Matt Bevan

Qatar is drawn on a map of the Middle East but apart from its roughly sketched border, fun facts are very much lacking.

Apparently, Encyclopedia Britannica knew nothing about it, not even its population.

And that's because... The Sheikhdom of Qatar is geographically prominent, but otherwise one of the least known of the Arab Gulf states.

It was essentially famous for not being famous.

But perhaps more than any Gulf state, Qatar's history is shrouded in obscurity.

And look, to a certain extent, that is understandable.

Qatar is a barren, flat, horrifically hot, windswept peninsula on the edge of Saudi Arabia.

It had very little connection with the outside world.

In fact, in one of the country's museums, it's noted that it wasn't until the 1960s that football was first introduced to the country.

If Britannica had checked, they'd have found that Qatar's population in 1961 was just 36,000, and yet it had its own royal family.

There's no question that Sheikh Khalifa and his family rule the Emirate in every respect.

Now, usually royal families are ripe for scandal and intrigue, but the royal family of Qatar, the Altanis, are almost bizarrely boring, apart from the fact that they have a fondness for conducting coups while the Emir, the leader of the country, is on holiday.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, who's just celebrated 10 years as ruler after deposing his cousin in a bloodless royal coup.

The former emir made the grave mistake of going on holiday to Iran.

And while he was away, his cousin Khalifa changed the locks and bingo bango, he became the new emir.

Now, why pull a sneaky coup to take charge of a barren peninsula populated by fishermen?

Well,

They'd found something under their feet.

Its oil reserves are not large by the standards of its bigger neighbours, but it has got gas to exploit for the next 500 years.

So, 500 years worth of gas and a very tiny population.