Qatari literature traces its origins back to the 19th century. Originally, written poetry was the most common form of expression, but poetry later fell out of favor after Qatar began reaping the profits from oil exports in the mid-20th century and many Qataris abandoned their Bedouin traditions in favor of more urban lifestyles.
Due to the increasing number of Qataris who began receiving formal education during the 1950s and other significant societal changes, the following years saw the introduction of short stories, and later, novels. Poetry, particularly the predominant nabati form, retained some importance but would soon be overshadowed by other literary types. Unlike most other forms of art in Qatari society, females have been involved in the modern literature movement on a similar magnitude to males.
Early Qatari literature Literature in Qatar is typically divided into two periods: 1800–1950 and 1950–present. This divide is due to the vast societal changes in the mid-1900s resulting from the income generated by Qatar's oil exports. Oil revenues transformed the economy from ailing to prosperous, and the subsequent rural flight caused a decline in the popularity of many Bedouin traditions.
Poetry
Poems were the first literary form to be mass-produced by Qatari writers. Qatari ibn al-Fuja'a, a folk hero dating to the seventh century, was renowned for writing poetry. He led the Kharjite sect of Islam for a short period; his poems often glorified martyrdom. However, as a result of wide-spread illiteracy that historically prevailed in the Arabian Peninsula, poetry was more often spoken than written. It was seen as a verbal art that fulfilled essential social functions. Having a renowned poet among its ranks was a source of pride for tribes; it is the primary way age-old traditions are passed down through generations. Most often, poems were composed in the nabati form (also known as Bedouin poetry). Poems composed by females primarily focused on the theme of ritha, to lament. This type of poetry served as an elegy.
The beginnings of contemporary written poetry in Qatar date back to the early 1800s with Abdul Jalil Al-Tabatabai and Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Uthaymeen. The former poet was born in Basra but migrated to the flourishing coastal town of Zubarah at a young age. In September 1802, after the Sultan of Muscat and Oman Sultan bin Ahmad imposed a sea blockade of Zubarah, Al-Tabatabai wrote the following poem:
Al-Tabatabai later migrated from Qatar to Bahrain in the 1820s, following the lead of many other prominent residents of Zubarah. As for Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Uthaymeen, he was born in the mid-1800s in Saudi Arabia. He would go on to form a close relationship with Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, then ruler of Qatar, and even composed eulogies praising him. Nonetheless, according to academic Mohammed Al Qafud, these two poets did not leave a lasting impact on the poetry scene in Qatar, mainly due to the temporary nature of their stays in the country.
One of the first Qatari-born poets to leave an enduring impact on the peninsula's literary culture was Majid bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi, born in 1873. He expressed an interest in poetry from a young age, and his poems ranged in theme from war to his wife's death. Like most other poems produced in the Arabian Peninsula, his poems followed the nabati structure. Al-Khulaifi's poems were preserved and printed in a 1969 book entitled From Qatari Poetry alongside fellow poets Mohammed Al Fayhani and Ahmed Al Kuwari.
During Sheikh Jassim Al Thani's reign (1878–1913), he funded the printing of many Islamic texts. For instance, in 1892, he provided financing to print 100 copies of Mahmud al-Alusi's book Fathul Mannan: Completion of Laying the Foundation and Response to Brothers Reconciliation and then donated those copies to Muslim academics and students. The following year, in 1893, he gifted al-Alusi 100 copies of the book.
In the early and mid-1900s, two notable poets were Ahmad bin Yousef Al Jaber and Abdulrahman bin Qassim Al Maawda. Al-Jaber wrote many poems with religious as well as political themes, including a eulogy for Gamal Abdel Nasser, the recently deceased President of the United Arab Republic. The latter poet, Al Maawda, spent his life in Qatar and Bahrain. Similar to Al-Jaber, he wrote poems with a political slant, often about pan-Arabism.
Reference works The first almanac produced in Qatar and one of the earliest preserved local literary works is the Zubarah Almanac, authored in 1790 by the Maliki Sunni scholar ‘Abd al Rahman al-Zawāwī. This calendar outlined the months and days of the year, specified prayer times, and included observations on agriculture and seasonal variations.
Modern literature movement (1950–present) The emergence of contemporary literature in the 1950s coincides with the beginnings of the modern art movement. This was mainly because the increased prosperity from oil extraction activities allowed Qataris to receive formal education, adopt more settled lifestyles, and attend higher education institutes abroad to hone their creative skills. Other factors involved in triggering a literary revolution were the improved social standing of women, the advent of a national identity, and the introduction of literary organizations, journalism, and mass immigration.
Qatar and most other Persian Gulf countries borrowed practices and writing styles from the more developed literary cultures of other Arab countries like Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.
