Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former emir of Qatar known as the Father Amir, has died aged 74, the Qatari royal court announced on Sunday, 12 July 2026, prompting a four-day national mourning period.
Sheikh Hamad ruled the small, gas-rich Gulf state from 1995 until 2013, a period in which Qatar rose from a modest peninsula economy to one of the wealthiest nations on earth per capita, as reported by The National.
His death removes one of the defining architects of modern Qatar.
How Sheikh Hamad reshaped Qatar
Sheikh Hamad took power in 1995 in a bloodless palace transition and set about turning Qatar’s vast liquefied natural gas reserves into extraordinary wealth. Under his rule the country built the infrastructure, sovereign wealth holdings and global profile that later carried it to hosting a football World Cup.
He also founded the Al Jazeera news channel in 1996, a broadcaster that grew into one of the most influential and, at times, most controversial media networks in the Arab world and beyond.
The station reshaped how the region consumed news.
Beyond broadcasting, his government poured petrodollars into global assets, from European property and football clubs to airlines and banks.
That gave Doha a reach far larger than its population of a few million people, and much of that footprint outlived his time on the throne.
Sheikh Hamad’s rare abdication and the mourning that followed
In 2013 Sheikh Hamad did something almost unheard of among hereditary Gulf rulers.
He voluntarily handed power to his son and heir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, stepping back from the throne while still in reasonable health and earning the lasting title of Father Amir.
Announcing his death, the Amiri Diwan said the country mourned “the great loss to the nation of the late, may God have mercy on him, His Highness the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who passed away this morning.”
How world leaders remembered Sheikh Hamad
Tributes arrived quickly from abroad. In a statement issued on behalf of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, the palace said they were “deeply saddened to learn of the death of His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Father Amir of the State of Qatar.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, added that the late ruler “was a great leader and statesman whose wisdom, foresight and dedication to public service, transformed Qatar into a modern, prosperous and globally respected nation.”
Qatar has declared four days of public mourning from Sunday, with government offices closed and flags lowered to half-mast.
Attention now turns to the funeral rites and the tributes expected to continue through the week as the current emir, Sheikh Tamim, leads the country in grief.
