Page 304 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

RECENT Kl,STORY AND PRESENT POLITICS 329

ln,t oven with magazine rifles. The Porte, however, was strong
enough to control the foreign relations of the local Sheikh, though
the British Government never acknowledged the occupation;
before the outbreak of war there had been negotiations botween the
two Powers for the removal of the garrison, which has since shared
the fate of that of Hasa (see p. 303). Down to 1SS2, the Govern­
ment of India had an agreement with the Sheikh of EI-Qatar
similar to that signed with the Trucial chiefs ; but it was then
allowed to lapse. At the present time Great Britain exercises an
informal protectorate.

. •• The ruling Sheikh is ‘Abdullah ibn Jaslm eth-Thani, second
son of the old Sheikh Jaslm ibn Mohammed, who died in the
summer of 1913. Before his father’s death he had acted for a time
as governor of the port of Dohah, though supplanted in this post
by his elder brother, Khallfah, in 1912. This brother is still hostile,
as are his cousins, the sons of Sheikh Ahmed eth-Thani. Sheikh
‘Abdullah has maintained friendly relations with the British, which
have continued during the war; he is on good terms with Ibn Sa'ud
of Riyadh, for whom his father more than once acted during the
latter’s overtures to the Indian Government. He is not, however,
regarded as an energetic ruler.

Towns and Villages
: ’
El-Qatar is so little known that for practical purposes it has only 1.1
one district—the coast and the country near it ; for the interior the
few facts stated in a previous section are all that we possess, The
principal towns are the following :
i
1. Dohah, formerly better known as Bida‘, with a population of
about 12,000, : the miserable capital of a miserable province’, stands
on the S. side of a deep bay at the SW. corner of a natural harbour
on the E. coast about 63 miles S. of Ras Rakan. The harbour is
about 3 miles in extent, and is protected on the NE. and SE. sides
by natural reefs. The entrance, less than a mile wide, is from the
east between the points of the reefs ; it is shallow and difficult,
and vessels of more than 15-ft. draught cannot pass. The soundings
within the basin vary from three to five fathoms and are regular ;
the bottom is white mud or clay.
Dohah is a rather squalid town, built up a slope of rising ground
: I
on a frontage of nearly 2 miles, and at present consists of 8 distinct
quarters, by the name of one of which it has often been known,
-these are, from E. to W. : .1/ Bin 'AH, Sululah, Murqub esh-Sharqi,
Bdhah, Duicei/iah, Qul'at cl-'Askar, Bida\ and Bumcilah. Dohah

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