History

The British initially sought out Qatar and the Persian Gulf as an intermediary vantage point en route to their colonial interests in India. During the nineteenth century the Al Khalifa clan reigned over the Northern Qatari peninsula from the nearby island of Bahrain to the west.

Although Qatar had the legal status of a dependency, resentment festered against the Bahraini Al Khalifas along the eastern seaboard of the Qatari peninsula. In 1867, the Al Khalifas launched a successful effort to quash the Qatari rebels sending a massive naval force to Wakrah. However, the Bahraini aggression was in violation on the 1820 Anglo-Bahraini Treaty. The diplomatic response of the British to this violation set into motion the political forces that would eventuate in the founding of the state of Qatar by Shaikh Muhammad bin Thani in 1868. It did gain official standing as a British protectorate in 1916.

When Britain officially announced in 1968 that it would disengage politically, though not economically, from the Gulf in three years' time, Qatar joined Bahrain and seven other Trucial States in a federation. Regional disputes however, quickly compelled Qatar to resign and declare independence from the coalition that would evolve into the seven-emirate United Arab Emirates.

RULERS OF QATAR

The emirs of Qatar are members of the Al-Thani dynasty and the House of Al-Thani descend from Banu Tamim and are typical Arabic polygamous house.

Heraldry

The first state emblem of Qatar dates from 1966. It consists of two scimitars, a pearl oyster shell and the name of the country, surrounded by two palm branches.

A new state emblem was adopted after Qatar had become an independent state in 1971. It consists of the then adopted seal of the state in full color, placed on a target of the colors of the flag and the name of the state in Arabic: دولة قطر  (transliterated as Dawlat Qatar).

The seal shows a dhow or arab sailing vessel and a peninsula with two palmtrees, surrounded by two scimitars

The flag of the emirate was adopted in 1949 and is parted indented of white and chocolate-brown, the white ⅓ of the length of the flag.

* For the history of the flag see: Roberto Breschi

In June 2003, the office of  Tarek Atrissi Design, based in The Netherlands, was selected to work on an unusual project: Designing the logo and the visual identity of Qatar. The new logo, identity and website was launched on 3 December 2003 in a gala ceremony held at the Diplomatic Club in the capital Doha, with the presence of government officials and design journalists from around the world.

For more see:   www.atrissi.com/qatar/5.htm

Police

Lit.:

Briggs, Geoffrey: National Heraldry of the World.  London1973

Herzog, Hans-Ulrich, & Georg Hannes: Lexicon Flaggen und Wappen. Leipzig, 1990.