Nazli Sabri

Nazli Sabri during the coronation celebrations (1922)

King Fu'ad (1931)

Nazli Sabri ( Arabic نازلي صبري, DMG Nāzlī Ṣabrī ; born June 25, 1894 in Alexandria ; † May 29, 1978 in Los Angeles ) was the second wife of the Egyptian king Fu'ad and from 1922 to 1936 the first queen of the Kingdom of Egypt .

biography

Family and early years

Nazli Sabri came from a family of the Egyptian upper class. Her mother was Taufiqa Chanum Sharif, her father the Egyptian Minister of Agriculture and Governor of Cairo, Abd ar-Rahim Sabri Pasha . She had a brother, Sharif, and a sister, Amina. On her mother's side, she was a granddaughter of the Egyptian Prime Minister Muhammad Sharif Pasha , who was of Turkish descent. She was also a great-granddaughter of the Egyptian officer and native French Soliman Pascha .

Nazli Sabri first attended the Lycée de la Mère-de-Dieu in Cairo and then the Notre-Dame de Sion College in Alexandria . After her mother died, she and her sister were sent to boarding school in Paris for two years . Upon her return, she was forced to marry her Turkish cousin Halil Sabri. The marriage ended in divorce after eleven months. After the separation, she lived in the house of Safiya Zaghlul , an activist of the nationalist Wafd party , where she met her nephew Sayyid. The relationship with him ended when Sayyid followed his uncle Saad Zaghlul , the leader of the Wafd party, into exile after the revolution in Egypt in 1919 .

Years as queen

On May 12, 1919, Fu'ad, then under the Sultan of Egypt , asked for the hand of Nazli Sabri, 25 years his junior. They were married on May 24th in the Bustan Palace in Cairo. This marriage was also presumably forced: It is said that Sabri's father had to bow to the sultan's pressure. It was the second marriage for both spouses. Until the birth of her son Faruq the following year, Nazli Sabri had to live in the shielded women's wing of the Abbasiya Palace. Only then was she allowed to move into the official residence, the Koubbeh Palace . The son Faruq was followed by four daughters: Fausia , Faisa, Faika and Fathia.

After Egypt gained independence from Great Britain in 1922, Fu'ad became King of Egypt and Nazli Sabri became Queen. During Fu'ad's reign, Queen Nazli was generally only allowed to stay in the palace, except to attend opera performances or cultural events for women. As an educated woman who had lived in Europe, this restricted life was particularly unbearable for her. Her husband is said to have beaten her during arguments and locked her in her suite for weeks. She is said to have attempted suicide once .

In 1927 Nazli accompanied her husband on a four-month trip through Europe and was particularly celebrated in France because of her French origins. For example, the residents of Lyon , the birthplace of their French ancestors, announced that they would be giving her a gift in the form of a family register because of her special relationship with the city.

In 1936 Fu'ad died, her 16-year-old son Faruq became king and she was given the title of “Queen Mother”. Her brother Sharif became a member of a three-member government council. Her daughter Fausia married the future Shah of Persia , Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , in 1939 . After the death of her husband, Nazli Sabri is said to have had a relationship with Ahmad Hasanain , an adviser to her son, and to have secretly married him; In 1946, he was by a truck of the British army run over and died. In the same year Nazli traveled to the United States with her two youngest daughters , supposedly to undergo an operation; she never returned to Egypt.

Late years in the USA

In August 1950, King Faruq stripped his mother and his youngest sister Fathia of all their titles and rights and confiscated their property in Egypt, as Fathia had married the Coptic diplomat Riyad Ghali the previous year with her mother's consent and against Faruq's will . Nazli Sabri himself converted to Christianity and changed her name to Mary Elizabeth . In 1955 she bought a 28-room mansion in Beverly Hills for $ 63,000 . There she lived with her daughter Fathia, her son-in-law and their three children and led an active social life. In 1965 she attended the funeral of her son Faruq, who had been deposed as king in 1952, in Rome .

