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Tenbek (; also spelled as Tinbak and Tinbij) is a historical village located in the municipality of Al Daayen in northeastern Qatar. It is situated approximately north of the capital Doha, near the city of Al Khor, and lies just west of the Al Khor Coastal Highway.
Nearby settlements include Al Rehayya to the north and Simaisma to the south-east.
J.G. Lorimer's Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf (1908) records Tenbek (as Tinbak), describing it as a Bedouin encampment featuring a fort and six masonry wells sunk to a depth of approximately . These wells yielded potable water and were set in stony terrain roughly four miles south of Al Khor and near the coast. Tinbak was also marked in a 1930s map produced by the British Political Residency in Bushire, alongside nearby settlements such as Aswaija (Umm Suwayya), Al Uqdah (Al Egda), and Sumesma (Simaisma).
The establishment of permanent residence in Tenbek is attributed to Mohammed bin Amer Al Humaidi, who migrated from Al Daayen to the nearby area of Al Ghaf during the collapse of the pearl trade in the early 20th century. In 1936, he settled in Tenbek, constructing two rooms and purchasing farmland from a member of the Al Kaabi tribe. The village population grew during and after a period of famine between 1936 and 1948, as displaced Qatari families returned from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. By 1946, several families, including those of Jaber Al Humaidi and Abdullah Al Humaidi, had re-established homes in Tenbek and its vicinity. In 1967, the village residents moved to government-provided housing, later referred to as "Modern Tenbek". Basic infrastructure, such as electricity and piped water, was introduced in 1973.
The village is characterized by irregular, informally developed footpaths of varying width. These trails connect houses directly and are arranged in a loose hierarchy: wide outer paths for livestock, narrower internal alleys, and pedestrian-only lanes between dwellings. The paving material commonly used was subaan, a coastal mixture of shells and sand resistant to wind erosion.
The architectural layout adhered to traditional Qatari domestic patterns, with each house organized around an internal courtyard. The courtyard served as the nucleus of the household, offering both privacy and multifunctional space for gardens, storage, or future expansion. Functional rooms, such as kitchens, storage rooms, and guest spaces were typically arranged around the courtyard with indirect access to ensure privacy. Some households shared facilities; for instance, two adjacent homes might share a kitchen or storeroom.
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