Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani
Encyclopedia
Emir Shaikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani GCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
GCMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(born 1932) was the Emir of Qatar from 1972 until he was deposed by his son Hamad bin Khalifa
Hamad bin Khalifa
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the ruling Emir of the State of Qatar since 1995.Sheikh Hamad was the appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar between 1977 and 1995 and at the same time Minister of Defense. In the early 1980s he led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets the Qatar's basic economic...
in 1995.
Born in Rayyan, he was a son of Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani and grandson of Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani
Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani
Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammed Al Thani was born in 1871 at Doha, and on 17 July 1913, he became the ruler of Qatar. Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire accorded their recognition to Shaikh Abdullah and his successors’ right to rule over the whole of the Qatari Peninsula...
.
Career
On 22 February 1972, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani became the Emir of QatarQatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
.
Upon becoming the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa started the process of the reorganization of the government. The first task of Sheikh Khalifa was to appoint a Foreign Minister and an adviser to advise
ADVISE
ADVISE is a research and development program within the United States Department of Homeland Security Threat and Vulnerability Testing and Assessment portfolio...
the Emir in the day-to-day affairs of the country.
On 19 April 1972, he amended the Constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
and enlarged the Cabinet by appointing more ministers. Diplomatic relations were also established with a number of the foreign countries at ambassadorial level.
On 18 July 1989, the Council of Ministers was reshuffled for the first time, replacing most of the previous ministers and consisting of 15 ministers. The Cabinet was again reshuffled under the Premiership of Sheikh Khalifa on 1 September 1992, enlarging it to 17 members.
Economy
The state revenueRevenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
from oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
sector had increased as the result of the rising of a number of production sharing agreements with foreign oil companies. Two production-sharing agreements were signed with the Standard Oil Company of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
in January 1985 and Amoco
Amoco
Amoco Corporation, originally Standard Oil Company , was a global chemical and oil company, founded in 1889 around a refinery located in Whiting, Indiana, United States....
in February 1986. In January 1989, another production sharing agreement was signed between Qatar and the France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
State owned oil company Elf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine was a French oil company which merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. The new company changed its name to Total in 2003...
.
In the middle of 1991, production of gas in the Qatar North Field, the world’s largest single field of non-associated gas commenced, which has proven gas of reserves of around 250 trillion cubic feet and probable reserves of 500 trillion cubic feet. While the search for finding more oil deposits in Qatar continued, Qatar built an industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
base in order to reduce dependence on the oil sector.
Qatar Coup
While Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani was staying in GenevaGeneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, in 1995 his son Hamad bin Khalifa
Hamad bin Khalifa
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the ruling Emir of the State of Qatar since 1995.Sheikh Hamad was the appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar between 1977 and 1995 and at the same time Minister of Defense. In the early 1980s he led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets the Qatar's basic economic...
deposed him in a bloodless coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
. He lived in exile in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from the day he was deposed and he returned to Qatar in 2004.
He was more conservative than his son, but in general he is thought to be the one who began the country's process of modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
.
Children
He has five sons and ten daughters from four wives.- First Lady Sheikha Amna Bint Hassan Bin Abdulla Al-Thani
- Abdelaziz Bin Khalifa, Petroleum and Finance Minister 1972-1991
- Shaikha Noora Bint Khalifa
- Second Lady from Al-Atiyyah family
- Hamad bin KhalifaHamad bin KhalifaSheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the ruling Emir of the State of Qatar since 1995.Sheikh Hamad was the appointed Heir Apparent of Qatar between 1977 and 1995 and at the same time Minister of Defense. In the early 1980s he led the Supreme Planning Council, which sets the Qatar's basic economic...
, Emir of Qatar since 1995 - Shaikha Hissa Bint Khalifa
- Shaikha Amina Bint Khalifa
- Shaikha Jafla Bint Khalifa
- Shaikha Amal Bint Khalifa
- Hamad bin Khalifa
- Third Lady Sheikha Rudha bint Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani
- Abdullah bin Khalifah Al ThaniAbdullah bin Khalifah Al Thanistyle="float:right;"| Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani was a Prime Minister of Qatar from 29 October 1996 to 3 April 2007...
- Muhammed Bin Khalifa
- Shaikha Aisha Bint Khalifa
- Shaikha Mouza Bint Khalifa
- Shaikha Maryam Bint Khalifa
- Abdullah bin Khalifah Al Thani
- Fourth Lady Mouza Bint Ali Bin Saud Al-Thani
- Jassim Bin Khalifa
- Shaikha Al-Anud Bint Khalifa
- Shaikha Nouf Bint Khalifa