Abbas II of Egypt


Abbas II Helmy Bey was the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, ruling from 8 January 1892 to 19 December 1914. In 1914, after the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in World War I, the nationalist Khedive was removed by the British, then ruling Egypt, in favor of his more pro-British uncle, Hussein Kamel, marking the de jure end of Egypt's four-century era as a province of the Ottoman Empire, which had begun in 1517.

Early life

Abbas II, the great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ali, was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 14 July 1874. In 1887 he was ceremonially circumcised together with his younger brother Mohammed Ali Tewfik. The festivities lasted for three weeks and were carried out under great pomp. As a boy he visited the United Kingdom, and he had a number of British tutors in Cairo including a governess who taught him English. In a profile of Abbas II, the boys' annual, Chums, gives a lengthy account of his education. His father established a small school near the Abdin Palace in Cairo where European, Arab and Ottoman masters taught Abbas and his brother Mohammed Ali Tewfik. An American officer in the Egyptian army took charge of his military training. He attended school at Lausanne, Switzerland; then, at the age of twelve he was sent to the Haxius School in Geneva, in preparation for his entry into the Theresianum in Vienna. In addition to Arabic and Ottoman Turkish, he had good conversational knowledge of English, French and German.

Reign

Abbas II succeeded his father, Tewfik Pasha, as Khedive of Egypt and Sudan on 8 January 1892. He was still in college in Vienna when he assumed the throne of the Khedivate of Egypt upon the sudden death of his father. He was barely of age according to Egyptian law; normally eighteen in cases of succession to the throne. For some time he did not cooperate very cordially with the British, whose army had occupied Egypt in 1882. As he was young and eager to exercise his new power, he resented the interference of the British Agent and Consul General in Cairo, Sir Evelyn Baring, later made Lord Cromer. At the outset of his reign, Khedive Abbas II surrounded himself with a coterie of European advisers who opposed the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan and encouraged the young khedive to challenge Cromer by replacing his ailing prime minister with an Egyptian nationalist. At Cromer's behest, Lord Rosebery, the British foreign secretary, sent Abbas II a letter stating that the Khedive was obliged to consult the British consul on such issues as cabinet appointments. In January 1894 Abbas II made an inspection tour of Sudanese and Egyptian frontier troops stationed near the southern border, the Mahdists being at the time still in control of the Sudan. At Wadi Halfa the Khedive made public remarks disparaging the Egyptian army units commanded by British officers. The British commander of the Egyptian army, Sir Herbert Kitchener, immediately threatened to resign. Kitchener further insisted on the dismissal of a nationalist under-secretary of war appointed by Abbas II and that an apology be made for the Khedive's criticism of the army and its officers.
By 1899 he had come to accept British counsels. Also in 1899 British diplomat Alfred Mitchell-Innes was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Finance in Egypt, and in 1900 Abbas II paid a second visit to Britain, during which he said he thought the British had done good work in Egypt, and declared himself ready to cooperate with the British officials administering Egypt and Sudan. He gave his formal approval for the establishment of a sound system of justice for Egyptian nationals, a significant reduction in taxation, increased affordable and sound education, the inauguration of the substantial irrigation works such as the Aswan Low Dam and the Assiut Barrage, and the reconquest of Sudan. He displayed more interest in agriculture than in statecraft. His farm of cattle and horses at Qubbah, near Cairo, was a model for agricultural science in Egypt, and he created a similar establishment at Muntazah, just east of downtown Alexandria. He married the Princess Ikbal Hanem and had several children. Muhammad Abdul Mun'im, the heir-apparent, was born on 20 February 1899.
Although Abbas II no longer publicly opposed the British, he secretly created, supported and sustained the Egyptian nationalist movement, which came to be led by Mustafa Kamil. He also funded the anti-British newspaper Al-Mu'ayyad. As Kamil's thrust was increasingly aimed at winning popular support for a nationalist political party, Khedive Abbas publicly distanced himself from the Nationalists. Their demand for a constitutional government in 1906 was rebuffed by Abbas II, and the following year he formed the National Party, led by Mustafa Kamil Pasha, to counter the Ummah Party of the Egyptian moderates. However, in general, he had no real political power. When the Egyptian Army was sent to fight Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi in Sudan in 1896, he only found out about it because the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand was in Egypt and told him after being informed of it by a British Army officer.
His relations with Cromer's successor, Sir Eldon Gorst, however, were excellent, and they co-operated in appointing the cabinets headed by Butrus Ghali in 1908 and Muhammad Sa'id in 1910 and in checking the power of the National Party. The appointment of Kitchener to succeed Gorst in 1912 displeased Abbas II, and relations between the Khedive and the British deteriorated. Kitchener, who exiled or imprisoned the leaders of the National Party, often complained about "that wicked little Khedive" and wanted to depose him.
On 25 July 1914, at the onset of World War I, Abbas II was in Constantinople and was wounded in his hands and cheeks during a failed assassination attempt. On 5 November 1914 when Great Britain declared war on Turkey, he was accused of deserting Egypt by not promptly returning home. The British also believed that he was plotting against their rule, as he had attempted to appeal to Egyptians and Sudanese to support the Central Powers against the British. So when the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in World War I, the United Kingdom declared Egypt a Sultanate under British protection on 18 December 1914 and deposed Abbas II.
During the war, Abbas II supported the Ottomans, including leading an attack on the Suez Canal. He was replaced by the British by his uncle Hussein Kamel from 1914 to 1917, with the title of sultan. Hussein Kamel issued a series of restrictive orders to strip Abbas II of property in Egypt and Sudan and forbade contributions to him. These also barred Abbas from entering Egyptian territory and stripped him of the right to sue in Egyptian courts. This did not prevent his progeny, however, from exercising their rights. Abbas II finally accepted the new order on 12 May 1931 and formally abdicated. He retired to Switzerland, where he wrote The Anglo-Egyptian Settlement. He died at Geneva on 19 December 1944, aged 70, 30 years to the day after the end of his reign as khedive.

