Egypt has always been led by powerful central rulers, be they kings, pashas or army generals.
The golden age of historical recording began in the 15th century bce with the central rulers of the 18th dynasty, notably Thutmose III and Amenhotep II and III.
"The world's best paper is produced in Samarkand," wrote Babur, a descendant of the Central Asian ruler Tamerlane and founder of the Mughal dynasty in India in the 16th century.
A famous legend tells of a Central Asian ruler who was so worried about his son's survival in battle that he vowed to pour hot metal down the throat of anyone who brought him bad news.
Under the Seljuqs, Sivas reached its greatest prosperity, becoming one of the most important cities of Anatolia; it was said to have had more than 150,000 inhabitants when it was plundered by the Central Asian ruler Timur (Tamerlane) in 1400.
Battle of Ankara, Ankara also spelled Angora, (July 20 , 1402, military confrontation in which forces of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I were defeated by those of the Central Asian ruler Timur (Tamerlane) and which resulted in the collapse of Bayezid's empire.
As far as Central Asian rulers see it, Afghanistan's chief exports are militant Islam and drugs.A greater danger still lies in Central Asia's domestic politics, in which change has been regrettably absent.
He sent emissaries to the court of Timur (Tamerlane), the central Asian emperor and ruler of Persia, and licensed Jean de Béthencourt to conquer and colonize the Canary Islands.
Since he began his rise to power more than 40 years ago as one of a group that tried -- unsuccessfully -- to kill Iraq's first military ruler in central Bahgdad, Mr. Hussein has shown himself to be a master of the clandestine arts, always keeping a step ahead of those seeking to kill or weaken him.
