Qatar

Coordinates: 25°30′N 51°15′E / 25.500°N 51.250°E / 25.500; 51.250

Qatar (/ˈkæˌtɑːr/,ⁱ/ˈkɑːtɑːr/, /ˈkɑːtər/ or ⁱ/kəˈtɑːr/;Arabic: قطر‎ Qaṭar [ˈqɑtˤɑr]; local vernacular pronunciation: [ɡɪtˤɑr]), officially the State of Qatar (Arabic: دولة قطر‎ Dawlat Qaṭar), is a sovereign country located in Southwest Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. A strait in the Persian Gulf separates Qatar from the nearby island of Bahrain, as well as sharing sea borders with the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Following Ottoman rule, Qatar became a British protectorate in the early 20th century until gaining independence in 1971. Qatar has been ruled by the Al Thani family since the mid-19th century. Qatar is a hereditary constitutional monarchy and its head of state is Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The constitution was overwhelmingly approved in a constitutional referendum, with almost 98% in favour. In 2013, Qatar's total population was 1.8 million: 278,000 Qatari citizens and 1.5 million expatriates. After Saudi Arabia and Oman, Qatar is the most conservative society in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Sheikh Abdullah

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah (Urdu: شیخ محمد عبد اللہ‎) (Born, 5 December 1905 – Died, 8 September 1982) was an Indian statesman who played a central role in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost Indian state. The self-styled "Sher-e-Kashmir" (Lion of Kashmir), Abdullah was the founding leader of the National Conference and thrice served as the head of government in Kashmir. He agitated against the rule of the Maharaja Hari Singh and urged self-rule for Kashmir.

He was the Prime Minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir after its accession to India in 1947 and was later jailed and exiled. He was dismissed from the position of Prime Ministership on 8 August 1953 and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad was appointed as the new Prime Minister. The expressions ‘Sadar-i-Riyasat’ and ‘Prime Minister’ were replaced with the terms ‘Governor’ and ‘Chief Minister’ in 1965. Sheikh Abdullah again became the Chief Minister of the state following the 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord and remained in the top slot till his death on 8 September 1982.

House of Thani

The House of Thani (Arabic: آل ثاني Al Thani‎) is the ruling family of Qatar, whose origins can be traced back to the Ma'adid clan of the Banu Tamim tribal confederation.

History and structure

The Al Thanis, an Arabic Family part which belongs to the Ma'adid sect of the Banu Tamim tribe, can be traced back to Mudar bin Nizar who settled at Gebrin oasis in southern Najd (present-day Saudi Arabia) before he moved to Qatar. Around the 17th century, the tribe lived in Ushayqir, a settlement north-east of Riyadh. They settled in Qatar around the 1740s. Their first settlement in Qatar was in the southern town of Sikak, and from there they moved north-west to Zubarah and Al Ruwais. They settled in Doha in the 19th century under their leader Mohammad bin Thani. The group was named after the father of Mohammad, Thani bin Mohammad.

The family is made of many factions. There were three major branches in the early 1990s: Bani Ali, Bani Hamad and Bani Khalid. The number of the family members during the same period was estimated to be about 20,000.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة‎ al-ǧazīrah IPA: [æl dʒæˈziːrɐ], literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Arabian Peninsula), also known as JSC (Jazeera Satellite Channel), is a Doha-based state-funded broadcaster owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is partly funded by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs satellite TV channel, Al Jazeera has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the Internet and specialty TV channels in multiple languages.

Al Jazeera is among the largest news organizations with 80 bureaus around the world. Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar. While Al Jazeera officials have stated that they are editorially independent from the government of Qatar, this assertion has been disputed.

The original Al Jazeera channel's willingness to broadcast dissenting views, for example on call-in shows, created controversies in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf. The station gained worldwide attention following the outbreak of war in Afghanistan, when it was the only channel to cover the war live, from its office there.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia (ⁱ/ˌsɔːdiː əˈreɪbiə/, ⁱ/ˌsaʊ-/), officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is an Arab state in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km² (830,000 sq mi), Saudi Arabia is geographically the second-largest state in the Arab world after Algeria. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen to the south. It is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, and most of its terrain consists of arid inhospitable desert or barren landforms.

The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four distinct regions: Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa) and Southern Arabia ('Asir). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud. He united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. The country has since been an absolute monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultra-conservative Wahhabism religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called "the predominant feature of Saudi culture", with its global spreading largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "the Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam. The Kingdom has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners.