Farouk of Egypt

Farouk I (1920-1965) was the second king of modern Egypt. Though he was dynamic and a nationalist, the realization of being powerless under British sovereignty turned his interests from statecraft to the gratification of his desires.

Farouk, the only son of Fuad I, was born in Cairo on Feb. 11, 1920. Educated first in Cairo and later at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, he was recalled to ascend the Egyptian throne in 1936 and crowned in 1937. Though he was most promising in his early days and was thought to be dedicated to the interests of Egypt, Farouk soon resumed the old struggle between the populist forces of the Wafd and the palace, and drifted toward intrigue, absolutism, and debauchery that ultimately caused the collapse of the monarchy in Egypt.

Seeds of Discontent

In 1936 more favorable terms had been reached between Britain and Egypt, but nevertheless the relationship was characterized and perceived as one permitting Britain to dominate Egypt. Farouk's rule was further complicated by new domestic developments in Egypt, particularly in political and economic matters.

The rise of the Society of Moslem Brothers, first started in 1928 and eventually catapulted into position of dominance in Egyptian politics, was one of the more critical political forces to affect the political stability of Egypt during Farouk's reign. The Moslem Brothers championed a program of Islamic reform, advocated struggle against all foreign influence, and challenged the legitimacy of the parliamentary system. The increasing literacy of Egypt and thus the increasing social and economic awareness of large segments of the Egyptian masses gave rise to various other protest movements seeking an alteration in the social, economic, and political systems. Farouk's tendency toward authoritarianism and his insistence on active intervention in politics made it impossible for any legitimately elected government to meet the expectations of the newer elements in society and complicated infinitely the task of governing the country.

World War II

The approaching storm of World War II made British interference in internal Egyptian affairs inevitable, for Britain was primarily concerned with the security of the British Empire, and Egyptian national needs, as perceived by Egyptians, had to be subordinated to Britain's security needs. Egypt's desire to steer a neutral course during World War II and its alleged flirtation with Italy prompted Britain to make strong representation to Farouk. On Feb. 4, 1942, the British ambassador, escorted by British tanks, surrounded Abdin Palace and forced King Farouk to dismiss an allegedly pro-Italian Cabinet and to replace it with the popular Wafd Cabinet. The King surrendered to British demands, and the Wafd ruled till 1944.

This overt intervention by the British in the internal affairs of Egypt and their dictation of a specific prime minister led to the discredit of both King and party. Farouk, recognizing his impotence on the world scene, reacted unusually, indulging himself in the frivolities of life. The personal corruption of Farouk, though he might have shown a tendency in that direction earlier, can be traced directly to his recognition of the futility of his position within his own country. The Wafd was similarly discredited for serving as a result of a military intervention by Britain, the power that it had tried to dislodge from the scene.

Crisis and Exile

The old liberal constitutionalism that had characterized Egyptian politics was discredited, and it was only a question of time when the whole system would collapse. In 1952 the Egyptian army led by Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power and forced Farouk to abdicate on July 26 and go into exile in Italy.

Despite the negative nature of Farouk's reign, his personal corruption, and his lust for power and for women, his reign had some very positive qualities as well. He was very active in inter-Arab politics, helped in increasing the Arab orientation of Egypt, assisted in developing the League of Arab States whose headquarters became Cairo, and took an interest in the aspirations of the Palestinians. Under his rule Egypt developed economically, industrialization assumed more concrete form, and Egyptians took greater roles in the economy. Many of the measures later adopted by Nasser designed to increase the economic viability of Egypt were in fact initiated during Farouk's reign. Farouk founded many institutions of higher learning, such as Farouk I University (renamed Alexandria) and Ain Shams University.

Farouk had three daughters by his first marriage and one son, Fuad II, by his second marriage, to Narriman. Upon Farouk's abdication and exile, his son was declared king and a regency council was established, but eventually Egypt was declared a republic and the Alawid dynasty, which had ruled Egypt since Mohammed Ali assumed power in 1805, came to an end. Farouk died in exile in Rome on March 18, 1965, of a heart attack and was brought back to Egypt for burial.

Further Reading

Studies of recent Egyptian history include Austin L. Moore, Farewell Farouk (1954); Hisham B. Sharabi, Governments and Politics of the Middle East in the Twentieth Century (1962); Tom Little, Modern Egypt (1967); and Harry Hopkins, Egypt the Crucible (1969).

For more information on Farouk I, visit Britannica.com.

1920 - 1965

Egypt's last king, 1936 - 1952.

