Abbas II Hilmi | |
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Portrait of Abbas Hilmi II
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Khedive of Egypt and Sudan |
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Reign | 8 January 1892 – 19(20)(21) December 1914 |
Predecessor | Tewfik Pasha |
Successor |
Hussein Kamel (Sultan of Egypt) Khedivate Abolished |
Born |
14 July 1874 Alexandria, Khedivate of Egypt |
Died | 19 December 1944 Geneva, Switzerland |
(aged 70)
Spouse |
Ikbal Hanem Marianna Török |
Issue | Princess Emine Hilmi Princess Atiye Hilmi Princess Fethiye Hilmi Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim Princess Lutfiya Shavkat Prince Muhammed Abdel Kader |
Dynasty | Muhammad Ali |
Father | Tewfik Pasha |
Mother | Emina Ilhamy |
Abbas II Hilmi Bey (also known as ‘Abbās Ḥilmī Pasha) (Arabic: عباس حلمي باشا) (14 July 1874 – 19 December 1944) was the last Khedive (Ottoman viceroy) of Egypt and Sudan, ruling from 8 January 1892 to 19 December 1914. In 1914, after Turkey 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.
Abbas II (full name: Malik Muhammad Abbas Hilmi Sheikh Abdul Hamid Amir Ghulam Ali Mirza Khan Pasha), the great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ali, was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 14 July 1874. He succeeded his father, Tewfik Pasha, as Khedive of Egypt and Sudan on 8 January 1892. 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 Turkish 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 Turkish, he had good conversational knowledge of English, French and German.