Epilogue: Succession or Success?

Abstract

Father-to-son succession has become a dominant phenomenon in Arab republican systems. This new phenomenon—“Jumlukiya” (conflating jumhuriya and malikiya, Arabic for republic and monarchy, respectively)—surfaced after Bashar Al-Asad succeeded his father Hafiz Al-Asad in Syria during 2000.¹ A similar Jumlukiya scenario was arranged in Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein and is currently anticipated in Yemen, Libya, and Egypt, where talk of Gamal’s aspirations surfaced around 1999. Bashar’s succession fed the rumors about Gamal’s hereditary potential, which kept intensifying until two weeks before Al-Asad’s death, when President Mubarak knocked the rumors down. “We are not a monarchy. We are the Republic of Egypt, so refrain from comparing us to other countries in this region.”²