Al Jumail () is an abandoned village in north-east

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

located in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Al Shamal Al Shamal () is a municipality in Qatar. Its seat is Madinat ash Shamal and it is considered to be one of the major cities in Qatar, although its population is barely over 7,000. The seat's name translates to "city of the north". Ras Rakan, t ...

. It was an important town in the northern peninsula prior to the 21st century. Nearby settlements include Ruwayda to the south-west and

Yusufiyah Yusufiyah (; also transliterated as Yusafiyah, Youssifiyah or Yusifiyah, occasionally prefixed with Al-) is a regional township in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq. Background Yusufiyah is named after Yūsuf (Joseph). It is about south of Baghd ...

and

Abu Dhalouf Abu Dhalouf () is a town on the north coast of Qatar, in the municipality of Al Shamal. It was demarcated in 1988 and is bounded by Madinat ash Shamal to the immediate east, with Ar-Ruʼays to the immediate east of Madinat ash Shamal. Etymology I ...

to the north.

Etymology

The town's name comes from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

word "jameel", which means "beautiful"; a reference to the trees that grow in the area year-round. Various alternative

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

s of the name are used, such as ''Al Jemail'', ''Al Jamil'', ''Lumail'', and ''Yamail''.

History

In the 1820s, George Barnes Brucks was tasked with preparing the first British survey of the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

. He documented Al Jumail in this survey, referring to it as "Yamale" and concisely stating that "Yamale, in lat. 26° 5' 40" N., long. 51° 14' E., is a small village." In J.G. Lorimer's

Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf The ''Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia'' (nicknamed ''Lorimer'') is a two-volume encyclopedia compiled by John Gordon Lorimer. The ''Gazetteer'' was published in secret by the British government in India in 1908 and 1915 a ...

written in the early 1900s, he makes mention of ''Jumail'', noting its location as "midway between

and Khor Hassan", and states that it is also called ''Yamail'' or ''Lumail''. He goes on to state that there are remains of houses and a fort.

Geography

Al Jumail is situated along Qatar's northern region. The coastline near Al Jumail includes various water

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...

s, both circular and elongated in shape. The area between Al Jumail and

Ar Ru'ays AR, Ar, or A&R may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Artists and repertoire * ''AR'' (EP), the debut EP by Addison Rae Periodicals * '' Absolute Return + Alpha'', a hedge fund publication *''The Adelaide Review'', an Australia ...

is characterized by a narrowing of the coastal strip. This contrasts with the wider coastal areas found to the east. As part of the northern

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

region of Qatar, the surrounding area is notable for its flat terrain and lacks complex topographical features.

Gallery

Ruined houses in Al Jumail Qatar.jpg, Ruined houses in Al Jumail. Al Hussein Mosque in Al Jumeil Qatar.jpg, Al Hussein Mosque in Al Jumail overlooked by dark clouds. Dilapidated mosque in Al Jumail Qatar.jpg, The area around Al Hussein Mosque.

References

{{Al Shamal Municipality Al Shamal