The Strange Expulsion of Moulay Hicham from Tunisia

Moulay Hicham

Morocco's so-called "Red Prince," Moulay Hicham, first cousin of King Mohammed VI, was arrested by Tunisian authorities on September 8 at the Movenpick Hotel in Tunis and put on an Air France flight to Paris. Moulay Hicham was in Tunis for a conference on governance and security in Morocco, Egypt, and Yemen.

Though neither Tunis nor Moulay Hicham commented on the reason, the move was unusual given Tunisia's reputation as the one functioning democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring. French and Arab media have speculated that because Hicham had been scheduled to attend a conference in Doha, Qatar, and that Saudi Arabia and/or the UAE brought pressure on Tunisia to expel the prince, who is known as an advocate of democratic reforms.

Moulay Hicham has a Saudi connection and is related to Prince al-Walid bin Talal, whose mother is a sister of Hicham's wife, Lalla Lamia Solh. Both are daughters of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Riad al-Solh.

Various reports in English, French, and Arabic are linked here.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad, former Ruler of Qatar, Dies at 84

Former Qatari Emir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, who ruled from 1972 until overthrown by his son in 1995, has died at he age of 84. His grandson Sheikh Tamim is the current Emir.

Born in 1932, he was already Heir Apparent and Deputy Ruler when he deposed his cousin and took the throne. He presided over the huge increase of wealth following the oil price rise of the 1970s. He gave more and more of his day-to-day responsibilities to his son and spent long periods in Europe. In 1995 he was deposed in turn by his son Hamad, while Khalifa was vacationing in Geneva. He lived in exile in France and the UAE. In 2004 he was allowed to return to Qatar.

In 2013 Sheikh Hamad abdicated in favor of his son Sheikh Tamim, the current ruler, who is the late Sheikh Khalifa's grandson. For the past three years Qatar has had three living former or sitting Rulers, until Sheikh Khalifa's passing.

Princess Ashraf, 1919-2016, Late Shah's Twin, Dies at 96

The once powerful twin sister of the last Shah of Iran, Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, has died in exile at age 96, Princess Ashraf wielded considerable power during her brother's reign, served as an Iranian diplomat, and played a role in persuading her brother to agree to support the US-British backed Operation Ajax counter-coup in 1953, leading critics of the monarchy to compare her to Lady Macbeth.  A spokesman said she died in Europe but for security reasons did not name he country.

What Did and Did Not Happen on July 23, 1952

I've posted about the Egyptian coup/Revolution of July 23, 1952 every year since this blog began and don't want to repeat myself over much, but I thought I'd note for the record that not everything happened at once. Most modern Egyptian coverage of course focuses on the roles of Nasser and Sadat, although Egypt's first President Muhammad Naguib, has been rehabilitated from the "unperson" status to which he was subjected during the Nasser years.

‘Ali Maher Pasha

But if you look at the front page of al-Ahram above, you will note that neither Nasser nor Sadat nor even the Free Officers  as a whole are shown, but General Naguib standing next to a man with a mustache. That man is ‘Ali Maher, a civilian politician the Free Officers named as Prime Minister. ‘Ali Maher Pasha (the old honorific titles would go soon, but the headline refers to Nagub as Naguib Bek as well) had served as Prime Minister in the past, and the Army was not yet ready to govern directly, though Naguib became Minister of War and Navy.

Ex-King Farouq holds King Ahmad Fuad II

As I've noted here many times, the Free Officers also did not abolish the monarchy  right away. King Farouq was forced to abdicate on July 25 in favor of his six-month-old son, Ahmad Fuad II, who thus became Egypt's last King. Now living in Europe and in his early 60s, he still visits Egypt quietly from time to time.

The Regency Body: ‘Abd al-Mon‘eim, Barakat, Muhanna

Farouq sailed into exile on the royal yacht on July 26, taking the infant King Ahmad Fuad II with him, with sovereignty nominally vested in a three-man Regency Council appointed August 2,consisting of Prince Muhammad ‘Abd al-Mon‘eim, a son of Khedive  ‘Abbas Hilmi II and a collateral member of the Royal Family, Bahi al-Din  Barakat Pasha a former Speaker of Parliament, and Col. Rashad Muhanna, as the Free Officers' representative. This Regency Body (not formally a Council), would be short-lived.

Both the retention of the monarchy and the appointment of Maher were largely cosmetic, aimed at presenting the officers as reformers rather than revolutionaries, and the fig leaves were soon discarded, and at not giving Great Britain an excuse to intervene. (The Free Officers were in close touch with the Americans, as well.)