Farouk, the son of King Fuʾad (reigned 1922 - 1936) and Queen Nazli, and the grandson of Khedive Ismaʿil ibn Ibrahim (reigned 1863 - 1879), was born in Cairo, on 11 February 1920. Privately tutored until the age of fifteen, Farouk intended to enter a British public school. He was, however, unable to gain admission to Eton and the Royal Military College at Woolwich, but he went to England anyway to pursue his studies. At the Royal Military College he took afternoon classes as an unenrolled student. His formal education was cut short by the death of his father, King Fuʾad, on 28 April 1936. Returning to Egypt, he ascended the throne as a minor and ruled with the assistance of a Regency Council until July 1937.

Upon first coming to power, he enjoyed much local popularity. Young, handsome, and seemingly progressive, he was thought to be an ideal person to foster parliamentary democracy in Egypt. In truth, however, he engaged in the same anticonstitutional practices that had so marked his father's tenure of power. During his reign he constantly plotted against the Wafd, Egypt's majority political party, contended with Britain over monarchical privilege, and intrigued to enhance the sway of the monarchy over the Egyptian parliament. In 1937, shortly after coming to the throne, he removed the Wafd from office. The Wafd had just concluded the Anglo - Egyptian Treaty of 1936, which increased Egypt's autonomy but fell far short of realizing the long-cherished goal of complete independence.

With the onset of World War II, Farouk's clashes with the British intensified. The monarch supported a series of minority ministries, many of which were, in British eyes, insufficiently committed to the Allied war cause. Political tensions came to a head in early 1942 while Germany military forces under the command of General Erwin Rommel were advancing in the western desert toward Alexandria. The British demanded a pro-British Wafdist ministry. When Farouk delayed, the British ambassador, Miles Lampson, on 4 February 1942 surrounded Abdin Palace with tanks and compelled the monarch, under threat of forced abdication, to install the Wafd in office. That day was a defining moment in Egypt's twentieth-century history. It undermined the legitimacy of parliamentary democracy and prepared the way for the military coup of 1952.

The immediate postwar years in Egypt were full of political violence and official corruption. In 1948 the Egyptian army suffered a humiliating defeat in the Arab - Israel War as the state of Israel came into being. During this period, groups opposed to parliamentary government increased their following throughout the country, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood, the Communists, and the Socialists. Within the army an elite of idealistic, young officers organized themselves in the Free Officers movement. Increasingly, King Farouk came to symbolize all that was wrong with the old order. Outrageously wealthy, he flaunted his wealth in a country wracked by poverty. His penchant for gambling and carousing with women offended many. Learning of the growing opposition to his rule inside the military, he tried to move on his enemies before they turned on him. He did not succeed. On 23 July 1952 the Free Officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, seized power. Three days later, on 26 July 1952, the new rulers exiled the king. Sailing from Alexandria harbor on the royal yacht Mahrussa, he was accompanied into exile by his family, gold ingots, and more than two hundred pieces of luggage. His deposition in 1952 effectively brought an end to the rule over Egypt of the family of Muhammad Ali, who had come to Egypt as a military leader in the midst of Napoléon Bonaparte's invasion and had installed himself as Egypt's ruler in 1805. Farouk's infant son, Ahmad Fuʾad, succeeded briefly to the throne, but in June 1953 Egypt abolished the monarchy and became a republic. Farouk continued to lead a dissolute life while residing in Rome. On 18 March 1965 he succumbed to a heart attack in a nightclub.

Bibliography

Gordon, Joel. Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the July Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Vatikiotis, P. J. The History of Modern Egypt: From Muhammad Ali to Mubarak, 4th edition. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.

— ROBERT L. TIGNOR

Quotes:

"In a few years there will be only five kings in the world -- the King of England and the four kings in a pack of cards."

Farouk I
King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, of Kordofan and of Darfur
King of Egypt and the Sudan
Reign	28 April 1936 – 26 July 1952 (&0000000000000016.00000016 years, &0000000000000089.00000089 days)
Predecessor	Fuad I
Successor	Fuad II
Issue
Princess Farial Princess Fawzia Princess Fadia Fuad II
Father	Fuad I
Mother	Nazli Sabri
Born	11 February 1920(1920-02-11) Cairo
Died	18 March 1965 (aged 45) Rome
Burial	Cairo

