History and Significance
Fereej Al Najada is one of the old heritage neighborhoods in Doha that dates back to the beginning of the last century. As a district, it has several features and characteristics, the most significant of which is that it has retained its urban structure, and today it is considered one of the last remaining patches of heritage buildings within the city of Doha, which still maintains its unity as an integrated mass and a unified connected fabric in what is traditionally known as “Al Freej”.
Despite the rapid development and fast-paced change of the area, the sector still preserves a large part of its fabric, while the areas adjacent to the site have undergone multiple changes over the years, including a change in use, and modification of road lanes. The fact that Al Najadah has remained unchanged identified the need for further study and assessment.
Undoubtedly, the city of Doha contains a number of traditional heritage buildings and palaces that are older than Al Najadah, however they are scattered and spread out across the modern urban plan of Doha. What distinguishes Al Najadah is its continuation as a cluster without sub-divisions and without any major loss of the interconnected fabric, which gave it the opportunity to continue and not disappear within the rapid urban development in the city of Doha at the end of the last century and at the beginning of this century. If we move away a little from the city of Doha, the urban structure of Al Najadah can be seen in the villages located in the north of Qatar, which usually contain a single mosque and a common Majlis. Although the residents of the villages lived in separate houses, the village was seen as a “one large residence” where all the residents of the village are living ‘together” interconnected and interdependent, which was essential to survival. If we look at Al Najadah from that perspective, we see a kind of this formation as if it were a village within a city!! The area and its residents relied heavily on each other and on the Majlis, which contributed to the stability of the area despite the rather small size compared to nearby areas of Al Asmakh, Mushaireb, Al Ghanem and others.