Along the roads crossing the Rif, the Berber revivalist symbol, resembling an upturned pitchfork, is engraved into trees.

ECONOMIST: Morocco��s brave new king

One of Muhammad VI's first acts after succeeding his father seven years ago was to end that ostracism with a long state visit to the Rif.

ECONOMIST: Why it is hard to stop Moroccans growing a lucrative crop

But the Rif fell under nominal Spanish control and, even after independence in 1956, it had a dispensation to grow the crop but not to sell it in on a large scale.

ECONOMIST: Why it is hard to stop Moroccans growing a lucrative crop

The strongmen of the last decades, Messrs Khaddam, Tlass, Aslan, Suleiman - though not Bashar's Uncle Rif'at - are waiting in the wings and some of them could still have their own ambitions to rule Syria.

BBC: Analysis: Bashar's slow, steady start

Officials from the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation plan to go on a mission led by the Syrian government to the provinces of Homs, Hama, Tartous, Latakia, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Rif Damashq and Daraa to assess humanitarian needs.

CNN: Annan: Syrians 'want to get on with their lives'

Mr Rogan usefully highlights lesser-known episodes, such as the impressive expansion of Egypt as a rival to the Ottomans in the early 19th century, or the Rif rebellion in Morocco in the 1920s, when Spanish forces suffered tens of thousands of casualties and a humiliating defeat.

ECONOMIST: The history of the Arabic-speaking peoples