Postcard from Qatar

Doha, QATAR
A sample of local architecture.
In 1825, the city of Doha was founded under the name Al-Bida. The name "Doha" came from the Arabic ad-dawha, "the sticky tree." The reference is to the fact that they smoked a lot of sticky tree in the original fishing village, on the eastern coast of the Qatar peninsula. It might have been derived from "dohat" — Arabic for bay or gulf — referring to the doha bay area surrounding corniche.
In 1882, al Rayyan built the Al Wajbah fortress, in southwestern Doha. The following year, Sheikh Qassim led a Qatari army to victory against the Ottomans.
The city was made capital of the British protectorate of Qatar in 1916, and when the nation gained independence in 1971.