Farouk I of Egypt (Arabic: فاروق الأول Fārūq al-Awwal) ‎ (11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965), was the tenth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936. He was considered the first native Egyptian monarch for millennia despite his mixed roots. His full title was "His Majesty Farouk I, by the grace of God, King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, of Kordofan, and of Darfur." He was overthrown in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and was forced to abdicate in favor of his infant son Ahmed Fuad, who succeeded him as King Fuad II. He died in exile in Italy. His sister was Fawzia Shirin, first wife and Queen Consort of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Contents 1 Reign 2 Overthrow 3 Exile and Death 4 Marriages and Affairs 4.1 Children 5 Trivia 6 Quotes of and about King Farouk 7 Style 8 See also 9 Endnotes 10 References

Reign

The great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Farouk was of Albanian descent as well as native Egyptian descent through his mother the Queen. Before his father's death, he was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, England. Upon his coronation, the hugely popular 16-year-old King Farouk made a public radio address to the nation, the first time a sovereign of Egypt had ever spoken directly to his people in such a way:

“

And if it is God's will to lay on my shoulders at such an early age the responsibility of kingship, I on my part appreciate the duties that will be mine, and I am prepared for all sacrifices in the cause of my duty... My noble people, I am proud of you and your loyalty and am confident in the future as I am in God. Let us work together. We shall succeed and be happy. Long live the Fatherland!

”

Farouk was enamored of the glamorous royal lifestyle. Although he already had thousands of acres of land, dozens of palaces, and hundreds of cars, the youthful king would often travel to Europe for grand shopping sprees, earning the ire of many of his subjects.

He was most popular in his early years and the Nobility largely celebrated him. For example, during the accession of the young King Farouk, "the Abaza family had solicited palace authorities to permit the royal train to stop briefly in their village so that the king could partake in refreshments offered in a large, magnificently ornamented tent they had erected in the train station."^[1]

Farouk's accession initially was encouraging for the populace and nobility, due to his youth and Egyptian roots through his mother Nazli Sabri. However, the situation was not the same with some politicians and elected governments, with whom Farouk quarreled a lot despite their loyalty in principle to his throne.

During the hardships of World War II, criticism was leveled at Farouk for his lavish lifestyle. His decision to keep all the lights burning at his palace in Alexandria, during a time when the city was blacked-out because of German and Italian bombing, was deemed particularly offensive by some. Due to the continuing British occupation of Egypt, many Egyptians, Farouk included, were positively disposed towards Germany and Italy, and despite the presence of British troops, Egypt remained officially neutral until the final year of the war. Consequently, the royal Italian servants of Farouk were not interned, and there is an unconfirmed story that Farouk told British Ambassador Sir Miles Lampson (who had an Italian wife), "I'll get rid of my Italians, when you get rid of yours". Farouk only declared war on the Axis Powers under heavy British pressure in 1945, long after the fighting in Egypt's Western Desert had ceased.

Official marriage photograph of King Farouk, taken in 1938

Overthrow

Widely condemned for his corrupt and ineffectual governance, the continued British occupation, and the Egyptian army's failure to prevent the loss of 78% of Palestine to the newly formed State of Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, public discontent against Farouk rose to new levels. Finally, on 23 July 1952, the Free Officers Movement under Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser staged a military coup that launched the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Farouk was forced to abdicate, and went into exile in Monaco and Italy where he lived for the rest of his life. Immediately following his abdication, Farouk's baby son, Ahmed Fuad was proclaimed King Fuad II, but for all intents and purposes Egypt was now governed by Naguib, Nasser and the Free Officers. On 18 June 1953, The revolutionary government formally abolished the monarchy, ending 150 years of the Muhammad Ali dynasty's rule, and Egypt was declared a republic.

The revolutionary government quickly moved to auction off the King's vast collection of trinkets and treasures Among the more famous of his possessions was one of the rare 1933 Double Eagle coins, though the coin disappeared before it could be returned to the United States.

Exile and Death

On his exile from Egypt, Farouk settled first in Monaco, and later in Rome, Italy. In 1959, he received Monégasque citizenship.

The blue-eyed Farouk was thin early in his reign, but later gained enormous weight. His taste for fine cuisine made him dangerously obese, weighing nearly 300 pounds (136 kg) – an acquaintance described him as "a stomach with a head" He died in the Ile de France restaurant in Rome, Italy on 18 March 1965. He collapsed and died at his dinner table following a characteristically heavy meal.^[2] While some claim he was poisoned by Egyptian Intelligence, no official autopsy was conducted on his body. His will stated that his burial place should be in the Al Rifa'i Mosque in Cairo, but the request was denied by the Egyptian government under Gamal Abdel Nasser, and he was going to be buried in Italy. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia stated he would be willing to have King Farouk buried in Saudi Arabia, upon which President Nasser agreed for the former monarch to be buried in Egypt, not in the Mosque of Al Rifai' but in the Ibrahim Pasha Burial Site.

