History of Qatar - To 1783

To 1783

The Qatar Peninsula came under the sway of several great powers over the centuries. The Abbasid era (750-1258) saw the rise of several settlements, including Murwab. The Portuguese ruled from 1517 to 1538, when they lost to the Ottomans. In the 1732, the Bani Utbah tribe migrated from Kuwait to Qatar's northwest coast and founded Zubarah. After this migration, the Bani Utbah were very close to the rich oyster banks. After the Persian Occupation of Basra in 1777 many merchants and families moved from Basra and Kuwait to Zubarah. After this movement, Zubarah became a thriving center of trade and pearling in the Persian Gulf region.

Until the late eighteenth century, the principal towns were on the east coast—Al Huwayla, Fuwayrit, and Al Bida—and the modern city of Doha developed around the largest of these, Al Bida. The population consisted of nomadic and settled Arabs and a significant proportion of slaves brought originally from East Africa.

The prosperity of Zubarah, which is now in modern Qatar, had also brought it to the attention of the two main powers at the time, Persia and the Oman, which were presumably sympathetic to Sheikh Nasr’s ambitions. Zubara's emerging position as a flourished as a pearling centre and trading port had brought it to the attention of the two main regional powers, Persia and Oman. Bahrain offered great potential wealth because of the extensive pearls found in its waters, however, in 1782, war broke out between the Zubara-based Al-Khalifa trading clan of the Bani Utbah tribe and the Madhkurs.

The battle of Zubarah took place in the year 1782 between the Al-Khalifa from the Bani Utbah Tribe and the Army of Nasr Al-Madhkur Ruler of Bahrain and Bushire.