The Prince Regent

On September 7, the Regency Body was dissolved, and Prince ‘Abd al-Mon‘eim was named Prince Regent.

Ten days later, on September 17, ‘Ali Maher Pasha was also forced out, and General Naguib became the Prime Minister. By now it was cear that the Free Officers' Revolution Command Council (RCC) were running things, with Naguib at their head.

On June 18, 1953, nearly 11 months after the coup, the RCC announced the abolition of the monarchy, and Ahmad Fuad II's nominal rule was ended and Egypt declared a Republic. Naguib became Egypt's first President, while also retaining the titles of Prime Minister and Chairman of the RCC.

Nominally, holding those three titles gave Naguib much power, but the RCC took decisions by majority vote. Naguib, the only general officer in the group at the time of the coup and a man in his 50s, saw many things differently from a collection of colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors in their 30s. The younger men tended to align with Col. Gamal ‘Abdel Nasser, now a Deputy Prime Minister.

The rest of the tale is fairly well known. By February 1954 Nagub sought to demand real power and was briefly ousted by the RCC. The crisis was resolved after popular protests and Naguib was restored to the Presidency, but with Nasser as his Prime Minister and Chairman of the RCC. Nasser now held the real power and Naguib was mostly a figurehead from then until November of 1954, when he resigned. As the Nasser era evolved and propaganda intensified, Nasser was increasingly portrayed as the sole author of the coup. Though Naguib was rehabilitated in the end and now has a subway stop named for him, the roles of ‘Ali Maher, the Regency Body, and the Prince Regent are largely forgotten.

Naguib and the RCC, 1952

July 14, 1958: The Fall of the Iraqi Monarchy

King Faisal II

Today is Bastille Day, of course, but it is also the 56th anniversary of the coup tha toppled the Iraqi monarchy in 1958, killing most of the Royal Family and Prime Minister Nuri al-Sa‘id.

At the time, in the midst of the global Cold War and the so-called "Arab Cold War,"

Nuri al-Sa‘id

the coup set off alarms in the US and Britain, as the British installed Hashemites were ousted and killed, and a key member of the Baghdad Pact changed allegiances.

The coup, led by ‘Abd al-Karim Qasim and ‘Abd al-Salam ‘Arif, seemed to follow the Nasser model, but it soon became clear that Qasim was more an Iraqi nationalist than a Nasserist.Qasim cultivated the Iraqi Communist Party and other groups. ‘Arif, a pan-Arabist along Nasser lines, was sidelined.

‘Arif (left)  and Qasim

An encouraging new constitution raised hopes, but Qasim proved a typical authoritarian, and after five years in power was himself overthrown and shot in 1963 in a coup led by Arif. Qasim, of mixed Sunni-Shi‘ite background, was a rare exception to the long string of Sunni rulers in Iraq.

The monarchy, Sunni, foreign, and widely seen as too pro-British, never took deep roots in Iraq, but in the international context of 1958, its overthrow led to renewed concerns in the West about Soviet and Nasserist intentions, and British moved to shore up the Jordanian Hashemites while the US landed Marines in Lebanon.

Nostalgia to Start the Week: King Farouq Marries Queen Farida, 1938

I used to end the week with a nostalgia post; let's start this week with one: a newsreel of King Farouq's marriage to Safinaz Zulfiqar, renamed Queen Farida in 1938. (Farouq's father, King Fuad I, liked his own initial so much he gave all his children names beginning with "F"; Farouq not only did the same with his four children but even renamed his first wife. His second wife would keep her birth name of Nariman, however.) Farida bore Farouq three daughters; he divorced her in 1948 and married Nariman Sadek in 1951. She bore his son and heir, Ahmad Fuad, to whom Farouq abdicated at the time of the 1952 revolution. The infant Fuad II was technically the last King of Egypt until the monarchy was abolished in 1953.

The march music providing the soundtrack of this video is the Royalist National Anthem of the era, in use from 1936 until about 1960 (with changed words after 1952), and one of at least four, perhaps more, tunes that have served as Egypt's national anthem. This one has a bit of notoriety since the large number of British troops in Egypt during World War II heard it played at the end of cinema presentations and put their own words to it. words unflattering to Egyptians, to Farida and Farouq, and also grossly obscene, sexist, racist, imperialist, and offensive in other ways, not to mention carrying lèse-majesté to new heights. (Typical soldier stuff in other words.)  I won't mar the wedding festivities below by quoting them here (that's what Google is for: search for "The Ballad of King Farouk and Queen Farida," or similar titles). And don't say I didn't give you fair warning how many ways it's offensive. Perhaps a post for another time.

