ABSTRACT
Doha emerged as a town of prime importance and as the cockpit of foreign rivalry following the arrival of Shaikh Mohammad bin Thani. The attention of all the regional powers as well as of Britain was focused on this hitherto unimportant and neglected place . Shaikh Mohammad bin Thani' s settlement at Doha filled the vacuum created by the al-Bu Ainain tribe's move to Wakra and marked the beginning of the emergence of Qatar as a separate entity under his leadership. The W ahabi Amir' s brief occupation of Doha, from where he threatened to invade Bahrain, strengthened the position of the new chief of Doha considerably and set the stage for his future leadership of the whole peninsula . His determination, with the support of all the leading chiefs of Qatar, to keep the al-Khalifas from entangling themselves in the affairs of Qatar, led the al-Khalifa chief to destroy Wakra and Doha. However, Qatar's abortive counter-attack on Bahrain under Shaikh Mohammad bin Thani's leadership compelled Colonel Lewis Pelly to intervene in the long drawn out Qatar-Bahrain dispute and sign agreements with both Shaikh Mohammad bin Thani and the Bahraini chief. The Anglo-Qatari Treaty of 1868 recognised Qatar as a separate entity, and completed the process of national unification under the leadership of Shaikh Mohammad bin Thani 'The Chief of all chiefs' of Qatar.
