Abbas II of Egypt

Subject: Abbas II of Egypt 13/11/2010, 7:31 pm

HH Abbas II Hilmi Bey (also known asAbbas Hilmi Pasha) (Arabic: عباس حلمي باشا‎)(14 July 1874 – 19 December 1944) was the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan (8 January 1892 – 19 December 1914).^[1]
Early life
Abbas II was the great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ali. He succeeded his father, Tewfik Pasha, as Khedive of Egyptand Sudan.As a boy he visited the United Kingdom,and he had a British tutor for some time in Cairo. He then went to school in Lausanne, and fromthere passed on to the Theresianum in Vienna. In addition to Arabic and Turkish, he hadgood conversational knowledge of English, French and German.
Reign
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 wasbarely of age according to Egyptian law; eighteen in cases of succession to thethrone. For some time he did not cooperate very cordially with the United Kingdom, whose army had occupied Egypt in 1882.As he was young and eager to exercise his new power, he resented theinterference of the British Agent and Consul General in Cairo, Sir Evelyn Baring, later made Lord Cromer. At theoutset of his reign, Khedive Abbas surrounded himself with a coterie ofEuropean advisers who opposed the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan and encouraged the youngKhedive to challenge Cromer by replacing his ailing prime minister with anationalist. At Cromer's behest, Lord Roseberry, the British foreign secretary,sent him a letter stating that the Khedive was obliged to consult the Britishconsul on such issues as cabinet appointments. In January 1894 Abbas, while onan inspection tour of Egyptian army installations near the southern border, theMahdists being at the time still in control of Sudan, made public remarksdisparaging the Egyptian army units commanded by British officers. The Britishcommander of the Egyptian army, Sir Herbert Kitchener,immediately offered to resign. Cromer strongly supported Kitchener and pressed the Khedive and primeminister to retract the Khedive's criticisms of the British officers. From thattime on, Abbas no longer publicly opposed the British, but secretly created,supported, and sustained the nationalist movement, which came to be led by Mustafa Kamil. AsKamil's thrust was increasingly aimed at winning popular support for a NationalParty, Khedive Abbas publicly distanced himself from the Nationalists.^{[citation needed]}
In time he came to accept British counsels. In1899 British diplomat Alfred Mitchell-Innes was appointed Under-Secretary of Statefor Finance in Egypt, and in 1900 Abbas paid a second visit to Britain, duringwhich he frankly acknowledged the great good the British had done in Egypt, anddeclared himself ready to follow their advice and to cooperate with the Britishofficials administering Egyptian and Sudanese affairs. The establishment of asound system of native justice, the great remission of taxation, the reconquestof Sudan, theinauguration of the substantial irrigation works at Aswan, and the increase of cheap, soundeducation, each received his formal approval. He displayed more interest in agriculture than instatecraft. His farm of cattle and horses at Qubbah, near Cairo, was a model for scientific agriculture in Egypt, and hecreated a similar establishment at Muntazah, near Alexandria. Hemarried the Princess Ikbal Hanem and had several children. Muhammad Abdul Mun'im, the heir-apparent, wasborn on 20 February 1899.
His relations with Cromer's successor, Sir Eldon Gorst,were excellent, and they co-operated in appointing the cabinets headed by Butrus Ghali in1908 and Muhammad Sa'id in 1910 and in checking the power of theNationalist Party. The appointment of Kitchenerto succeed Gorst in 1911 displeased Abbas, and relations between him and theBritish deteriorated. Kitcheneroften complained about "that wicked little Khedive" and wanted todepose him.
When the Ottoman Empirejoined the CentralPowers in WorldWar I, the United Kingdom declared Egypt an independent Sultanateunder British protectorateon 18 December 1914 and deposed Abbas. Abbas supported the Ottomans in the war,including leading an attack on the Suez Canal.His uncles Hussein Kamel and then Fuad I, the Britishchoices for their Protectorate, issued a series of restrictive orders to stripAbbas of property in Egyptand Sudanand forbade contributions to him. These also barred Abbas from enteringEgyptian territory and stripped him of the right to sue in Egyptian courts.Abbas finally accepted the new order of things on 12 May 1931 and abdicated. Heretired to Switzerland wherehe died at Geneva19 December 1944.
Marriages and issue
He married firstly in Cairo on 19 February 1895 Crimean Ikbal Hanim(Crimea, 22 October1876 - Jerusalem, 10February 1941) and had six children:

HH Princess Emine Hilmi Khanum Efendi (Montaza Palace, Alexandria, 12 February 1895 - 1954), unmarried and without issue
HH Princess Atiye Hilmi Khanum Efendi (Cairo, 9 June 1896 - 1971), unmarried and without issue
HH Princess Fethiye Hilmi Khanum Efendi (27 November 1897 - 30 November 1923), unmarried and without issue
HH Prince/HRH Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim Bey Efendi, Heir Apparent and Regent of Egypt and Sudan
HH Princess Lütfiye Şevket Hilmi (Cairo, 29 September 1900 - ?), married in Istanbul on 5 May 1923 to Omar Muhtar Katırcıoğlu (1902 - Çamlıca, near Üsküdar, Bosphorus, 15 July 1935), and had issue:
- Emine Neşedil Katırcıoğlu (b. 1927), unmarried and without issue
- Zehra Kadriye Katırcıoğlu (b. 1929), married Ahmet Cevat Tugay have 4 sons and a daughter
HH Prince Muhammed Abdel Kader (4 February 1902 - Montreux, 21 April 1919)

He married secondly at Çubuklu, Bosphorus, on 1March 1910 and divorced in 1913 Hungarian Noblewoman Marianne Török de Szendrö, who took the name Zübeyde CavidanHanım (Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, 8January 1874 - aft. 1951), without issue.
Honours

Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star of Sweden-1890
Grand Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary-1891
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG)-1891
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB)-1892
Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur of France-1892
Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog of Denmark-1892
Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion-1892
Order of the House of Osman of Ottoman Empire-1895
Order of Honour of Ottoman Empire-1895
Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold of Austria-1897
Grand Cross of the Order of Chula Chom Klao, special class of Siam-1897
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)-1900
Royal Victorian Chain (RVC)-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III of Spain-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig of Oldenburg-1905
Grand Cross of the Ducal Saxe-Ernestine House Order-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of Albert of Saxony-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Danilo I of Montenegro-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of Carol I of Romania-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX of the Vatican-1905
Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Stephen of Austria-Hungary-1905
Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky of Russia-1908
Knight of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Imperial House of Romanov) of Russia-1908
Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri of Siam-1908
Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus of Italy-1911
Grand Cross of the Order of Ludwig of Hesse-1911
Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold of Belgium-1911
Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia-1911
Grand Cordon of the Sharifan Order of Ouissam Alaouite of Morocco-1913
Grand Cross of the Order of the Black Eagle of Albania-1914
Grand Cross w/Collar of the Order of the Red Eagle of Prussia-1914
Grand Cordon special class of the Order of the Exalted of Zanzibar-1914

» Raouf Abbas
» Abbas el-Akkad
» Muhammad Ali of Egypt