In 1847, the Al-Thani Family moved from Fuwairat to Doha, under the leadership of Mohammad Bin Thani. He was born in Fuwairat and upon the death of his father Thani Ibn Mohammad; he became the leader of his tribe at Fuwairat. Eventually, Mohammad Bin Thani extended his influence throughout Qatar and strengthened his position externally too by making alliance with Faisal Bin Turki, the Emir of the second Saudi state, who himself paid a visit to Qatar in early 1851. 

By early 1860s, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Thani emerged as the most important figure not only in Qatar but also in the whole Arabian Peninsula. On 12 September 1868, he signed a Treaty with Colonel Lewis Pelly, the British Resident in the Gulf, which recognized the independence of Qatar. In 1871, he made a request to the Ottomans at Al-Hasa for protection against any external attack and in the following year Ottoman occupation of Doha had been completed. In the year 1876, he handed over the administrative responsibility to his son Sheikh Jassim Bin Mohammad Bin Thani due to old age. Mohammad Bin Thani died in 1879