Madinat Hamad or Hamad Town is a city in northern Bahrain. It was a municipality of Bahrain in the central part of the country. It was split off of the municipality of Ar Rifa' wa al Mintaqah al Janubiyah in 1991. Its territory is now in the Northern Governorate. Its name refers to the current king of Bahrain, Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah. Hamad Town was setup in 1984 as a 'housing town', where the government built council houses for those who could not afford the ever increasing house prices in other parts of the country. In 1990 the government opened the door of Bahrain to the Kuwaiti people who were suffering from the effects of the gulf war with Iraq. It provided free houses and schools in Hamad Town allowed them to use the town’s facilities. The Kuwaitis returned home in early 1991 at the end of the war. In 2001 the government gave the council houses to the people of Hamad town for free.