She is powerful, but this is the first time she has faced all that a ruler of Defalk must face.

"Most times, if a ruler faces great troubles, he has poor judgment."

But its rulers face the delicate task of responding to pressure for reform while combating a growing problem of extremist violence.

Soon the new ruler had faced the task of integrating the relatively large, ethnically and culturally heterogeneous territory.

The British rulers, then ruling in India, were facing shortage of steel and took away the tracks for use somewhere else.

Today, with Egypt's interim military rulers facing growing pressure to crack down on the widely hated former ruling family, those ambitions lie in ruins.

In turn the new rulers would face attacks from the mountain groups.

Mahfouz also includes the pharaoh in his account of Egypt's rulers "Facing the Throne".

But throughout history Islamic rulers have always faced the problem of being outflanked by those who call themselves purer.

The mighty ruler suddenly spun and faced another of the four priests standing upon the steps before him.