Embedded from the Misr al-An wa Zaman ("Egypt today and in the past") nostalgia Facebook site. Not sure if the link will work if you don't have a Facebook account, but let's give it a try.

Post by ‎مصر الان وزمان/ اهل مصر زمان اول صفحه للصور النادره ع الفيس بوك‎.

Archaeological Updates: "New" Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh; Mesopotamian Sex

A couple of updates from the Ancient Middle East for this three-day weekend:

1. A New Pharaoh from an Unknown Dynasty?

Archaeologists from the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered a previously unknown Pharaoh (no, this is not a General Sisi joke) named Senebkay:
Giant Sarcophagus Leads Penn Museum Team in Egypt To the Tomb of a Previously Unknown Pharaoh:

Archaeologists working at the southern Egyptian site of Abydos have discovered the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh: Woseribre Senebkay—and the first material proof of a forgotten Abydos Dynasty, ca. 1650–1600 BC. Working in cooperation with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, a team from the Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, discovered king Senebkay's tomb close to a larger royal tomb, recently identified as belonging to a king Sobekhotep (probably Sobekhotep I, ca. 1780 BC) of the 13th Dynasty.

Senebkay (Penn Museum)

The tomb had been plundered and the mummy unwrapped but the King's bones were found. He apparently belonged to a regional Abydos-based dynasty, the existence of which was only hinted at previously:

The discovery provides significant new evidence on the political and social history of Egypt's Second Intermediate Period. The existence of an independent "Abydos Dynasty," contemporary with the 15th (Hyksos) and 16th (Theban) Dynasties, was first hypothesized by Egyptologist K. Ryholt in 1997. The discovery of pharaoh Senebkay now proves the existence of this Abydos dynasty and identifies the location of their royal necropolis at South Abydos in an area anciently called Anubis-Mountain. The kings of the Abydos Dynasty placed their burial ground adjacent to the tombs of earlier Middle Kingdom pharaohs including Senwosret III (Dynasty 12, ca. 1880–1840 BC), and Sobekhotep I (ca. 1780 BC). There is evidence for about 16 royal tombs spanning the period ca. 1650–1600 BC. Senebkay appears to be one of the earliest kings of the "Abydos Dynasty." His name may have appeared in a broken section of the famous Turin King List (a papyrus document dating to the reign of Ramses II, ca. 1200 BC) where two kings with the throne name "Woser...re" are recorded at the head of a group of more than a dozen kings, most of whose names are entirely lost.

Not everyone will think this is super-cool, but given the other recent archaeological discoveries I noted just a week ago,  a new Pharaoh is as good as it gets.

2. Israel Museum Proves Ancient Mesopotamians Had Sex

As near as I can tell from the museum website this isn't even a specific exhibit at the Archaeological Wing of the Israel Museum (which has a spectacular collection, by the way), so much as a focus on one issue by The Times of Israel: "4,000-year-old erotica depicts a strikingly racy ancient sexuality." (Let me note that the image below may be considered NSFW despite being a thousands-of-years-old terra-cotta tablet.)

 Terra-Cotta Tablet (Times of  Israel)

While this will be news to anyone who thought sex was invented in the 1960s and humans reproduced like amoebas before that, or who have never read The Epic of Gilgamesh (the most prominent female character in the early part is a temple prostitute and the description is pretty explicit, though the quote from the Times of Israel article must be from a Victorian translation) or, for that matter, The Book of Genesis with all its "knowings" and "begattings," I don't think historians of Ancient Mesopotamia will find a lot new here, but if it gets people to visit the Archaeology Wing of the Israel Museum, great. It'll draw a lot more young folk than the Code of Hammurabi (though that's in the Louvre).

I wonder if they've ever heard of the Turin Erotic Papyrus.

Why King Farouq Missed the Conference: The First Cairo Conference, 1943, Part II

King Farouq Earlier in 1942

This is my second post on the 70th anniversary of the First Cairo Conference of 1943, the first of three continuous World War II summits held in the Middle East (First Cairo, Tehran, and Second Cairo). But this one is not about the conference itself, but about the absence of King Farouq. Although the local rulers were not participants in the Allied Conference, at the Casablanca Conference earlier in 1943, FDR had hosted a dinner for Sultan Muhammad V of Morocco, where he openly seemed to support Moroccan independence, in the presence of the local French authorities (most of whom were Vichy holdovers). But FDR did not meet Farouq on this trip to Egypt. (He did later though, on his way home after the Yalta Conference in 1945, when he met with Farouq and King "Ibn Saud" of Saudi Arabia aboard a ship in the Red Sea.)

