Al Zubarah

Between 2009 and 2014, excavations at Al Zubarah by Qatar Museums in partnership with the University of Copenhagen produced results that far exceeded first expectations. By implementing a bespoke archaeological and cultural heritage program that focused on the special characteristics of Al Zubarah’s archaeology, much new knowledge has been gathered in just a few short years, giving fresh insights into the city’s past that have reframed the way we interpret and explain its defining role in the formation of the modern Arabian Gulf. A sound settlement chronology, the advanced levels of urban planning, social expression through architectural traditions, successes in commerce and trade, the management of local resources and especially water, details of home life such as personal adornment and diet, and the central role of the sea and the surrounding countryside in the success story of Al Zubarah offer jointly an unprecedented insight into the primacy of this city in its heyday. While this very active phase in the life of Al Zubarah might have been relatively short, its impact on the history of the Gulf is of incalculable importance and of lasting impact down to modern times. The six years of targeted archaeological work at Al Zubarah has illustrated the determined mission of the settlers from the northwest Gulf who brought with them, in addition to a commercial acumen centuries in the making, cultural and political ambitions that equalled – if not exceeded – their commercial goals. The ideal of Arab tribal independence free of imperial strictures had become embedded in political thought in Basra for over a century and a half before the relocation of important Arab families from there to Al Zubarah. From their new cultural and economic centre, situated outside direct Ottoman and Iranian control, such geopolitical ambitions could be advanced in a region where profound changes were already occurring in the centuries-old power structures dominated by large empires. Through political acumen and economic ability, Al Zubarah was to flourish in just a few years, taking on the role of an incubator of Arab political and cultural independence in the region.

In the study of the lively historical events that accompanied the determined emergence of a post-colonial Gulf in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries CE, archaeology and heritage are especially equipped to make a significant contribution to understanding the main social, political, and economic factors that came to shape this period of fundamental change. Of the many social transformations that occurred at that time, none was more important than the foundation and development of the modern emirate states of the southwestern coast of the Arabian Gulf. Al Zubarah was an essential catalyst in the formation of a new Gulf epitomized by Arab independence, born of commercial acumen, steely political determination, and the expression of an independent and distinct cultural identity. This book, for the first time, brings together history, archaeology and heritage in one comprehensive study to highlight the pivotal role played by the people of Al Zubarah in the emergence of the modern Gulf.

_Editor/authors_
HE Sheikh Hassan Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani, Noof Ibrahim Abdulla, Sultan Muhesen, Alan G. Walmsley, Fatema Hassan Al-Sulaiti, Sandra Rosendahl, Ingolf Thuesen, et al.

Die im 18. Jahnhundert an der Nordwestküste Katars entstandene Handelsstadt Al Zubarah  bildet den Forschungsschwerpunkt des Qatar Islamic Archaeology and Heritage Projects (QIAH), das die Universität Kopenhagen in Zusammenarbeit mit der Katarischen Museumsbehörde (QMA) seit 2009 durchführt. Neben der archäologischen Erforschung der Stadtanlage und ihrer Elemente, stehen die Erhaltung und Präsentation des Fundortes und seiner Bauten von Anfang an ebenfalls im Fokus der Arbeiten.  Auf Grundlage der Projektarbeit wurde 2011 der Antrag auf  Aufnahme von Al Zubarah in die Weltkulturerbe eingereicht.
Die Stadtanlage ist ein einzigartiges Beispiel für eine planmäßig angelegte Stadt mit allen typischen Elementen einer orientalischen Stadt: Souq, Moschee, Hofhausquartiere und turmbewehrter Stadtmauer. Die Blütezeit von Al Zubarah währte nur gut 50 Jahre. 1811 wurde sie bereits wieder zerstört. Einige Jahre später auf einem Sechstel der ursprünglichen Siedlungsfläche wiedererrichtet und dann im ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert / beginnenden 20. Jahrhundert endgültig aufgeben. Die Stadt lebt als Legende im Bewusstsein der katarischen Bevölkerung, doch der Name wird heute nicht mit der Stadtanlage sondern wird weitgehend mit dem 1938 errichteten Fort verbunden. Die Existenz und genaue Lokalisierung der eigentlichen Stadt ist kaum bekannt. Ein Ziel des QIAH-Projektes ist dies zu ändern.
Ausgehend von den archäologischen Befunden soll ein Überblick über die laufenden Erhaltungsmaßnahmen und die Konzepte der Fundortpräsentation gegeben werden. Der Erarbeitung des Konservierungskonzeptes gilt ein besonderes Augenmerk. Das Konzept reflektiert dabei den früheren Umgang mit den Ruinen und zeigt Lösungsansätze, die sich aus der Merkmale von Stein- und Erdarchitektur vereinenden Charakteristik der Bauten  ergeben. Die extremen klimatischen und naturräumlichen Bedingungen erfordern ebenfalls ein Umdenken im Umgang mit der historischen Bausubstanz. Neben den Konzepten werden die bereits ausgeführten Arbeiten des Winters 2011/2012 vor- und zur Diskussion gestellt.