Rayid Ghali lost all his fortune and that of his wife and mother-in-law to speculation on the stock market. In 1973 he and his wife were divorced. After the divorce, the villa had to be sold, and Nazli Sabri and her daughter moved into a smaller apartment in Westwood near Los Angeles . Due to growing debts, she had her most precious jewels auctioned at Sotheby’s in 1975 , including her Art Deco coronation tiara with 720 diamonds and a matching 1938 Van Cleef & Arpels necklace that she had made for her daughter's wedding to the Shah to let. They fetched a total of around $ 270,000, but did not cover the debt, which is why more jewels had to be sold later.

In 1976, Nazli Sabri turned to Egyptian President Anwar as-Sadat with the request that she and her daughter Fathia be issued with Egyptian passports so that they could return to Egypt. Shortly before her departure Riyad Ghali shot in a drunken state, his ex-wife and unsuccessfully attempted suicide to commit. He is believed to have died of cancer on July 12, 1987 in a US prison .

Nazli Sabri died in Los Angeles in 1978 at the age of 83. Her grave can be found in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles.

reception

In 2007, Queen Nazli was portrayed by Egyptian actress Wafaa Amer in the drama al-Malik Faruq ( King Faruq ). In 2008 the author Rawia Rashed published a book about her called Nazli, Malika Fi El Manfa ( Nazli, a Queen in Exile ). A television series was produced on the basis of this book in 2010, with Nadia al-Gindi in the title role.

Web links

Commons : Nazli Sabri  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} David Rosten: The Last Cheetah of Egypt: A Narrative History of Egyptian Royalty from 1805 to 1953 . iUniverse , 2015, ISBN 978-1-4917-7939-2 .
2. ^ Hassan Hassan: In the House of Muhammad Ali: A Family Album, 1805-1952 . American Univ. in Cairo Press, January 1, 2000, ISBN 978-977-424-554-1 , p. 46 (accessed September 6, 2013).
3. ^ Arthur Goldschmidt: Biographical dictionary of modern Egypt . Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000, pp. 191 .
4. ^ ^{A b c} Robert Bauval, Ahmed Osman: Breaking the Mirror of Heaven. ISBN 1591431565 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ahmed Maged: Revealing book on Queen Nazli depicts her tragic life in exile . In: Daily News Egypt , February 6, 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2013. 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Revealing book on Queen Nazli depicts her tragic life in exile . February 5, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
7. ^ Queen Nazli of Egypt - A tragic story. In: historyofroyalwomen.com. June 16, 2018, accessed on February 23, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Illustrierte Kronen-Zeitung , September 2, 1927, p. 4.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Nazli. In: A Bit of History. Retrieved February 23, 2020 . 
10. ^ Neue Zeit , August 2, 1950, p. 2.
11. ^ Snapshots of Hollywood Collected at Random The Milwaukee Sentinel, April 18, 1955
12. ↑ Dieter E. Kilian: The Copts and the Christian Heritage of Egypt. ISBN 978-3-743-17384-2 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
13. ^ ^{A b} Mike Goodkind, Free Lance Star , "Ex-princess loses last of fortune," September 21, 1976.
14. ↑ Spokane Daily Chronicle , "Former Queen Selling Jewels," Oct. 28, 1975-
15. ↑ Egyptian Royal Diamond Necklace Reappears in New York Auction, Sold for $ US 4.3 million er. In: egyptianstreets.com. December 17, 2015, accessed February 24, 2020 . 
16. ↑ In December 2015, the collar was auctioned again at Sotheby's and reached a purchase price of $ 4.3 million. See: Queen's Necklace Sells For $ 4.3M. nationaljeweler.com, December 9, 2015, accessed February 24, 2020 .  .
17. ^ Nazli Fouad (1894-1978). In: de.findagrave.com. May 26, 1919, accessed February 23, 2020 . 
18. ↑ Nazli Sabri in the Internet Movie Database (English)
19. ↑ Nadia Al Jundi fails. In: Albawaba. September 4, 2010, accessed February 23, 2020 .