If a cult of personality is essential for absolute rulers to maintain power then Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, has nothing to fear. It is impossible to miss his image in Doha. He looks down at you as you queue at passport control, in the airport arrivals hall, and in the car park where his incised profile features on the back of the white 4x4s, Qatar’s favourite mode of transport.

The Irish Times reported. 

It is also on the sides of the five-star hotels, hung 100m high; on compound walls, in shopping malls, on T-shirts, flags and mugs. Wander through the souk, there is not an object too humble for the image of the emir.

The portrait of the chisel-jawed emir in his ghutra, or Arab headdress, was drawn by Qatari artist Ahmed bin Mahaed al-Maadheed, and is entitled “Glorious Tamim”. Since the blockade imposed on the tiny, conservative, oil- and gas-rich country last June by Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, his drawing is seen everywhere. In schools, young children are encouraged to write supportive and patriotic comments on copies of the portrait affixed to school walls.