This study of the 1937 Qatari-Bahraini conflict over Zubara is a cultural history of, and border studies approach to, one of the most important border contests of the Gulf during the oil concession era. No scholarship has treated this historical region on the northwest coast of Qatar, which is home to the Fort of Zubara, the nation’s most renowned fortress landmark, and a UNESCO world heritage site, as a borderland. However, this article argues that these sites are the legacy of the 1937 conflict, which more than any previous quarrel over Zubara, led to the development of a political culture of bordering. This article examines the emergence of this bordering in its physical, e.g. customs and border guard regime, and cultural-political, e.g. the building of the Fort of Zubara, aspects. Moreover, it treats the 1937 Zubara conflict as part and parcel of an interwar era of global bordering, making comparative reference to Central European borderlands, in addition to other border studies research, as part of the theoretical and analytical framework. This article aims to contribute to a scant literature on borderlands and bordering processes in the Arabian Gulf.

This study of the 1937 Qatari-Bahraini conflict over Zubara is a cultural history of, and border studies approach to, one of the most important border contests of the Gulf during the oil concession era. No scholarship has treated this historical region on the northwest coast of Qatar, which is home to the Fort of Zubara, the nation’s most renowned fortress landmark, and a UNESCO world heritage site, as a borderland. However, this article argues that these sites are the legacy of the 1937 conflict, which more than any previous quarrel over Zubara, led to the development of a political culture of bordering. This article examines the emergence of this bordering in its physical, e.g. customs and border guard regime, and cultural-political, e.g. the building of the Fort of Zubara, aspects. Moreover, it treats the 1937 Zubara conflict as part and parcel of an interwar era of global bordering, making comparative reference to Central European borderlands, in addition to other border studies research, as part of the theoretical and analytical framework. This article aims to contribute to a scant literature on borderlands and bordering processes in the Arabian Gulf.

“Al Zubarah, as a fortified town linked to settlements in its hinterland, exemplifies the string of urban foundations that rewrote the political and demographic map of the Gulf during the 18th and early 19th centuries through building on the strategic position of the region as a trading conduit. Al Zubarah can thus be seen as an example of the small independent states that were founded and flourished in the 18th and early 19th centuries outside the control of the Ottoman, European and Persian empires. This period can now be seen as a significant moment in human history, when the Gulf States that exist today were founded” (UNESCO World Heritage Committee 37th session, 2013, Phnom Penh, Cambodia).

“Al Zubarah, as a fortified town linked to settlements in its hinterland, exemplifies the string of urban foundations that rewrote the political and demographic map of the Gulf during the 18th and early 19th centuries through building on the strategic position of the region as a trading conduit. Al Zubarah can thus be seen as an example of the small independent states that were founded and flourished in the 18th and early 19th centuries outside the control of the Ottoman, European and Persian empires. This period can now be seen as a significant moment in human history, when the Gulf States that exist today were founded” (UNESCO World Heritage Committee 37th session, 2013, Phnom Penh, Cambodia).