Abbas II of Egypt

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Abbas Hilmi Pasha or Abbas II (Arabic: عباس حلمي باشا) (July 14, 1874 – 19 December 1944) was the last khedive of Egypt (January 8, 1892 – 1914).

Abbas Hilmi Pasha was the great-great-grandson of Mehmet Ali. He succeeded his father, Tewfik Pasha, as khedive of Egypt. When a boy he visited England, and he had an English tutor for some time in Cairo. He then went to school in Lausanne, and from there passed on to the Theresianum in Vienna. In addition to Turkish, his mother tongue, he acquired fluency in Arabic, and a good conversational knowledge of English, French and German.

He was still at college in Vienna when the sudden death of his father raised him to the Khedivate; and he was barely of age according to Turkish law, which fixes majority at eighteen in cases of succession to the throne. For some time he did not cooperate very cordially with Great Britain. He was young and eager to exercise his new power. His throne and life had not been saved for him by the British, as was the case with his father. He was surrounded by intriguers who were playing a game of their own, and for some time he appeared almost disposed to be as reactionary as his great-uncle Abbas I.

But in process of time he learnt to understand the importance of British counsels. He paid a second visit to England in 1900, during which he frankly acknowledged the great good the British had done in Egypt, and declared himself ready to follow their advice and to cooperate with the British officials administering Egyptian affairs. The establishment of a sound system of native justice, the great remission of taxation, the reconquest of the Sudan, the inauguration of the substantial irrigation works at Aswan, and the increase of cheap, sound education, each received his approval and all the assistance he could give. He displayed more interest in agriculture than in statecraft, and his farm of cattle and horses at Koubah, near Cairo, would have done credit to any agricultural show in England; at Montaza, near Alexandria, he created a similar establishment. He married the Princess Ikbal Hanem and had several children. Muhammad Abdul Moneim, the heir-apparent, was born on February 20, 1899.

When the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in World War I, Britain declared Egypt a British protectorate on 18 December 1914 and deposed Abbas. Abbas supported the Ottomans in the War, including leading an attack on the Suez Canal. His unclesHusayn Kamil and then Fuad I, the British choices for their Protectorate, issued a series of restrictive orders to strip Abbas of property in Egypt and even forbidding contributions to him. These also forbade the Abbas to enter Egyptian territory and stripped him of the right to sue in Egyptian courts. Abbas finally accepted the new order of things on 12 May 1931. He retired to Switzerland where he died at Lausanne 19 December 1944.

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