Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

• 1. Introduction

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  Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, born on the 1st of January 1952, ended his time as Emir of Qatar with a short televised address on the 25th of June 2013. He told the nation: "The time has come to open a new page in the journey of our nation that would have a new generation carry the responsibilities". The man speaking had ruled for eighteen years, and he had reached the throne by a very different route. How does a prince take a country from his own father while the older man is abroad? What did Hamad do with a small peninsula that sat on some of the largest gas reserves in the world? And why did Washington, Tehran, Gaza and the rest of the Gulf each find reasons to deal with him? The answers begin with the career he built long before he held the title.

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• 2. Heir To Usurper

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  Hamad lost his mother soon after his birth in 1952, and an uncle raised him. In 1971 he graduated from the British Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in Qatar's armed forces. A few months later he was home again, commanding a mobile brigade that later became a force called the Hamad Brigade.

  The rise that followed was quick. By 1972 he held the rank of general and served as army chief of staff. He then became commander-in-chief with the rank of major general. In 1977 he was named minister of defense, and the same year he was appointed Heir Apparent, a post he kept until 1995.

  In the early 1980s Hamad led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets Qatar's basic economic and social policies. From 1992 his father, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, began handing him the daily running of the country, including the development of oil and natural gas. That made Hamad the effective ruler. Khalifa, however, kept control of state finances.

  On the 27th of June 1995, Khalifa was on vacation in Geneva, Switzerland, when his son took the throne in a bloodless coup. Hamad had the support of his family. The break followed a falling out, after Khalifa tried to win back some of the authority he had given away.

  Khalifa lived in exile in France and Abu Dhabi until he returned to Qatar in 2004. Hamad took no chances with the older man's money. He engaged an American law firm to freeze his father's bank accounts abroad, hoping to deter a countercoup.

  A counter-coup came anyway in February 1996, led by former Economy Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani. It failed. Several of Qatar's traditional Arab allies were implicated in the plot, namely Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.

  The state that survived was an absolute monarchy. The emir held supreme authority over every branch of power, and political parties were not allowed. There was no organized opposition, and national news outlets practiced self-censorship. Hamad was formally crowned on the 20th of June 2000, with his position secure enough to turn to the gas fields.

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• 3. Gas And Sovereign Wealth

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  By 2010, Qatar's production of liquefied natural gas had reached 77 million tons. The country sat on the third largest gas reserves in the world. With fewer than two million inhabitants, average income climbed to $86,440 per person each year, and Qatar became the richest country in the world by that measure.

  Qatar expert Olivier Da Lage described the strategy. Hamad's father had left the gas undeveloped for fear it would change the emirate's society, while Hamad wanted to put Qatar on the world map. Da Lage said that after eighteen years, "Qatar has acquired the financial clout to command respect from neighboring countries and Western governments alike".

  In 2005, under Hamad and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the Qatar Investment Authority was set up as a sovereign wealth fund. Its job was to manage the surpluses from oil and gas. By 2013 it had invested over $100 billion around the world.

  The shopping list was long. The fund and its subsidiaries bought London's Harrods from Mohamed Al-Fayed and the Paris department store Printemps. They took Paris Saint-Germain football club, a 75% stake in the film studio Miramax from Disney, and a 12.6% stake in Barclays. They held a former 10% stake in Porsche and about 17% of the Volkswagen Group, plus a 6% stake in Credit Suisse.

  Qatar also became the largest property owner in London. Its holdings included The Shard, the tallest building in the United Kingdom, along with the London Olympic Village and the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel. In Cannes it owned the Majestic Hotel, the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez and the Carlton Hotel.

  Media sources claimed that on the 11th of February 2011, Qatari Holdings offered Malcolm Glazer 1.65 billion pounds for Manchester United. In mid-June 2011 rumours of a 2 billion pound takeover resurfaced. In 2012 there were rumours of interest in Rangers, and on the 30th of March 2012 the sheikh offered to buy KF Tirana.

  As of May 2013, the investment authority was reportedly in talks to buy Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

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• 4. The Al Jazeera Question

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  In 1996 Hamad founded Al Jazeera, and Qatar's government helped fund the news network through an emiri decree. The opening grant was US$137 million. The network aimed to support itself through advertising by 2001. When that did not happen, the emir agreed to loans renewed year by year, including US$30 million in 2004 according to Arnaud de Borchgrave.

  The question of who really steered the channel followed it everywhere. Analyst Hugh Miles wrote that diplomats from other countries knew the emir was the real power behind Al Jazeera. A network spokesman denied this "countless times". He pointed out that many independent news sources receive government subsidies without editorial meddling. Trying to coerce Al Jazeera's journalists, he said, would be like trying to "herd cats".

  The network's chairman, Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, is a distant cousin of the emir and had earlier served as Minister of Information in his government.

  At a press conference on the 3rd of October 2001, Colin Powell tried to persuade Hamad to shut the channel down. The New York organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting said U.S. officials were reportedly upset that the channel re-aired old interviews with bin Laden. They also objected to guests who were too critical of the United States.

  The pressure did not end there. In 2005 the Washington Post reported that Hamad was being urged to privatize the network.

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• 5. Museums, Screens, Stadiums

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  In 2012 Qatar paid over US$250 million for Cézanne's The Card Players, one of the purchases that made it the world's biggest contemporary art buyer. Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al Thani, president of the National Council for Culture, Arts and the Heritage, often represented the buying effort. Hamad had created the Qatar Museums Authority in 2005, and it built the Museum of Islamic Art Doha, designed by I. M. Pei.

