Can history repeat itself? Uncannily, it seems it can.

Nearly 850 years ago, an absolute ruler, Henry II of England, uttered the immortal words: “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?”

Four of his courtiers promptly obliged, hastening to Canterbury and murdering the Archbishop, Thomas Becket, erstwhile friend and chancellor to the King. The repercussions lasted for centuries as Church and State vied for power.

Today, the de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia finds himself internationally ostracised for what appears to be a similar statement resulting in the murder of an opponent, once a confidant and colleague.

Does the similarity end there?

Within a time-frame drastically reduced by the speed of modern communications, Middle Eastern politics display many similarities to those of Early Middle Age Europe.

The latter were emerging from the so-called Dark Ages, which followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. In Europe, this Dark period was dominated by internecine tribal wars from which recognisable Nation States began to emerge, including France, England, Austria and smaller Germanic States.

In the modern-day Middle East, tribal wars followed the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Ibn Saud, an Arab chieftain in the Arabian Peninsula, established himself as King of Saudi Arabia after eliminating local rivals with the help of the triumphant Allies. Similarly, other supporters of the Allies established themselves as kings in Jordan, Iraq and Syria, countries carved out of the crumbled remains of Ottoman rule.

While the at times shambolic Ottoman Empire was no modern-day equivalent to the Roman Empire, it successfully held sway for several centuries over the Levant, North Africa and the Black Sea area, largely by tribal alliances and support of the common religion of Islam.

Like Europe before it, the modern Middle East has had its fair share of revolutions and coup d’états replacing kings with dictators and pseudo-democracies while suffering interferences from without, the biggest of which was the decision to establish an Israeli Homeland in Palestine.

Does the imbroglio committed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in 2018 suggest a similar trajectory in Middle Eastern politics to that of Europe centuries ago? Will World War III originate in the Middle East? After all, a murder in Sarajevo sparked World War I.

Just a thought!