Marriages and issue

His first marriage in Cairo on 19 February 1895 was to Ikbal Hanem, and they had six children, two sons and four daughters:
His second marriage in Çubuklu, Turkey on 1 March 1910 was to Hungarian noblewoman Marianna Török de Szendrö, who took the name Zübeyde Cavidan Hanım. They divorced in 1913 without issue.

Honours

dateAwardNationRibbon
1890Order of the Polar Star, Grand CrossSweden
1891Order of Franz Joseph, Grand CrossAustria-Hungary
1891Order of St Michael and St George, Knight Grand Cross United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1892Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1892Légion d'honneur, Grand-CroixFrance
1892Order of the Dannebrog, Grand CrossDenmark
1892Order of the Netherlands Lion, Knight Grand CrossThe Netherlands
1895Order of the Medjidie, 1st ClassOttoman Empire
1895Order of Osmanieh, 1st ClassOttoman Empire
1897Order of Leopold, Grand CrossAustria-Hungary
1897Order of Chula Chom Klao, Knight Grand CordonKingdom of Siam
1900Royal Victorian Order, Knight Grand Cross United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1902Order of St. Alexander NevskyRussian Empire
1905Royal Victorian ChainUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1905Order of Charles III, Grand CrossKingdom of Spain
1905House and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis, Grand CrossGrand Duchy of Oldenburg
1905Saxe-Ernestine House Order, Grand CrossDuchy of Saxe-Altenburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
1905Order of Albert, Grand CrossSaxony
1905Order of the Redeemer, Grand CrossGreece
1905Order of Prince Danilo I, Knight Grand CrossMontenegro
1905Order of Carol I, Grand CrossRomania
1905Order of Pius IX, Knight Grand CrossVatican
1905Order of Saint Stephen, Grand CrossAustria-Hungary
1908Order of Saint Stanislaus, KnightRussia
1908Order of the Royal House of Chakri, KnightKingdom of Siam
1911Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, Knight Grand CrossItaly
1911Order of Ludwig, Grand CrossGrand Duchy of Hesse
1911Order of Leopold, Grand CordonBelgium
1911Order of the Star, Grand CrossEthiopia
1913Order of Ouissam Alaouite, Grand CrossMorocco
1914Order of the Black Eagle, Grand CrossAlbania
1914Order of the Red Eagle, Grand Cross with CollarPrussia
1914Order of the Exalted, Grand CordonZanzibar

Footnotes