Qatar’s Amiri Diwan announced Sunday that Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the country’s former ruling emir, had died at 74, triggering a four-day national mourning period and a wave of condolences from leaders across the Middle East and South Asia.
The palace’s statement described Sheikh Hamad’s death as “the great loss to the nation” and said he had passed away that morning. Qatar’s government suspended work at public agencies starting Monday and ordered flags lowered to half-mast for the duration of the mourning period.
Sheikh Hamad took power in June 1995 in a bloodless palace coup against his father, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, who was traveling abroad at the time. Born in January 1952, he had studied at Britain’s Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before rising through Qatar’s armed forces and government, was named heir apparent in 1977, and had already assumed responsibility for much of the country’s day-to-day governance years before formally taking the throne.
Read also: Hamas Urges Iran To Spare Gulf States, Amid Qatar Pressure
Over his 18-year reign, Sheikh Hamad transformed Qatar from what was, by several accounts, a little-known emirate with thin state coffers into one of the wealthiest countries per capita in the world and the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. He established the Qatar Investment Authority in 2005, the sovereign wealth fund that has since built stakes in companies and property across Europe, North America and Asia. Abdulla Banndar el Etaibi, an assistant professor of international affairs at Qatar University, said Sheikh Hamad had turned the country into “an extraordinary country,” crediting his heavy investment in the LNG sector for much of that transformation.
His tenure reshaped Qatar’s global visibility in other ways as well. He launched the satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera in 1996, oversaw the promulgation of Qatar’s first permanent constitution in 2004, and introduced municipal elections in which women were permitted to vote and run as candidates.
Read also: 3 Senior Qatari Officials Killed In Egypt Road Accident
Sheikh Hamad also positioned Qatar as a regional mediator, brokering interventions in Sudan’s Darfur conflict, Lebanese factional disputes and the rift between the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. In October 2012 he became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control five years earlier, pledging $400 million in projects and investment during a trip that prompted Gaza radio stations to play a song titled “Thank You, Qatar.” Toward the end of his rule, Qatar opened a political office in Doha for Afghanistan’s Taliban, laying groundwork for talks between the group and the United States that eventually led to the 2021 U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Qatar’s expanding footprint under Sheikh Hamad also drew friction with some regional and Western governments, which criticized Doha’s independent foreign policy, including its ties to Iran, Hamas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2013, Sheikh Hamad handed power to his fourth son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, then 33 — a voluntary abdication that was unusual among the Gulf’s hereditary monarchies. He largely stepped back from public leadership afterward but remained an influential figure inside the ruling Al Thani family, which has governed Qatar since the mid-19th century. He appeared publicly in 2022 at the opening match of the men’s FIFA World Cup, which Qatar hosted that year, where he received a lengthy ovation from the crowd.
Condolences arrived Sunday from heads of state across the region. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi extended sympathies to Qatar’s “Amir, government, and people” over the loss. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s office said he had expressed “deep grief,” while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called Sheikh Hamad “a great leader and statesman” whose contributions to Qatar and to Pakistan’s ties with the country would be remembered for generations. United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan wrote on social media platform X that he wished God’s mercy on Sheikh Hamad’s soul.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said he had met Sheikh Hamad during a visit to Qatar in February 2024, wrote on X, “We remember him also as a true friend.”
Qatar, a former British protectorate until 1971 with a population of roughly 3 million, most of them foreign workers, has been ruled by the Al Thani family since the mid-19th century. Its flags are set to remain at half-mast through the end of the mourning period Thursday.