The center organized a seminar entitled "Arabian Gulf and the Ottoman Archive". The lecture delivered by Professor Idris Bustan, a professor of Ottoman maritime history at Istanbul University. The lecturer was introduced by Dr. Ahmed Uysal, the director of the Turkish Cultural Center in Doha. The lecture highlighted the importance of the Ottoman Archive in Topkapı Sarayı, Dolmabahçe Palace, and Yıldız Palace in writing the history of the Arabian Gulf in general, and the history of Qatar in particular, for the Arab region was under Ottoman rule for more than four centuries. Hence, this archive is an essential, necessary, and important source for writing its history. The lecturer clarified that the various classifications of the archive, especially particularly the Registers of Missions, Naval Registers, Registers of Firmans, and Registers of Medals, contain information related to Arabia, the Gulf, and Qatar, as the Ottoman engagement in the region began early; dated back to 1534, and their presence remained nominal until the campaign of Midhat Pasha in 1871.
This campaign reestablished the Ottoman presence in the region. This brought Ottomans into conflict with the British in the Arabian Gulf, for the British had established their presence since concluding protection treaties with the Sheikhs of the Gulf in 1820. The Ottoman presence continued until the defeat of their empire in the First World War and their withdrawal from the region. At the conclusion of the seminar, the lecturer reviewed some of the correspondence that were exchanged between Sheikh Jasim Bin Hamad Bin Thani, ruler of Qatar (1878-1913) who assumed the position of Kaymakam of the Ottoman district of Qatar from 1871 until his death in 1913. He exchanged corresponded with Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and with the Porte. These correspondences show the importance of Qatar in the Ottoman strategy in the Arabian Gulf region.