Ahmad Hassanein Pasha

Instead, on November 24, Roosevelt received the Chief of Farouq's Royal Cabinet and Royal Chamberlain, Ahmad Hassanein Pasha (a powerful figure in his own right who may be the subject of a future blogpost) and with the Wafdist Prime Minister, Mustafa Nahhas Pasha. It is unclear if they also called on Winston Churchill; he doesn't seem to mention it in his memoirs.

So where was the King? Improbably enough, he was in an ordinary Army hospital bed in an obscure British Army field hospital at a British camp in the small town of Qassasin on the eastern edge of the Delta, midway between Cairo and Ismailia, and had been there nearly 10 days.

Needless to say, therein lies a good story, and needless to say, I'm going to tell it.

But first let me set the political context of the time. In 1936, Egypt and Britain signed a treaty which was supposed to end Britain's military occupation of Egypt, except for the Suez Canal Zone, and make Egypt (nominally independent since 1922) recognizing Egypt as fully sovereign with a right to join the League of Nations. The treaty was also a treaty of alliance, allowing Britain to reoccupy the rest of Egypt in order to protect its Ally Egypt and the Canal in time of war. And in 1939, Britain found itself at war. With first the Italians and then Rommel threatening Egypt from Libya, the British built up their forces in the country, and became concerned by what they perceived as a pro-Axis tilt in the Palace itself.

Sir Miles Lampson's title was Ambassador to Egypt and High Commissioner of the Sudan, but once the British had reoccupied Egypt he, with the backing of the British Army, began acting much more like a colonial viceroy. The King had surrounded himself with a number of Italian cronies who were, in British eyes, enemy aliens and perhaps Mussolini's spies; Lampson demanded the King get rid of them. (He never did. Lampson's own wife was the daughter of an Italian aristocrat, and the King supposedly quipped, not to Lampson's face, that "I'll get rid of my Italians when he gets rid of his.")

I did a post last year on the ‘Abdin Incident of February 4, 1942. After the fall of Prime Minister Hussein Hussein Sirri Pasha's pro-British government, the British decided to insist on a Wafdist Prime Minister. It's conventional to analyze Egypt in this period as a three-way power struggle between the King, the British, and the nationalist Wafd Party; usually the British were anti-Wafd, but this time they insisted on the King naming Wafd leader Nahhas Pasha as Prime Minister. When the King resisted, Lampson and his military counterpart showed up at the gates of ‘Abdin Palace accompanied by tanks and carrying an instrument of abdication drawn up by Sir Walter Monckton. who had done the same for King Edward VIII and was now at the Embassy in Cairo. He offered the King a choice: abdicate or appoint Nahhas.

Lampson and Nahhas in 1936 

The ‘Abdin incident is notorious among Egyptians to this day; at least in folklore, Lampson asked, "Where's the boy?" (Farouq was 22) and "I know the way" when someone tried to lead him to the King. Any British hope that forcing the King to name Nahhas would strengthen their own popularity was misguided; instead, Egyptians considered that the once nationalist Nahhas had been installed in power by British arms. And the King despised both Lampson and Nahhas.

In the 21 months between the ‘Abdin Incident and the First Cairo Conference, the once svelte young King of the late 1930s had begun to put on weight and indulge his appetites, both gastronomic and sexual, and had reached nearly 250 pounds. He had continued to feud with Nahhas, seeking to replace him, but unable to do so. Though Rommel had been stopped at El ‘Alamein, the British still suspected the King's real sympathies.

Meanwhile, Sir Miles Lampson's popularity in Egypt might be nil, Britain felt otherwise and had elevated him to the peerage as Lord Killearn. (One of those perhaps apocryphal stories that has to be told, even if untrue, claims that Noel Coward supposedly told Lord Killearn that "I understand that you are much more popular than your predecessor, Lampson.")

That brings us to November 1943. Now the King loved cars. Like some other royalty he loved fast cars. (King Ghazi of Iraq had died in a car accident in 1939 at age 29.) And Farouq loved red cars, so much so that he's reported to have banned importers from importing and selling red cars in Egypt except for the King. He had hundreds of cars at various times. All seem to have been red, though a Mercedes given to him for his 1938 wedding by Adolf Hitler seems to have started out black and been repainted a dark shade of red. (Even in his post-1952nEuropean exile, Farouq's cars would be red.)

