Zubarah (also Al Zubarah or Az Zubarah) (Arabic: الزبارة) is a ruined and deserted town located in the northwestern coast of the Qatar peninsula about 105 km from the Qatari capital of Doha, part of Madinat ash Shamal municipality. It was also a fortified town with an inner and an outer wall.
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Zubarah was originally the center of power of the Qatar.
The Utub, settled at Zubarah in the second half of the eighteenth century and established the town of Zubarah and its port making it one of the most important port and pearl trading centers in the Persian Gulf in the 18th Century. built a fort outside the town of Zubarah and named it Murair.
In the 20th century by July 1937, Zubarah, by then largely in ruins, was taken by the Qatari Al Thani family and remained a possession of Qatar after independence in 1971. Bahrain continued to dispute Qatari sovereignty over Zubarah until the issue of Zubarah was settled to Qatar's side, other territorial issues have also been settled to Bahrain's side such as the Hawar Islands by the International Court of Justice in 2001. For more, see Foreign relations of Qatar.
Zubarah is noted for its old fortress built in 1938 under orders of Qatari Sheikh 'Abdu'llah bin Qasim Al-Thani and restored in 1987 as a museum. It is different from the Murair fort that was built outside the town of Zubarah.
The planned Qatar–Bahrain Friendship Bridge, slated to be the longest fixed link in the world, will connect the northwest coast of Qatar near Zubarah with Bahrain south of Manama.