Zubarah

Zubarah (also Al Zubarah or Az Zubarah) is a town in the northwest of the Qatar peninsula about 105 km from the Qatari capital of Doha. Zubarah was originally the center of power of the Bani Utbah in which the Al Bin Ali Tribe in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and U.A.E derives from. They were the descendants of Utbah from the Khafaf Section of the Beni Sulaim Tribe of Hijaz. The Al Bin Ali were a politically important group that moved backwards and forwards between Qatar and Bahrain, they were the original dominant group of Zubara area [ Arabia's Frontiers: The Story of Britain's Boundary Drawing in the Desert, John C. Wilkinson, p44 ] .The Al Bin Ali were the Arabs that were occupying Zubarah when the Great Grandfather of the Al Khalifa family ( Mohamed Bin Khalifa) came to it from Kuwait. [ Around the Coast, Amin Reehani, p297 ] . This proves that it is not Mohamed Bin Khalifa ( Great Grandfather of the Al Khalifa family ) who has established Zubarah since the Al Bin Ali have settled in Zubarah and established it before his arrival by decades. When Mohamed Bin Khalifa and his family arrived to Zubarah in the year 1766 or 1768 as some sources differ in the year of his arrival to Zubarah, it was already established as a town and a strategic pearl trading Center as well as one of the most important ports in the Persian Gulf. The Al Bin Ali, settled at Zubarah in the first half of the eighteenth century and established the town of Zubarah and it's port making it one of the most important port and pearl trading centers in the Persian Gulf in the 18th Century. The Al Bin Ali also built a fort outside the town of Zubarah and named it Murair. The name Murair is derived from an old fresh water spring in the Bani Sulaim Area next to Madina Al Munawara in Saudi Arabia. The Al Bin Ali also named their fort in Oman by the name Murair according to Abraham Ortelius's Map of Arabia which clearly shows the name ALBINALI and MARAIR next to each other in Oman in the year 1570 [ Map of Arabia, Abraham Ortelius, 1570, http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/alsahirr/up/pic/aalbin6.gif] . The Original Utub Al Bin Ali conquered and expelled the Persians from Bahrain [ the Precis Of Turkish Expansion On The Arab Littoral Of The Persian Gulf And Hasa And Katif Affairs. By J. A. Saldana; 1904 , I.o. R R/15/1/724 ] after defeating them in the battle of Zubarah that took place in the year 1782 between the Al Bin Ali and the Army of Nasr Al madhkoor Ruler of Bahrain and Bushire. It is well know that the strategist of this battle was Shaikh Nasr Al Madhkoor, his sword fell into the hands of Salama Bin Saif Al Bin Ali after his army collapsed and his forces were defeated [ Shaikh Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa ,First Light: Modern Bahrain and it’s Heritage, 1994 p41 ] .

The Al Bin Ali, have kept the sword with them and they kept inherting it from son to grand son until it was given as a gift to King Abdul Aziz Bin Faisal Al Saud and it can be seen today at the King AbdulAziz Museum in Riyadh , Captial of Saudi Arabia. In the 19th century, the Al-Khalifas controlled the main archipelago of Bahrain, the Hawar Islands and the section of the Qatar peninsula around Zubarah called the Zubarah Bloc. In July 1937, Zubarah, by then largely in ruins, was taken by the Qatari Al Thani family and remained a possession of Qatar after independence in 1971. Bahrain continued to dispute Qatari sovereignty until the issue was settled along with several other territorial issues by the International Court of Justice in 2001. For more, see Foreign relations of Qatar.

Zubarah is noted for its old fortress built in 1938 under orders of Qatari Sheikh 'Abdu'llah bin Qasim Al-Thani and restored in 1987 as a museum. The planned Qatar–Bahrain Friendship Bridge, slated to be the longest fixed link in the world, will connect the northwest coast of Qatar near Zubarah with Bahrain south of Manama.

References

External links

* [http://leqatar.free.fr/Qatar/Volarthus/Zubarah.html Photos of Zubarah Fort]