A thousand years ago when Europe was in the period known as the Dark Ages, the Arab world was generally an area of tolerance and trade. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous 1817 sonnet “Ozymandias” was about the “colossal wreck, boundless and bare” of a once mighty pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, lying amidst the desert sands. The history of the Arab people over the past 750 years has also been one of decay and economic stagnation, despite oil riches in some countries in recent times.