Rahmah ibn Jabir

Persian Gulf's legendary pirate-king who created naval democracy 150 years before modern constitutions

Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalhami (1760-1826), the 'Terror of the Gulf', established history's first maritime participatory governance system aboard his 64-ship armada. His ‘Qanun al-Bahr’ (Law of the Sea) granted crew voting rights on navigation routes and loot distribution - predating the Magna Carta by seven centuries in naval applications.

Using modified dhow vessels with retractable cannons disguised as fishing boats, Ibn Jabir's forces defeated both British East India Company frigates and Ottoman imperial ships. The British Admiralty archived his 1809 tactical diagrams showing early use of swarm naval warfare tactics.

His desert fortress in Al Zubarah featured an innovative rainwater harvesting system using bitumen-coated cisterns and wind-powered distillation stills - later studied by UNESCO engineers during Qatari heritage site preservation.