His Estate Has 3 Swimming Pools and a Stable. He Says He’s Not Rich.

AL KHOR, Qatar — Each afternoon, Muhammad Al Misned leaves his workplace in Doha, the Qatari capital, jumps into his white land cruiser and drives to his second dwelling within the desert. There, behind a castle-like facade, is his sanctuary — with three swimming swimming pools, two soccer fields, a bowling alley, a steady, a volleyball court docket and one fastidiously manicured hedge maze, amongst different luxuries.

The day by day go to to his property, within the northern city of Al Khor, has provided him much-needed respite because the males’s soccer World Cup turned Qatar into an exhausting, round the clock carnival, he informed me. As soon as the event is over, he plans to recuperate in London, the place he’ll rent a private coach to work out and eat each meal with him, lest he ingest too many energy. However like his desert dwelling, that is all — Mr. Al Misned stated — fairly regular.

“I’m not a wealthy particular person,” he defined.

Solely a era in the past in Qatar, this nonchalance towards apparent markers of wealth would have been unimaginable.

For a lot of the twentieth century, the nation was little greater than a barren desert of fishermen and pearl divers who made their dwelling off the salty water of the Persian Gulf. However the discovery of gasoline fields off its northern shore within the Seventies — and the ensuing power growth — reversed the nation’s fortunes. Qataris now get pleasure from a few of the highest common incomes on the earth — together with free well being care, free increased training, housing assist, comfortable authorities jobs, monetary assist for newlyweds and beneficiant subsidies.

A lot of that private wealth is hidden within the privateness of Qatari properties, that are not often opened to outsiders. And it isn’t shared equally. The nation is extremely stratified, with roughly two million migrant laborers enlisted to facilitate an opulent way of life for about 380,000 Qatari residents.

Though the nation is just the dimensions of Connecticut, it typically appears as if these two worlds couldn’t be additional aside: The minimal wage for migrant laborers is $275 a month. By one measure, Qataris’ common annual earnings is round $115,000.

As one Turkish building employee within the nation put it, there isn’t any such factor as a poor Qatari; there are solely the wealthy, the richer and the richest, he stated.

Nonetheless. Mr. Al Misned, 57, insists that, by Qatari requirements, he isn’t rich.

Mr. Al Misned grew up in Al Khor, the place his father labored in building and raised his kids in a low-slung mud brick dwelling. By the point Mr. Al Misned was a youngster, the state was flush with gasoline cash and had begun paying for its brightest college students to attend universities overseas — a coverage designed to domesticate a category of English-speaking Qataris capable of effortlessly work together with Western buyers.

Mr. Al Misned attended college in Colorado, and now owns his personal consultancy agency with investments in building initiatives throughout Qatar, England and the USA.

His desert house is about an hour’s drive from Doha by way of a desolate stretch the place beige earth melds with a washed-out sky. The journey ends at a palatial gate, manned by a guard, who, on a latest go to, swung open the gate to disclose a lush, inexperienced panorama divided by slender roads lined with palm timber.

Mr. Al Misned welcomed a photographer and me at one of many homes on the property, after which drove us on a tour of the property, which additionally features a shisha lounge and a fitness center.

Unfold throughout the property had been 1,000 sheep, eight Arabian oryx, 4 horses, two camels and one falcon — what Mr. Al Misned referred to as his working farm — cultivated over the previous decade.

He was, although, not a lot of a falcon man, he defined because the chicken of prey perched on his arm. His good friend — who’s a falcon man — had given the animal to him as a present earlier this 12 months.

“I stated as soon as, if I earn money, I need to have a farm and I need to construct myself a resort to reside in,” he stated. “So if you happen to go to Doha, my home is sort of a small resort truly.”

At one level between the steady and fitness center, Mr. Al Misned veered off the highway and throughout a pristine stretch of garden to point out us one in every of a number of guesthouses. As we pulled away, he greeted a number of groundskeepers from South Asia and East Africa, planting recent patches of sod.

“The minute you say, ‘salaam alaikum’ — ‘good day,’ you realize — you give them loads. They simply really feel revered,” Mr. Al Misned stated, driving again throughout the yard.

The employees had been a part of the inflow of migrants who’ve reshaped Qatar’s inhabitants in latest many years — and who typically should cope with smug bosses and, generally, abuse. The treatment of those who built the infrastructure for the World Cup drew widespread criticism earlier than the event, and has been a degree of controversy all through the video games.

The opulent property appeared like an apt reflection of Mr. Al Misned’s era, a lot of whom grew up with little to no electrical energy and now drive luxurious vehicles. The stark reversal of fortune appeared to breed a worry of fleetingness, as if wealth may vanish as shortly because it had appeared — so they need to spend cash, and spend it lavishly, whereas it lasts.

Later that afternoon, Mr. Al Misned’s spouse, Alanood; their daughters; and feminine relations gathered in the primary clubhouse to observe the Qatar vs. Senegal soccer match. Consistent with Qatari customized, the lads vacated the world.

The ladies lounged on sofas in entrance of a giant tv, their kicked-off four-inch stilettos scattered throughout the ground. The women wore deep purple Qatari jerseys and thin denims.

When Qatari strikers wove by way of Senegal’s protection, the ladies erupted in cheers — “We would like a purpose! We would like a purpose!” — and pounded on conventional drums, laughing.

Each couple of minutes, employees members sporting purple clothes and white cotton gloves made the rounds with trays brimming with bowls of sweets, cappuccinos in gold-rimmed cups and a pot of Arabic espresso. One handed by with a bouquet of flowers so massive that I may see solely the legs of the housekeeper carrying it.

Throughout halftime, Alanood — who has a distinct final identify from her husband and requested that solely her first identify be used out of privateness considerations — and her friends stepped outdoors for a jaunt across the property in golf carts. A lot of the girls had been uneasy drivers, accustomed to being pushed by their chauffeurs, so I took the wheel of my cart. As we zoomed amongst palm timber wrapped in shimmering lights, they sang wedding ceremony songs.

Returning to the clubhouse, Alanood informed me that she and her household had attended the opening recreation of the World Cup, when Qatar performed Ecuador. However they left at halftime, dissatisfied by each Qatar’s defeat and the followers. Qatari males within the stadiums wore thobes, the standard gown, as a substitute of soccer jerseys, and there was no screaming, no arm flailing, no electrical energy within the crowd — which she had anticipated after the hype for the world’s largest sporting occasion.

“Everybody is aware of everybody, in order that they don’t need to embarrass themselves,” her teenage daughter defined.

I requested Alanood whether or not she had visited Doha’s souk — now filled with crowds of overseas followers — or any of the music festivals or carnivals the nation had placed on for the event.

“I can not,” she stated firmly. “There are TV crews there and, you realize, you don’t know who would possibly take a photograph of you.”

“I like my privateness,” she added.

That was a chorus I’d lengthy heard from Qatari associates. They typically stated that regardless of Qatar’s conservative fame and low-key vibes among the many few bars in Doha, something went within the privateness of Qataris properties — and that they preferred that privateness. With the beginning of the event, it was as if the nation had been turned inside out, with revelry lengthy contained to the house abruptly taking part in out on the road, although largely amongst overseas guests.

When the sport towards Senegal ended (Qatar misplaced, once more), the ladies sat down for a three-course meal beneath a cover of twinkling lights and accompanied by a reside singer. Round 9 p.m., the friends layered abayas over their denims and silk blouses, clasped their Hermes purses and headed for the gate.

After Alanood gave me a heat hug, I requested whether or not she would attend one other World Cup match.

“Possibly,” she stated. “My good friend would possibly get a skybox.”

Erin Schaff contributed reporting.