Doha
The Center organized a seminar titled “Qatar in the Ottoman Archives,” delivered by Dr. Suhail Saban, highlighting the importance of Ottoman archival records as a key source for writing Qatar’s modern and contemporary history.
The lecture reviewed the vast contents of the Ottoman archives in Istanbul, which include approximately 150 million documents covering political, economic, and social aspects of the region.
It also addressed major challenges faced by researchers, such as inconsistencies in names, variations in terminology, and the dispersion of relevant documents across classifications, emphasizing the need for proficiency in both modern Turkish and Ottoman language, as well as regional geographical knowledge.
The seminar focused on documents from the era of Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, which include correspondence and reports shedding light on Qatar’s conditions, including pearl trade, population, and administrative structures.
The lecture concluded by stressing the critical importance of the Ottoman archives and the need for further scholarly research to better understand Qatar’s history.
