Qatar’s Former Ruler Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Dies at 74

Sheikh Hamad transformed Qatar from a small Gulf state into a global diplomatic, media, and investment power.

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, looks on before his meeting with India's prime minister in New Delhi, India, on April 14, 2005. B Mathur/Reuters

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former emir of Qatar who transformed the small Gulf state into a global player, has died at aged 74.

Qatar’s top government body, the Amiri Diwan, announced that Sheikh ​Hamad had died on Sunday morning.

Sheikh Hamad ruled Qatar for 18 years before stepping down in 2013, handing power to his then-33-year-old son Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Sheikh Hamad himself came to power in 1995 after removing his father, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani.

The State Department’s formal historical registry for the region lists that event as a “bloodless coup.”

Sheikh Hamad was the driving force behind Qatar’s international expansion, including the creation of the Al Jazeera news network.

Under his leadership, Qatar used its vast natural gas wealth to build Doha’s global influence. However, his independent foreign policy choices drew sharp criticism from Western security circles. 

In a 2017 report, the Heritage Foundation said that Sheikh Hamad was also very close to “one of the main spiritual leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian-born theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have banned the Brotherhood, designating it as a terrorist organization.”

The conservative think tank also said that Qatar “provides substantial resources to Hamas, a Palestinian group considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and others.”

“Qatar has also backed some nefarious groups in Syria, like Ahrar al-Sham, which has close connections to Al Qaeda. Hitting closer to home, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, lived in Qatar under the protection of the ruling family from 1992 to 1996,” it said.

Despite this, Sheikh Hamad’s rule paved the way for Qatar to become indispensable to Western defense strategy.

During his 18 years in power, Qatar’s natural gas production grew at a rate of 18 percent per year between 2003 and 2013, according to a 2023 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

According to a 2025 Congressional Research Service report on the country, President Joe Biden and Sheikh Hamad’s son Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in 2022 reaffirmed a “multifaceted partnership between the United States and Qatar, and the Biden Administration designated Qatar as a Major Non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ally.”

Qatar holds “the third-largest proven natural gas reserves in the world, and is a major exporter of liquefied natural gas,” the report said.

It said that since the mid-1990s, Qatari leaders have overseen “rapid, expansive economic growth; transformed the global media environment through the founding of the Al Jazeera satellite networks; engaged in complex and at times controversial diplomacy with U.S. partners and adversaries; and pursued a course of limited domestic political liberalization.”

Sheikh Hamad ordered and financed the creation of Al Jazeera Media Network in 1996, which became one of the world’s most influential broadcasters.

According to a 2016 report from the Al Jazeera Center for Studies, who published a 300-page book examining the impact of Al Jazeera Media Network on media, the channel “does not shy away from providing a critical counter-narrative.”

The U.S. think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies said in February that Qatar is an “authoritarian nation” whose “stringent media laws prohibit any criticism of Qatari leadership or policy, making Al Jazeera’s output anything but independent.”

Reuters contributed to this report.