Marriages and Affairs

King Farouk I, Queen Farida and their first-born daughter Farial ca. 1940

In addition to an affair with the British writer and siren Barbara Skelton, among numerous others, Farouk was married twice, with a claim of a third marriage (see below). His first wife was Safinaz Zulficar (1921–1988), a pasha's daughter who was renamed Farida upon her marriage. They were married in 1938, and divorced in 1948, producing three daughters.

Farouk's second wife was a commoner, Narriman Sadek (1934–2005). They were married in 1951, and divorced in 1954, having only one child, the future King Fuad II.

Whilst in exile in Italy, Farouk met Irma Capece Minutolo, an opera singer, who became his companion. In 2005, she claimed that she married the former King in 1957.[1]

Children

• Farial (1938-)
• Fawzia (1940- 2005)
• Fadia (1943-2002)
• Fuad II (1952-)

Trivia

• The actor David Suchet modelled his mustache for detective Hercule Poirot on King Farouk's.

• The 1950s game show Treasure Hunt, hosted by Jan Murray, had as a gag prize "a beach ball once used by King Farouk."

• In 2007, Arabic satellite channel MBC produced a television series on the life of Farouk entitled 'El Malek Farouk', with Syrian actor Taym Hassan playing the lead role.

• Farouk was fluent in Arabic, Turkish,Italian, English, French. Russian, German and Spanish.
• Farouk is the subject matter of the Robert Williams painting, "A Life of Delusion" 1999.

Quotes of and about King Farouk

• "The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left — the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts and the King of Diamonds". Said King Farouk to Lord Boyd-Orr at a conference in Cairo, 1948 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations; Elizabeth Knowles

• "But this Farouk, the one I came to know, was not the overweight, dissipated monarch who became the subject of so many Western satirists and cartoonists. He was still a handsome man, lean and tall, patriotic and idealistic, with clear blue eyes that sparkled when he spoke." —Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, Faces in a Mirror: Memoirs from Exile, 1980 (p. 57).

• In Celebrity Trivia by Edward Lucaire (1981), Red Skelton is quoted, according to reporter James Bacon, as having said to the Queen Mother of Egypt, "Queenie, do you know your son is 'farouking' Egypt?"

• Farouk was mentioned in a verse of Noel Coward's new 1950s lyrics for Cole Porter's 1928 song "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love": "Monkeys whenever you look do it / Aly Khan and King Farouk do it / Let's do it, let's fall in love."

• In the "Pal o' Mine" episode of The Honeymooners (1955), after Ralph Kramden puts on a ring that is too small and cannot get it off his finger, Ed Norton says to Alice Kramden, "He put that little ring on his finger? That's like King Farouk trying get into Gary Cooper's bathing suit."

In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas "It made me feel like King Farouk"

Style

The ostentatious king's name is used to describe the bad imitation Louis XV-style furniture known as "Louis-Farouk". The imperial French style furniture became fashionable among Egypt's upper classes during Farouk's reign so Egyptian artisans began to mass-produce it. The style uses ornate carving, is heavily gilded, and covered in very elaborate cloth^[3].

See also

• Muhammad Ali Dynasty
• List of monarchs of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty
• Egyptian Revolution of 1952
• El-Deeb Nobles

Endnotes

1. ^ Al-Ahram Weekly
2. ^ Time: "Egypt: A Tale of Two Autocrats", Mar. 26, 1965
3. ^ Burke, C: Lee Miller, a life, page 151. University of Chicago Press, 2005

• 1 -- The Battle of Alamein: Turning Point, World War II by Bierman and Smith (2002)

References

• Ashraf Pahlavi "Faces in a Mirror", Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980
• McLeave, Hugh The Last Pharaoh : Farouk of Egypt, New York : McCall Pub. Co., 1970, 1969 ISBN 0841500207.
• New King, Old Trouble, Time Magazine, Monday, May 11, 1936.
• Sadat, Jehan "A Woman of Egypt", New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987 ISBN 0671540713
• Stadiem, William Too Rich: The High Life and Tragic Death of King Farouk, New York: Carroll & Graf Pub, 1991 ISBN 0881846295

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Farouk I of Egypt

Farouk of Egypt Muhammad Ali Dynasty Born: 11 February 1920 Died: 18 March 1965
Preceded by Fuad I	King of Egypt 28 April 1936 – 19 October 1951	Change of title Abrogation of Anglo-Egyptian Treaty
New title Abrogation of Anglo-Egyptian Treaty	King of Egypt and the Sudan 19 October 1951 – 26 July 1952	Fuad II

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