House of Al Thani House of Al Thani The House of Thani () is the ruling family of Qatar, whose origins can be traced back to Al-Maadeed of the Banu Tamim tribal confederation. The Al Thanis can be traced back to Mudar bin Nizar, who settled at Gebrin oasis in southern Najd (present-day Saudi Arabia) before he moved to Qatar. Around the 17th century, the tribe lived in Ushayqir, a settlement north-east of Riyadh. They settled in Qatar around the 1740s. Their first settlement in Qatar was in the southern town of Sikak, and from there they moved north-west to Zubarah and Al Ruwais.
Country house poem Country house poem A country house poem is a poem in which the author compliments a wealthy patron or a friend through a description of his country house. Such poems were popular in early 17th century England. The genre may be regarded as a sub-set of the topographical poem. The model for the country house poem is Ben Jonson's "To Penshurst", published in 1616, which compliments Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, younger brother of Sir Philip Sidney on his Penshurst Place. (However, To Penshurst was preceded by five years by Emilia Lanyer’s A Description of Cookeham, one of the