Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani

Who is Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani?

Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani was the son of the founder, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, and ruled Qatar from 1913 until his abdication in 1949. In November 1916 he signed the Anglo-Qatari Treaty with Britain, which placed Qatar's foreign affairs under British protection while preserving internal autonomy under his rule, formally distinguishing Qatar from neighboring Bahrain in an international agreement for the first time. His long reign spanned the difficult transition from a pearling-based economy toward the beginnings of the oil era: in 1935 he granted Qatar's first oil concession to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and commercially viable oil was eventually discovered at Dukhan in 1939, though full development was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War. He also navigated the collapse of the natural pearl trade during the 1920s and 1930s, caused largely by the arrival of cultured Japanese pearls on world markets, which devastated Qatar's traditional economy and pushed the ruling family to seek new sources of revenue. He abdicated in favor of his son Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani in 1949 and died in 1957.

Sources: Rosemarie Said Zahlan, The Creation of Qatar (Croom Helm, 1979) · Anglo-Qatari Treaty of 3 November 1916, British Foreign Office archival record · Qatar Digital Library (British Library / Qatar Foundation Partnership), historical records on early oil concessions