Little is known of Qatar's early history although Qatar was respectively inhabited by stone age people, the Kingdom of Dilmun, probably visited by the Greeks and Romans and periodically by travelling nomads.
Coffee is extremely important in Qatari culture. Arabian coffee is of a very high quality and made from a lightly roasted bean spiced with cardamom and either sweetened or served with dates. It is drunk in small, thimble-like cups in homes and offices.
Ashurra, is celebrated by Sunni Muslims (Qatar is mostly Sunni, although there are a number of Shiite expats living and working here) as the day Noah's ark found ground, the day Abraham was born and the day the Kabaah*, the holiest place in Islam, was built.