Qatar

Qatar is a small emirate on a peninsula of the Arabian Peninsula's northeast coast, bordering Saudi Arabia and otherwise surrounded by the Persian Gulf. Doha is the capital and home to most of the people. Arabic is the official language, and English is widely used, especially in business.

Under the Abbasids the peninsula grew as a pearling center and a stop for ships sailing from Basra to India and China. In 1766 the Al Khalifa family settled at Zubarah, and Qatar was long treated as a dependency of Bahrain. In 1868 Mohammed bin Thani signed an agreement with Britain that recognized Qatar as separate, and the House of Thani has ruled since. The Ottomans held sway from 1871 until the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, and on 3 November 1916 Qatar became a British protectorate. When Japanese cultured pearls flooded the market in the 1920s and 1930s, the pearl trade collapsed.

Oil was found at Dukhan in 1940 and transformed the economy. Qatar became independent on 3 September 1971 after it withdrew from talks on a federation with Bahrain and the Trucial States, which went on to form the United Arab Emirates. Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani became emir in 1995, and Al Jazeera began broadcasting from Doha in 1996. In 2017 Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar, a blockade that ended with the al-Ula declaration in January 2021. As hereditary monarch, the emir controls government, lawmaking and the courts and appoints the prime minister and the Shura Council.

Mostly flat desert, the country rises only to 103 m (338 ft) at Qurayn Abu al Bawl. Gas from the offshore North Field, developed from the 1990s, made Qatar a major exporter of liquefied natural gas, and the Qatar Investment Authority, founded in 2005, invests the earnings abroad. Al Udeid Air Base hosts the forward headquarters of US Central Command. Education City houses branches of foreign universities, the Museum of Islamic Art opened in 2008, and in 2022 Qatar became the first Arab country to host the FIFA World Cup.