Specials DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS MAGAZINE Spring 2011 - Anniversary Commemorative Issue

Qatar

Acheological evidence show that there has been human habitation in the Qatar peninsular for as far back as 50,000 years ago. The first known inhabitants were Canaanite tribes. Sargon of Akkad ruled the area between 2335 and 2279 BC. Normads from Saudi Arabia camped in the area near watering holes. Fishermen and pearl divers had coastal settlements in the area as well.

Between 750 and 1258 AD the Abbasids had control of the area. The Portuguese briefly held sway from 1517 to 1538 before they were ousted by the Ottomans. From the late 18th century to early 19th century, the Wahhabis were the dominant local rulers, nominally answerable to the Ottomans. The Thanis took over from the Wahhabis and have retained control ever since.

In 1820 Britain East India Company signed the General Peace Treaty with the sheikhs of the Persian Gulf. The Treaty helped secure British shipping in the area and established British authority over the Persian Gulf, even though the Ottomans still retained nominal control. To enforce the company's anti-piracy law, the East India Company bombed Doha from a company vessel in 1821. Hundreds of residents fled as the town was partially destroyed.

After Bahrain attacked and sacked Doha in 1867, the British political agent, Colonel Lewis Pelly, negotiated a settlement for the warring sides in 1868. The settlement helped establish Qatar as a distinct polity and positioned Muhammad ibn Thani ibn Muhammad as chief of the tribes in Qatar.

The Ottomans began to assert their authority in the eastern Arabia region in 1871. Qasim ibn Muhammad Al Thani, the Qatari leader submitted to Ottoman sovereignty in 1872. But when, in 1893, Ottoman authorities sought to arrest Qasim ibn Muhammad Al Thani for refusing to allow the erection of an Ottoman custom house in Doha, Al Thani resisted and drove off the Ottomans. In 1913, the Ottomans officially gave up their claim over Qatar. The new ruler of Qatar, Abd Allah ibn Qasim Al Thani, signed a treaty, in 1916, making Qatar a British protectorate.

Oil was discovered in Qatar in 1939. However, exploitation did not begin until after the end of World War II. Qatar began exporting oil in 1949. Internal squabbles and political pressure from family members forced Ali ibn Abd Allah Al Thani, who had succeeded his father as ruler of Qatar in 1949, to rely heavily on the British for running his government.

As Britain prepared to withdraw its military forces from the area, talk of a federation of the Persian Gulf states was mooted, but it never materialized. In preparation for independence, a provisional constitution, making Qatar an Arab, Islamic state under sharia (Islamic law), was promulgated in April 1970. On September 3, 1971, Qatar became an independent country.