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Farouk of Egypt
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Farouk I of Egypt (Arabic: ????? ????? Faruq al-Awwal) ? (February 11, 1920 – March 18, 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 sister Fawzia was Queen of Iran for eight years. 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.
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Encyclopedia
Farouk I of Egypt (Arabic: ????? ????? Faruq al-Awwal) ? (February 11, 1920 – March 18, 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 sister Fawzia was Queen of Iran for eight years. 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 of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran.
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:
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."
The above mentioned Abaza Family was at the time and remains the largest noble entity in Egypt. Farouk's accession initially was encouraging for the populace and nobility, due to his young age 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.
As he got older, the king began pilfering objects and artifacts while on state visits abroad, including a ceremonial sword from the Shah of Iran and a pocket watch from Winston Churchill. He got a nickname from his own citizens as "The Thief of Cairo" to signify his well-known aptitude for thievery, as well as his lavish lifestyle and corrupt regime.
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 July 23, 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 Italy and Monaco where he lived the rest of his life. Although it was clear he could have used forces at his disposal to remain in his position, his supporters usually cite this as a commitment on his part to avoid the spilling of blood with the army. 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 the Naguib, Nasser and Free Officers. On June 18, 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.
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 Ile de France restaurant in Rome, Italy on March 3, 1965. He collapsed and died at the dinner table following a characteristically heavy meal. While some say he was poisoned, 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 newly-formed Egyptian government and he was set to be buried in Italy. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia stated that he would be willing to have King Farouk buried in Saudi Arabia, upon which President Nasser agreed for the body to be buried in Egypt, not in the Mosque of Al Rifai' but rather the Ibrahim Pasha Burial Site.
Marriages
(Safinaz Zulficar) (1921-1988)
Children
- Farial (1938-)
- Fawzia (1940- 2005)
- Fadia (1943-2002)
(1934-2005)
Children
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 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."
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.
See also
Endnotes
- 1 -- The Battle of Alamein: Turning Point, World War II by Bierman and Smith (2002)
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