Reference works
The Qatari Almanac () was an annual almanac authored by religious scholar Sheikh Abdullah Ibrahim Al-Ansari that integrated traditional and astronomical knowledge, offering invaluable insights into prayer timings, seasonal weather patterns, and local celestial navigation across the Persian Gulf region. Following his father's legacy, Al-Ansari published the almanac from 1957–58, incorporating knowledge from ancient Arabic texts and almanacs. In 1966, the almanac was formally declared as the official calendar of Qatar by Emir Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani. According to researcher Daniel Varisco in 1990, "[...] the Qatari Almanac has become a standard source for much of the Gulf. Indeed, it is difficult to find an informant in Qatar who is not familiar with the almanac."
The Qatari Almanac integrated formal astronomical knowledge with local timekeeping systems. It featured charts detailing the zodiacal months, lunar stations, planets, the lunar Hijri and Christian solar calendars, shadow lengths for calculating prayer times, and the navigational system based on Canopus, among other data. It also offered insights into the distances between Doha and other Qatari towns in kilometers and included poetry and sayings reflecting traditional knowledge of environmental shifts with each season.
Al-Ansari’s work not only aligned the Hijri calendar with the zodiac but also preserved a treasure trove of star lore dating back to the pre-Islamic period in the Arabian Peninsula, encapsulated in a genre known as anwa. One of the seminal texts in this tradition was the Kitab al-Anwa' by Ibn Qutayba, who provided extensive descriptions of Arabic star names, traditional meteorological beliefs, and seasonal characteristics.
Additionally, the almanac chronicled the practical use of shadow lengths to determine prayer times before the advent of modern clocks, a method still observable in many older mosques. The almanac also described local seasonal terminologies and the significant navigational and pastoral practices dictated by the stars, such as the rising of Canopus marking the onset of autumn rains and pastoral migrations. Al-Ansari notes six separate seasons, each spanning two months in length: wasmi (corresponding to autumn rains), shita (winter), rabi (winter to spring), sayf (spring), hamim (early summer), and khareef (late summer to early autumn). Al-Ansari's method of classifying the seasons soon became commonplace, appearing in Saudi Arabian and other Arab almanacs. As modern timekeeping methods became more prevalent, the almanac was made redundant.
Magazines Qatar's Department of Information published the first weekly magazine 1969, called Doha Magazine. Abdullah Hussein Al Al-Naama produced the first weekly magazine devoted to culture the same year, entitled Al Uruba; this would later be branded as Al Arab. Throughout the 1970s, at least 14 more periodicals appeared, allowing Qatari writers with platforms to showcase their works. This made short stories and traditional poems widely accessible to the masses for the first time.
Poetry
Although poetry no longer dwarfs other literary forms in importance, it is still a long-honored tradition that has attracted new writers in the mid-and late-1900s and even into the 21st century. Poets such as Sheikh Mubarak bin Saif Al Thani, Hassan Al Naama, and Hajar Ahmed Hajar were prominent figures in the late 1900s. Around this time, females such as Kaltham Jaber, Hessa Al Awadhi, and Zakiya Mal Allah also started composing poems. Poems were being published in newspapers, magazines, and books on a large scale for the first time. Mubarak Al Thani even published a poem that would serve as Qatar's national anthem, adopted in 1996.
Mohammed al-Ajami, a 21st-century Qatari poet, was noted for his political poetry that touched on subjects such as the Arab Spring. He was imprisoned in 2012 allegedly for publicly reading a poem in which he criticized Qatar's emir. After several different sentences were handed down, he was finally released in March 2016, after four years of detention.
Short stories Short stories first became popular in the 1970s. Yousef Ni'ma introduced the first two collections of short stories in 1970, entitled Bint Al-Khaleej (Daughter of the Gulf) and Liqa fi Beirut (A Meeting in Bayrut). He went on to publish several more short stories throughout the proceeding decades.
Kaltham Jaber was the first Qatari woman to author a collection of short stories, doing so in 1978. The collection was titled Ania wa Ghabat as-Samt wa at-Taraddud, and the main focus of these stories is the desire for Qatari women to have a role in restructuring social norms and cultural conceptions. Other women who later wrote short stories include Mai Salem, Abeer Al Suwaidi, Umm Aktham and Noura Al Saad. Similar to most Qatari women writers of the period, Umm Aktham (the pseudonym of Fatimah Turki) was a vocal proponent of women's rights. She wrote short stories criticizing Qatar's treatment of women but also offered fair criticisms of Western countries so as not to draw the ire of conservatives.
Novels
Shu'a' Khalifa and her sister Dalal Khalifa were the first two Qatari novelists to publish their works. They accomplished this feat with the publishing of three separate novels in 1993: al-Ubur ila al-haqiqa (Passage to Truth), written by Shu'a' in 1987, Ahlam al-Bahr al-Qadima (The Old Dreams of the Sea), written by Shu'a' in 1990 and Usturat al-Insan wa-l-buhayra (The Myth of the Man and the Lake), written by Dalal. The sisters would go on to publish four more novels by 2000. Their novels center around social limitations faced by women and scrutinize long-held social values. Another important theme in their novels is the rapid societal transition experienced by Qatar since the discovery of oil.