship bombarded the town in 1821 as retaliation for piracy. Sheikh Mohammed bin Thani was the first ruler of the House of Thani when it was founded in 1825.
The Al Khalifa encountered opposition from the local tribes despite Qatar being seen as a Bahraini dependency. In an effort to put down the Qatari insurgents, the Al Khalifa and the ruler of Abu Dhabi sent a sizable naval force to Al Wakrah in 1867. Due to this, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi forces attacked and looted Doha and Al Wakrah in the maritime Qatari-Bahraini War of 1867–1868. The Bahraini hostilities broke the 1861 Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship. In 1868, British Political Resident Colonel Lewis Pelly imposed a settlement as a result of the joint incursion and the Qatari counterattack. Because they implicitly acknowledged Qatar's distinction from Bahrain and explicitly acknowledged Mohammed bin Thani's position, his mission to Bahrain and Qatar and the ensuing peace treaty were significant events. Pelly conducted negotiations with the Qatari sheikhs, who were represented by Mohammed bin Thani, in addition to reprimanding Bahrain for its violation of the agreement. In order for Qatar to become a sheikhdom, negotiations were the first step. Qatar was recognized as a British protectorate informally for the first time in 1916, though
1871 to 1915 was the Ottoman era.
The ruling Al Thani tribe acceded to Ottoman rule in 1871 after Midhat Pasha, the governor of the Ottoman Vilayet of Baghdad, applied political and military pressure. To fully incorporate these regions into the empire, the Ottoman government imposed reformist (Tanzimat) measures regarding taxation and land registration. Al Thani continued to support Ottoman rule despite the local tribes' opposition. However, Qatari-Ottoman relations soon came to a standstill, and in 1882, they experienced further setbacks when the Ottomans refused to support Al Thani in his expedition to the territory of Abu Dhabi that was occupied by Khawr al Udayd. Additionally, the Ottomans supported Mohammed bin Abdul Wahab, an Ottoman subject, when he made an attempt in 1888 to unseat Al Thani as kaymakam of Qatar. As a result, Al Thani ultimately rose up in revolt against the Ottomans, whom he believed were attempting to usurp dominance over the peninsula. In August 1892, he ceased paying taxes and resigned from his position as kaymakam.
Mehmed Hafiz Pasha traveled to Qatar in February 1893 in an effort to collect unpaid taxes and harass Jassim bin Mohammed for his opposition to Ottoman administrative reform proposals. Jassim fled to Al Wajbah (16 km or 10 mi west of Doha) with several tribespeople out of fear that he would be put to death or imprisoned. Jassim refused to renounce his allegiance to the Ottomans in response to Mehmed's demand that he disband his army. Jassim's brother and 13 important tribal leaders from Qatar were imprisoned by Mehmed in March as retaliation for his disobedience. They were all housed on the Ottoman corvette Merrikh. The Battle of Al Wajbah began when Mehmed ordered a column of about 200 soldiers, led by Yusuf Effendi, to advance towards Jassim's Al Wajbah Fort after rejecting an offer to free the prisoners in exchange for a sum of 10,000 liras.
Shortly after arriving at Al Wajbah, a sizable troop of Qatari infantry and cavalry opened fire heavily on Effendi's troops. A Qatari incursion forced them to retreat once more to the fortress of Shebaka. The Ottomans withdrew to the Al Bidda fortress where Jassim's advancing column besieged the fortress, forcing the Ottomans to concede defeat and agree to release their prisoners in exchange for Mehmed Pasha's cavalry's safe arrival at Hofuf by land. Despite not achieving complete independence from the Ottoman Empire, the outcome of the battle compelled a treaty that would later serve as the foundation for Qatar's emergence as a sovereign state within the empire.
1916 to 1971 was a British era.
By the terms of the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1913, the Ottoman Empire consented to give up its claim to Qatar and remove its garrison from Doha. When World War I broke out, however, nothing was done to carry this out, and the garrison at Doha stayed in the fort despite losing members to desertions. The fort was abandoned when British troops arrived the next morning in 1915 due to Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani's pro-British influence and the presence of British gunboats in the harbor.
On November 3, 1916, the United Kingdom and Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani signed a treaty bringing Qatar under its Trucial System of Administration, making Qatar a British protectorate. While Abdullah agreed not to engage in any relations with any other power without the British government's prior approval, the latter guaranteed the protection of Qatar from maritime aggression and provided its "good offices" in the event of a land attack; this latter commitment was purposefully vague. On May 5, 1935, Abdullah signed a second treaty with the British government, providing Qatar with protection from both internal and external threats, at the same time that he agreed to an oil concession with the British oil company, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Oil reserves were first identified in 1939. However, World War II slowed down both exploitation and development.
