Abbas II of Egypt
Abbas Helmy II (also known as ʿAbbās Ḥilmī Pāshā, Egyptian Arabic: عباس حلمي باشا) (14 July 1874 – 19 December 1944) was the last Khedive of Egypt and the Sudan, ruling from 8 January 1892 to 19 December 1914.[2][nb 1] 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 favour 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 Hilmi II
8 January 1892 – 19(20)(21) December 1914
Hussein Kamel (as Sultan of Egypt)
14 July 1874
Alexandria, Khedivate of Egypt[1]
19 December 1944 (aged 70)
Geneva, Switzerland
Princess Emine Hilmi
Princess Atiye Hilmi
Princess Fethiye Hilmi
Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim
Princess Lutfiya Shavkat
Prince Muhammed Abdel Kader
Early life[edit]
Abbas II (full name: Abbas Hilmy), the great-great-grandson of Muhammad Ali, was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 14 July 1874.[4] In 1887 he was ceremonially circumcised together with his younger brother Mohammed Ali Tewfik. The festivities lasted for three weeks and were carried out with 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.[5] In a profile of Abbas II, the boys' annual, Chums, gave a lengthy account of his education.[6] 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;[7] 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.[5][7]
His first marriage in Cairo on 19 February 1895 was to Ikbal Hanim (Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 22 October 1876 – Istanbul, 10 February 1941). They divorced in 1910 and had six children, two sons and four daughters:
His second marriage in Çubuklu, Turkey on 28 February 1910 was to Hungarian noblewoman Javidan Hanim (born May Torok de Szendro, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., 8 January 1874 – 5 August 1968). They divorced in 1913 without issue.[18]