History of Qatar

As early as 628 CE, Mundhir bin Sawa Al Tamimi, the Christian ruler of the Al Hasa region that included the Qatar peninsula, adopted Islam. Only a few sites have been identified from this early Islamic period, suggesting that the peninsula was sparsely populated at this time. During the Umayyad period, between the 7th and mid-8th centuries CE, Qatar became a centre for camel and horse breeding. The reign of the Abbasids (8th to 13th century CE) saw the growth of the pearl industry along the rich pearl banks in Qatar’s marine waters. Archaeological remains from the late Umayyad period were discovered at Yoghbi in northwestern Qatar, while remains from the early Abbasid period of the 9th and 10th centuries CE were discovered at nearby Murwab, comprising 250 houses, two mosques and a fortified mansion. In addition to Murwab, a number of other Abbasid-period sites have been identified in northern Qatar and are located inland.

Very little information is available on the history of the Gulf region between the 10th and 15th centuries CE, although the main centres of settlement appear to have been on the Iranian side of the Gulf. In Qatar, two archaeological sites from this period were located in Ruwayda and Freyha, on the north-west coast, and remained inhabited until the 18th century CE.  

In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India via the Cape of Good Hope established a European maritime route to the East. This allowed Europeans to establish permanent trading bases in the Gulf region for the first time. During the 16th and the early 17th centuries, the territory comprising modern day Qatar was fought over by the Ottomans, Safavids and Portuguese. One of the earliest maps to include Qatar was a version of Ptolemy’s map (on display in Qatar National Library) depicting ‘Catara’ as a fort. Portuguese travellers referred to Qatar during the 1580s and 1590s, and there is a representation of Qatar as a single fort in Luis Lazaro’s World Atlas of 1596. The main references to Qatar can be found after 1602, when the Portuguese lost Bahrain to the Safavids. After this date, the Portuguese used Qatar as a base for raiding Bahrain as well as for taxing merchants travelling through the Gulf.  Excavations in Ruwayda revealed a Portuguese fortification that may have been the same fort mentioned by Portuguese sources.

The earliest Ottoman reference to Qatar dates back to 1555, with Qatar considered part of the Ottoman province of Al Hasa, occupied in the 1550s. There was a great rivalry between the Portuguese and the Ottomans during the 16th century, particularly in relation to Bahrain, which the Portuguese occupied between 1521 and 1602.  However, in the 1670s, the Sheikh of the Banu Khalid tribe expelled the Ottomans from Al Hasa, likely removing all Ottoman presence from Qatar.

At this juncture, Qatar witnessed the rise of many tribal entities such as the Bani Khalid, who ruled a swathe of land that spanned Qatar and Kuwait.  The Al-Musslam tribe was the predominant tribal group on the Qatar peninsula from at least the 16th century. Other tribes known to have lived in the region before the 18th century included the Al-Naim, or the Al-Hawala, a tribal confederation of sea-faring Arabs from the Iranian side of the Gulf. In the 18th century, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain were taken over by members of the ‘Utub tribal confederacy, which comprised a number of tribal groups including Al-Sabah, Al-Khalifa, Al-Fadhil and Al-Jalahimah. Although the majority of groups in the ‘Utub originated from central Arabia, at some point they became maritime, adopting boats as a primary means of transport.

A handful of 17th-century sites are known to have been occupied, even though the archaeological and historical evidence for their existence is fairly meagre. By the end of the 18th century, there was a wide network of settlements, particularly along the northern coast of the Qatar peninsula. One of the most significant changes in the 18th century was the virtual disappearance of the Portuguese population, and the arrival of merchants from the Netherlands, France and England. While these nations had been present in the Gulf during the 17th century, rivalry increased during the 1700s, resulting in a virtual British monopoly by the start of the 19th century. This laid the groundwork for Qatar’s modern history.