Al-Bida'

Al-Bidda was once Qatar’s largest town, before its offshoot Doha became more prominent. It occupied stony desert about forty or fifty feet above sea level, with reefs forming a natural harbour that could receive vessels of moderate draft. The earliest documented mention comes from a Carmelite convent account of 1681, which records a ruler and a fort at Bide. The name itself comes from an Arabic word meaning “to invent,” a reference to the founding of a settlement in previously uninhabited ground.

Al-Bidda’s people were tied closely to the sea. Pearl fishing employed most of the population, while Qatari tribes, Bahraini shopkeepers and immigrants from al-Hasa made up the working town.