With the independence of India, the founding of Pakistan in 1947, and the exploitation of Qatar's oil after the Second World War, British interests in Qatar shifted. The first British political officer John Wilton's appointment in Doha in 1949 marked a development in Anglo-Qatari relations. With the decline of the pearl trade, oil exports started in 1949, and oil revenues eventually replaced it as the nation's main source of income.
The infrastructure of Qatar was upgraded and expanded thanks to these revenues.
Qatar began negotiations to form a federation with Bahrain and the other seven Trucial States in 1968, three years after Britain made its formal announcement that it would leave the Persian Gulf. However, regional conflicts led Qatar and Bahrain to leave the negotiations and split off from the Trucial States, which later evolved into the United Arab Emirates.
The aftermath of independence (1971–present).
The Sheikh of Qatar established treaty ties with the United Kingdom on November 3rd, 1916. The treaty permitted internal autonomy while reserving defense and foreign policy to the United Kingdom. The "special treaty arrangements" that were "inconsistent with full international responsibility as a sovereign and independent state" were canceled on September 3, 1971. This was carried out in accordance with an agreement reached between the United Kingdom government and the Ruler of Qatar.
During the Battle of Khafji in 1991, Qatari tanks rolled through the town's streets and supplied fire support for Saudi Arabian National Guard units that were engaging Iraqi Army troops. This battle was a pivotal moment in Qatar's involvement in the Gulf War. Qatar also granted permission for air forces from the US and France to operate in its airspace and allowed coalition troops from Canada to use the nation as an airbase to launch aircraft while on CAP duty.
With the backing of the military and cabinet, as well as neighboring states[87] and France, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani overthrew his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani in 1995. Under Emir Hamad, Qatar underwent a mild degree of liberalization, including the establishment of the Al Jazeera television station (1996), the endorsement of women's suffrage or the right to vote in municipal elections (1999), the creation of its first written constitution (2005), and the opening of a Roman Catholic church (2008). As the first Middle Eastern nation to be chosen to host the event, Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010. The Emir announced that Qatar would hold its initial national legislative elections in 2013. They were initially scheduled to take place in the second half of 2013, but were postponed until October 2021. In April 2019, the legislative council held the 140th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly for the first time.
Qatar was one of the main launchpads for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the headquarters of the US Central Command. In March 2005, a suicide bomber at the Doha Players Theatre killed a British teacher from Dorset named Jonathan Adams, shocking the nation, which had not previously experienced terrorist attacks. Omar Ahmed Abdullah Ali, a resident of Egypt in Qatar who was thought to have connections to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was the bomber. Qatar reportedly supplied Libyan opposition groups with weapons in 2011 when it joined NATO operations there. It is also currently a significant source of funding for rebel groups fighting in the Syrian civil war. Qatar is pursuing a peace agreement with Afghanistan, and in January 2012, the Afghan Taliban announced they were opening a political office there to facilitate negotiations. This was carried out with the support of other nations, such as the United States and Afghanistan, in an effort to facilitate peace negotiations. According to Ahmed Rashid's article in the Financial Times, Qatar has facilitated meetings between the Taliban and many nations and organizations, including the US State Department, the UN, Japan, several European governments, and non-governmental organizations, all of whom have been trying to push forward the idea of peace talks. Senior officials of the American State Department reportedly objected to suggestions made by the presidents of the United States and Afghanistan in September 2017.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani took over as emir of Qatar in June 2013 after his father abdicated in a speech that was broadcast on television. Sheikh Tamim has made it a priority to enhance the welfare of the local populace, which includes putting in place cutting-edge healthcare and educational systems and developing the nation's infrastructure in order to host the 2022 World Cup.
The Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was toppled in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, were targets of the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
Long-standing tensions with Saudi Arabia, the neighboring United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain were exacerbated by Qatar's growing influence and role during the Arab Spring, particularly during the Bahraini uprising in 2011. Citing Qatar's alleged support of organizations they deemed to be extremist, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain severed diplomatic ties with the nation in June 2017. [100] As a result, Qatar's military and economic ties to Turkey and Iran have grown.
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Think Tanks
