Word: qatar
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Miserable little Qatar (pop. 35,000), a sun-seared knuckle of sand and stone jutting into the Persian Gulf, was a latecomer in the Middle East oil boom. But when oil poured out in 1949 and the gold started pouring in, wizened old (69) Sheik Ali bin Abdullah bin Qasim Al Thani had no trouble adjusting his spending habits to those of the other sheiks of Araby...
...Doha, capital of Qatar (pronounced gutter), gaudy pink, green and gold palaces sprang up around the huddle of malodorous mud hovels; one vast pile, reserved for the visiting heads of state, was equipped with air conditioning and window curtains operated by pushbuttons; the outside walls of the Sheik's own palace were studded with bare light bulbs that went on by night even when the Sheik was away, which was more often than...
Foreign merchants awaited his trips with anticipation, for the aging Sheik was a generous man. When Saudi Arabia's King Saud went to Qatar for a royal visit laden with gifts in the form of bags of precious stones, Sheik Ali reciprocated by presenting Saud with 16 automobiles, one with gold fittings...
...generosity grew, so did his debts (about $14 million at last count) with Doha's local bankers; he just could not make ends meet, even though he got $12.5 million from Qatar's $50 million annual oil revenue. Soon Qatar's anxious bankers were backing young (30) Sheik Khalifa bin Hamad, Ali's nephew, who thought he was in line for the throne, and was pressing the old man to step down. The British, who watch over Qatar as a protectorate, took a hand when they detected signs of simmering insurrection among the Sheik...
...receives a steady flow of international visitors. "This seems to be my American season," said he last week, after conferring with a stream of U.S. bankers and executives. He logs well over 150 hours of air travel a year, on a recent visit to the Middle East dined with Qatar's Sheik Ahmed (he thoughtfully brought along a rocking horse for the sheik's son), conferred with Emperor Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa, was received by the Prime Minister of the Sudan. Says Managing Director Fred Stephens: "You always wonder what kind of visa John will pull...