The Amiri Diwan of Qatar announced the death of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on Sunday morning, at age 74. The former emir, styled “the Father Emir” after ceding power to his son Sheikh Tamim in 2013, died following an undisclosed illness. Qatar declared four days of national mourning to run from Monday, with flags flown at half-mast and government offices closed; burial is to take place at Lusail cemetery, where receptions for foreign dignitaries will be held. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, extended condolences on social media, reflecting a relationship the late emir carefully cultivated.

Sheikh Hamad’s 18-year rule, which began with a bloodless coup against his father in 1995, was defined by the deployment of Qatar’s immense North Field gas reserves to finance a sweeping transformation. According to economic analysts in Doha, the emirate’s liquefied natural gas exports, initiated in 1996, propelled it to become the world’s largest LNG exporter by 2006, funding the creation of Education City, sovereign wealth investments across the globe, and a rapid infrastructure buildup that culminated in hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The launch of the satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera in 1996, officials in Doha note, gave Qatar a media instrument that projected its voice from North Africa to Afghanistan.

That projection of influence extended to an activist foreign policy that, viewed from Washington and European capitals, made Qatar an often indispensable mediator. Doha hosted negotiations between Lebanese factions, brokered a 2011 peace document for Darfur, and facilitated Palestinian unity talks. In a move ultimately consequential for the West’s Afghan exit, it opened an official Taliban office that enabled US-Taliban negotiations. Yet, regional diplomats and analysts in Gulf capitals stress that this same period saw Doha deepen ties with Iran, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood, angering Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. Those tensions, Western officials note, erupted into a full economic and diplomatic blockade of Qatar in 2017 that lasted over three years.

The late emir’s voluntary handover to his son in 2013 was a rarity among Gulf monarchies and was designed to ensure continuity. Under Sheikh Tamim, Qatar has maintained the gas-focused economic strategy and the diplomatic dual-use of relationships with both Western allies and Islamist movements, while gradually repairing Gulf ties. It is not yet known which foreign heads of state will attend the obsequies in Lusail, but the Amiri Diwan has said Sheikh Tamim will receive foreign officials there on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The quiet passing of the architect of modern Qatar’s rise thus leaves his successors with the enduring balancing act he fashioned.