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 Al-Khalifa family, now the ruling family of Bahrain.

The Al-Khalifas, togeather with Al-Dawasir, settled at Zubarah before expelling the Persians from Bahrain in the 18th century. 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.

External links

• ICJ decision on Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions between Qatar and Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain)
• Photo of Zubarah Fort
• Photos of Zubarah Fort