A searing indictment of political democracy, The Time of the Bedouin shows that terror is the inescapable essence of the democratic system with which all peoples and nations are now forced to comply. By analysing the French revolution and the character of its protagonists, Dallas unveils a rupture with history. With its genocidal slaughter it was the inseminating event of modern democracy. While the debased Aristocracy was necessarily swept aside and personal rule declared 'ancient', a new, illegitimate elite based on the pure acquisition of wealth emerged to proclaim themselves, in their final phase, Masters of the Universe. Now, with the disgrace and inevitable downfall of that financial elite and their system of wealth acquisition, a new Aristocracy will necessarily emerge, foretells Dallas, with reference to Ibn Khaldun's cyclical theory of history. The new Aristocracy will stem from what Ibn Khaldun calls the 'Bedouin' - not desert Arabs, but peoples not tied into a settled social order. They will embody those qualities upon which all legitimate Aristocracies have always been based: nobility, concern for others, and Divinely revealed religion.