Al-'Udayd

Al-Udayd lies beside a deep tidal inlet at the southeastern edge of the Qatar peninsula. Known as the Inland Sea, the inlet reaches into a landscape of dunes and salt flats, where the desert meets the waters of the Gulf. Its sheltered shores offered a place for seafarers to settle, though the coast also became a focus of rivalry among neighbouring powers.

In the 1830s members of the Qubaisat branch of Bani Yas left Abu Dhabi and established themselves at al-Udayd. Maritime raids brought British intervention in 1836, and the following year the ruler of Abu Dhabi sent forces against the settlement. Its houses and defences were dismantled and its inhabitants returned to Abu Dhabi, ending this first period of settlement there.