Now back to our story. On November 15, 1943, the King decided to get out of Cairo and head to one of his other palaces, gathered some of his aides and cronies, and got one of his red Cadillacs ready, and headed out on the Cairo to Ismailia road. In open country the King was said to drive normally at least 80 mph, and along the way apparently became frustrated by finding himself stuck behind a British Army lorry (truck). apparently, the King decided to pass the truck on the two-lane road and, once in the other lane, saw oncoming traffic, and veered into the truck. (Or, if you prefer conspiracy theories, the whole thing was of course a British plot.) The car swerved off the road and hit a tree.

The King suffered two cracked ribs and a cracked pelvic bone. (There are stories the stretcher-bearers dropped the overweight King, which wouldn't have helped.) There was no concussion. Nothing life-threatening, but the pelvic injury would keep him off his feet.

An Egyptian Magazine Visits the Hospital

The nearest hospital was Military Hospital Number 6 at a British Army camp at nearby Qassasin. The King was treated by both British and Egyptian doctors; his weight seems to have been one obstacle to his being moved immediately to Cairo, but as the days went on, he seems to have been recovering well. For whatever reasons, however, the King decided he was going to enjoy a leisurely recovery in a military hospital rather than a Palace in Cairo. He was still there at the time of the First Cairo Conference; he was still there during the Second Cairo Conference; he only returned home December 7, three weeks after the accident. Why? He claimed, supposedly, he wanted to be sure he was in good shape. Some have suspected he wanted to stay well away from the Court (and perhaps his mother, Queen Nazli.) Perhaps he was even avoiding the Cairo Conferences?

This being the Middle East, the long delay fueled conspiracy theories. After the accident, the King's descent into obesity and libertinism continued, and though there was evidence of these before the accident, a theory emerged that either the pelvic accident or the British treatment had altered the King's hormonal balance and perhaps his mind in some way. The doctors said that wasn't possible, but conspiracy theories never need evidence, do they?

And that is where the King was during the Cairo Conference.

Why Did Al-Masry al-Youm Print This Picture Now?

The independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm ran this picture with a very short news story a couple of days ago. The headline of the story reads "Watch of King Farouq Reveals the Borders of Egypt,"

Perhaps I'm reading too much into what could just be a picture Egyptian readers might find interesting, but obviously the King's specially made watch show the borders of what is now Egypt and the Sudan together. This is not news: the King's title was always King of Egypt and the Sudan, though Sudan was then a joint Anglo-Egyptian condominium, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, until its independence. That's a given, though the short article with the picture makes no reference to the British, and refers to the watch as showing the borders of Egypt at that time.

Is there some sort of message here? Irredentism? Monarchism? Something to do with the Nile waters dispute? Again, I may be trying to read more meaning into this than was intended.

Friday Nostalgia for Rouhani's Visit: Nasser al-Din Shah's European Tours

As a new Iranian President comes to the United Nations, it may be worth remembering the foreign travels of an earlier Iranian leader, the Qajar ruler Nasser al-Din Shah (1831-1896; Shah 1848-1896). Something of a Westernizer (but by no means a liberal), the Shah visited Europe in 1873, when Queen Victoria gave him the Order of the Garter,  and he presented her with the Order of Aftab. He visited Europe again in 1878, when he attended a Royal Navy Fleet Review, and again in 1889. (He was assassinated in 1896.)

His diary of his 1873 tour was even published, and you can find it online here.

Shahanshah Meets Queen-Empress

At Royal Albert Hall with Prince & Princess of Wales

Victoria wearing Order of Aftab, as Empress of India

Fuad II Again: And You Thought I Was Kidding Before

Some laughed (well, to be honest, so did I) at my earlier post about apparent Internet efforts to promote deposed King Fuad II of Egypt, who went into exile when a babe in arms in 1952 after his father, King Farouq, abdicated in his favor. Egyptian monarchists are still lurking out there, somewhere. Consider this:

Young (well, 60ish) ex-King and old King with the old flag.

As I previously noted, he's ideally qualified except for having spent only his first few months of infancy in Egypt and not (apparently, since he gives interviews, even to Arab media, in French) speaking the language. (I'll leave out the rumors that his divorced wife is an Israeli citizen since I don't think that should be a factor, but some Egyptians may disagree.)

