Fu'ad II.

Fu'ad II (2015)

Fu'ad II as a baby (1952)

Royal monogram

Fu'ad II. (Born January 16, 1952 in Cairo ; Arabic الملك أحمد فؤاد الثاني al-Malik Ahmad Fu'ad ath-thani , DMG al-Malik Aḥmad Fuʾād aṯ-ṯānī , Turkish Fuat or Ahmet Fuat , oftentranscribedas Fuad ) from the dynasty of Muhammad Ali was the eleventh and last ruler of Egypt from 1952 to 1953and Sudan from that dynasty.

After the overthrow of his father Faruq, Fu'ad II was formally the third king of Egypt and Sudan from July 26, 1952 . After the proclamation of the republic on June 18, 1953, he was declared deposed and sent into exile .

Origin and birth

Postage stamp to mark the birth of the Crown Prince (January 16, 1952)

King Faruq, his wife Nariman Sadiq and Crown Prince Ahmad Fu'ad, 1952

Prince Ahmad Fu'ad was born to King Faruq and his second wife Nariman Sadiq . He was a grandson of King Fu'ad I and had, in addition to Egyptian, Circassian , Turkish , French and Albanian roots. A month after his birth he was declared Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Egypt with Sudan. This replaced Mohammed Ali Tewfik , who had been heir to the throne since 1936 .

Ten days after the birth of the Crown Prince, there were violent clashes between British troops and Egyptian police officers in Ismailia and the Cairo fires . This triggered a national crisis that lasted for months . On July 23, 1952, Fu'ad's father was overthrown by Muhammad Nagib and Gamal Abdel Nasser in a military coup.

Formal rule

On July 26, 1952, under pressure from the revolutionary movement of the Free Officers , Faruq abdicated in favor of Fu'ad, who as Fu'ad II was crowned the new king of Egypt and Sudan . The accession of the young prince to the throne was a compromise between Faruq and the revolutionaries, who initially only wanted to abolish the nobility and aristocracy .

When Fu'ad II took office, he was the youngest ruler in the history of Egypt and Sudan . He lived alternately in Egypt to represent the government there and in Italy with his family. The guardianship of the infant king was taken over by a Regency Council under the leadership of Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim , who formally ran the affairs of government as the imperial administrator. However, the actual power lay with Muhammad Nagib, who was in personal union Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army , Prime Minister and Chairman of the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). The Council acted as a de facto government and led the transformation of Egypt from a constitutional-parliamentary monarchy to a military - party dictatorship by. The privileges and titles of the nobility were abolished, land reforms were carried out, all political parties were banned (in particular the Wafd party loyal to the king ), important fundamental rights and freedoms were suspended, and numerous monarchist politicians and officials were ousted from their positions in administration and government and arrested, and on December 10, 1952, the 1923 constitution , which governed the political position of the king, was suspended.

Shortly before the end of Fu'ad's II rule, in January 1953 the newly founded National Union with Nasser as Secretary General was declared the only legal political organization. As a result, all remaining monarchist organizations were dissolved. On April 10, 1953, a transitional constitution drawn up by the military regime disempowered the king politically. In the same month, an agreement was signed with Great Britain which should enable Sudan , which was previously jointly administered, to achieve independence within three years. The future role of the king in Sudan remained unclear.

In July 1953, after the first anniversary of the 1952 coup, the Regency Council was dissolved. On June 18, 1953, the republic was finally proclaimed and Muhammad Nagib declared its first president. Fu'ad II was definitely exiled to his family. In Sudan, Fu'ad's rule was replaced after a year of vacancy by Ismail al-Azhari , who as prime minister served as the de facto head of state .

Life in exile

Fu'ad II initially lived in exile in Capri . Later he and his three sisters went to Switzerland , where he received primary education at a public school. The ex-monarch later attended Le Rosey boarding school and graduated from the University of Geneva with a degree in political science and economics . In 1976 he moved to the French capital Paris and worked as a financial advisor for foreign companies. Shortly before his assassination, the President of Egypt Anwar al-Sadat issued Egyptian passports for him and his family, which had been revoked from the family in 1958. Since then, Fu'ad II has been visiting Egypt regularly and has repeatedly spoken out on political issues in public since the 1980s. In May 2010, for example, he conducted a widely acclaimed television interview with “ ON TV ”, in which he talked about his visits to Egypt and the role of his father Faruq.

During the 2011 revolution in Egypt and the Arab Spring , the popularity of the former king and the Muhammad Ali dynasty increased, although the majority of Egyptians did not experience the monarchy . Protesters used the old flag of the kingdom and showed portraits of the ex-king. Fu'ad II did not rule out a return to Egypt.

marriage and family

Fu'ad II married on April 16, 1976 in Monaco the bourgeois French Dominique-France Loeb-Picard, who converted from Judaism to Islam . She assumed the title of Fadila of Egypt . The couple had three children. In 1996 the marriage was divorced.

1. Fadila of Egypt (1948–)

   children

   • Muhammad Ali (1979-)
   • Fausia-Latifa (1982-)
   • Fakhr Eddin Fu'ad (1987-)

Web links

Commons : Fu'ad II.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Faruq	King of Egypt and Sudan 1. 1952–1953 2. 1952–1953	1st Republic of Egypt President : Muhammad Nagib 2nd Republic of Sudan Prime Minister : Ismail al-Azhari (from 1954)