Qatar officially the State of Qatar, is an emirate in the Middle East or Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the larger Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south; otherwise the Persian Gulf surrounds the state.

The Qatari peninsula juts 100 miles (160 km) into the Persian Gulf from Saudi Arabia. Much of the country consists of a low, barren plain, covered with sand. To the southeast lies the spectacular Khor al Adaid or 'Inland Sea', an area of rolling sand dunes surrounding an inlet of the Gulf.

The highest point in Qatar occurs in the Jebel Dukhan to the west, a range of low limestone outcrops running north-south from Zikrit through Umm Bab to the southern border, and reaching about 295 feet (90 m) ASL. This area also contains Qatar's main onshore oil deposits, while the natural gas fields lie offshore, to the northwest of the peninsula.

Qatar explicitly uses Wahhabi law as the basis of its government, and the vast majority of its citizens follow this specific Islamic doctrine. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab founded Wahhabism, a puritanical version of Islam which takes a literal interpretation of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. In the eighteenth century, Abd Al-Wahhab formed a compact with the al-Saud family, the founders of Saudi Arabia.

In the early twentieth century, when the Al-Thanis realized that converting to the doctrine of their larger neighbor might bode well for the survival of their régime, they imported Wahhabi Islam from Saudi Arabia to Qatar.

Perhaps as an effect of the importation, Wahhabism takes a less strict form in Qatar than in Saudi Arabia, though it still governs a large portion of Qatari mores and rituals. For example, almost all Qatari women wear the black abaya (also donned in Saudi Arabia) - however, the government of Qatar does not universally impose the style on foreigners, or Qatari females. The abaya is mainly passed down from generation to generation and is still present because of the traditional values of the country.

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