One book by a writer from Qatar, set there, that gives a real sense of the place: The Corsair.
Very little writing from Qatar has been translated into English, so most reading on the country comes from historians and analysts. Qatari writers work mainly in Arabic, and Nabati, the vernacular poetry of the Gulf, is an old oral tradition meant to be recited aloud. The novel arrived late, but Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud's The Corsair, a historical adventure about the pirate Erhama bin Jaber, was among the first Qatari novels published in English.
Allen J. Fromherz's Qatar: A Modern History is the place to start, tracing the country from pearl diving through the oil era to Doha as a global city. Rosemarie Said Zahlan's The Creation of Qatar explains how the state emerged under its ruling families and British treaties. Mehran Kamrava's Qatar: Small State, Big Politics examines how a tiny peninsula gained influence through media and diplomacy.
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A historical novel of the 18th-century Gulf, showing Qatar's pearling and seafaring coast, tribal politics around Zubarah, and the maritime life of Rahmah bin Jabir.
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