Rebellion against you is growing, Caliph of Caliphs!

Umar was the second Rashidun Caliph and reigned during 634 644.

They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire, and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab Caliphates.

In fact, savvy autocratic rulers favor less talented successors, because they are easier to groom and control on their way to power.

Thus, in less than twenty years, Rome had destroyed the power of one of the successor states, crippled another, and firmly entrenched its influence over Greece.

Neighbourhood associations, women apos s groups, and religious communities are all manifestations of that essential truth the inhabitants of the city are the spiritual descendants of the charter holders of the Middle Ages.

Saddam Hussein, who was hardly an Islamist, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is, are often described as natural successors to Adolf Hitler.

The Anglo Saxons warred with British successor states in Wales, Cornwall, and the Hen Ogledd (Old North the Brythonic speaking parts of northern England and southern Scotland), as well as with each other.

It defies belief that the political successors of those who confidently launched the invasion of Iraq on the false evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction should be so eager to be sucked into another bloody maelstrom.

As each preceding generation of rulers cashes in its illicit gains from holding power, the successors are motivated by both the desire to loot even more and the fear that there may not be much left by the time they get their turn at the trough.