  The authority sponsored Takashi Murakami's EGO exhibit in Doha, which ran from the 9th of February to the 24th of June 2012. It also backed Damien Hirst's retrospective at Tate Modern in the spring and summer of 2012, and Hirst's Relics from October 2013 to January 2014. In July 2013 it launched CURATE with Miuccia Prada and the Prada Foundation, a global search for curatorial talent.

  Film came next. The Doha Film Institute was established in 2009 and, with the Tribeca Film Festival founded by Robert De Niro, created the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which ran from 2009 to 2012. The institute is producing Salma Hayek's animated version of Khalil Gibran's novel The Prophet, with Lion King director Roger Allers coordinating. It is credited on Just Like a Woman, starring Sienna Miller, and on Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which opened the 69th Venice International Film Festival. Kanye West's short film Cruel Summer was shot in Doha and premiered at Cannes in 2012. In February 2013 the institute announced a $100 million feature film fund with Participant Media, founded by Jeffrey Skoll, who was the first employee and first president of eBay.

  In 1995 Hamad and his second wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, founded the Qatar Foundation. Moza broke with tradition by becoming a visible advocate for education and children's causes. Under the couple's patronage, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, Northwestern University, Texas A&M University and Weill Cornell Medical College opened campuses in Doha.

  Hamad himself is a sportsman and an accomplished diver. Under him Qatar won an Olympic medal in track and field and hosted the 15th Asian Games, along with GCC, Asian and World Youth soccer championships. He also started the Qatar Open Tennis Championship, which grew into one of the two premier tennis competitions in the Middle East. The Qatar Foundation signed a 125 million pound shirt deal with FC Barcelona.

  Then came the largest prize. In 2010 Qatar was awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup, beating Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States, and became the first country in the Middle East to host it.

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• 6. Bases And Brokers

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  Al Udeid Air Base and Camp As Sayliyah were the two military bases Hamad provided for foreign troops, and both hosted U.S. forces. At the same time Qatar kept its relations with Iran. Hamad's Qatar also played a part in negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.

  Money followed crises. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the emir donated $100 million to relief efforts in New Orleans. He was a key figure in the cease-fire during the 2006 Lebanon War and contributed significantly to relief for the damaged areas. In 2012 he proposed sending Arab troops to reduce the killing in the Syrian civil war.

  Israel was a more tangled case. On the 25th of September 2007 Hamad met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in New York City. This was the first real attempt by any Persian Gulf leader to open dialogue with Israel. Qatar then severed diplomatic ties in 2009 in response to Israel's actions during the Gaza War. The emir has also voiced objection to Israeli settlement policy, especially the Judaization of Jerusalem.

  The brokering role would bring him to a place no head of state had gone in years.

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• 7. Gaza And Its Critics

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  In October 2012, Hamad flew to Egypt and was driven into Gaza. He was the first head of state to visit since Hamas won the 2006 election and Israel imposed a blockade. He was thought to be launching a $254 million reconstruction project and to be giving an address to the Palestinian people. Palestine's interior ministry was said to have a "well-prepared plan" for his security. Incidents nevertheless continued.

  Another account says that during the same visit he pledged US$400 million in humanitarian aid, to pay for infrastructure projects and hospitals.

  In December 2012, The New York Times accused the Qatari government of funding the Al-Nusra Front, a terrorist organization designated by the U.S. government. Others pointed to the emir's visit to Gaza and his meeting with Hamas, whose militant wing is the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Qatar denies the allegations. It says its policy is to help bring Hamas and the Palestinian Authority into constructive engagement.

  Later years brought legal changes. The Qatari government introduced new anti-terror laws in 2004, 2010-2014 and 2017, and new anti-money laundering and counter terror financing laws in 2019. In August 2020 the U.S. State Department sent Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales to Doha to thank Qatar for its efforts. He also discussed its participation in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

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• 8. Family And Father Emir

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  Hamad has three wives and twenty-four children, eleven sons and thirteen daughters. His first wife, Sheikha Mariam bint Muhammad Al Thani, is his first cousin, the daughter of his paternal uncle. They have two sons and six daughters. Their eldest son, Sheikh Mishaal, born in 1972, was heir apparent only from 1995 to 1996.

  His second wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned, was born on the 8th of August 1959 in Al-Khor. They have five sons and two daughters. Sheikh Jassim, born on the 25th of August 1978, was heir apparent from 1996 to 2003. Sheikh Tamim, born on the 3rd of June 1980, held the post from 2003 to 2013 and is now the eighth Emir of Qatar.

  His third wife, Sheikha Noora bint Khalid Al Thani, is also a first cousin, the daughter of the former interior minister Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani. They have four sons and five daughters. One son, Sheikh Abdullah, has been Deputy Emir since the 11th of November 2014.

  Since retiring, Hamad has been popularly called the Father Emir, and the Qatari government uses the title. He is believed to have suffered poor health for several years. He underwent his first kidney transplant in 1997 and at least one more later, and he is on dialysis. In December 2015 he broke his leg on holiday in Morocco's Atlas Mountains and was flown to Zurich, Switzerland, for treatment.

  Honours came from dozens of countries. France gave him the Grand Cross of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, and the United Kingdom made him an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. Foreign Policy magazine named him a Top 100 Global Thinker "for filling the leadership vacuum in the Middle East".

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