In my earlier post I suggested restoring the Ptolemies instead, but that's probably not practical. Perhaps I should look into offering my own services as a potential retirement career? Fuad and I are roughly contemporaries, but I have probably spent more time in Egypt than he has. (He usually returns only for family funerals, which the regime okays if he keeps a low profile.) My Arabic may be better than his, if his public utterances are any indication. And while his ancestors are mostly Albanian, mine are heavily Irish, which has ancient links to Egyptian Coptic traditions and the Desert Fathers.

But then, I really don't want to be a King, so I'll stick to being an Editor. I think Fuad should probably stick to being an ex-King as well. He knows how by now.

Tanned, Rested and Ready to Rule? Ex-King Fuad II Reappears

Oh, hell, has it gotten this bad? A (presumably Egyptian?) "Liberal Royalist Movement" (Huh? Please don't ask me) has posted this photo of Egypt's last king, Ahmad Fuad II, who was deposed when he was a year old and in exile, on Facebook:

He's spent all but about six months of his life in Europe and when interviewed by Arabic channels always speaks in French, but hey, there are leadership issues in Egypt, right? Are they hinting it's time for the Return of the King?

I suppose the monarchy could be restored. I'd put the odds somewhere between a Martian conquest installing a lizard king and conversion of the whole country to Lubavitcher Hasidism, but hey, anything's possible. Maybe he could pull a sword from a stone or something.

King Fuad II has one major thing going for him: having left the country as a babe in arms he may be the only literate adult Egyptian who hasn't contributed to the present problems.

Too bad he doesn't actually speak the language, has probably spent less time in Egypt than I have, and increasingly looks way too much like his late father, King Farouq, remembered mostly for corruption, weakness, and an allegedly awesome collection of pornography. Sure makes you yearn for another King.

Commenters: I'm kidding. I'm not a monarchist even in cute countries like the UK and Scandinavia since my Irish ancestors haunt me if I even watch Royal Baby news, which is hard to avoid. The Muhammad ‘Ali dynasty has about the same chance of being restored as the Ptolemies do, and Cleopatra was a hell of a lot sexier and had spent more time in Egypt, so if we can find a Ptolemy claimant . . . Keep enjoying Switzerland, King Fuad.

What Did Cleopatra Really Look Like? Her Image (and "Infinite Variety") Through the Ages

I'm on vacation. As I've done in recent years, I've prepared a number of posts on topics of historical and cultural interest ahead of time, posts unlikely to be overtaken by events. There will be one or more of these per day, and I may drop in to comment on current developments as required.

"Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed."

Blaise Pascal, Pensées 180

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her: that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
 

For two millennia, artists have been fascinated by the last Pharaoh of Egypt, the last of the Ptolemies, Cleopatra VII Philopater, or as she is known to most people, just Cleopatra. She has been portrayed in coins, statuary, paintings, and film in many different ways, usually glamorously; she captivated two of the greatest figures in Roman history, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, bearing a child to one and bringing disaster to the other.

A month or so back I ran across this piece, which raises the question of Cleopatra's real looks, and is better than most such pieces. Far too many start from the assumption that Cleopatra is much overrated for her beauty. Many begin with an illustration of one of her coins, such as the one at left, which shows a woman with a beaked nose that does not conform to modern standards of beauty nor, based on what we know of Roman statuary, to Roman standards either (though they did have a higher appreciation of aquiline noses than many today). But is this coin a representation of what Cleopatra really looked like, or some sort of standardization in numismatic art, making her look rather masculine, or even just a die-maker with poor artistic skills? Let's look at a selection of Cleo's other coinage:

Do these even look like the same woman? Certainly they do not give us a consistent image,let alone explain how this woman won both Caesar and Antony. The gentlemanly verdict would seem to be that the Ptolemies had not mastered the numismatic arts.

But Cleopatra ruled Egypt as the last Pharaoh, either as co-ruler or sole ruler, for 21 years from 51 BC to 30 BC, beginning at the age of 18. There was plenty of time for contemporary depiction (even the Rosetta Stone was a decree from her era). But the stylistic conventions of Egyptian art intrude. She is portrayed as a goddess, with a voluptuous body but also because Pharaoh was traditionally male, sometimes but not always with masculine facial features.

Roman depictions are somewhat more consistent. but may not be done by artists who had ever seen her. And they, too, may be conventionalized.

Egyptian and Roman artists, and even Ptolemaic coin designers, may have actually seen, or spoken to those who had seen, the Egyptian Queen. Later artists faced no such constraints. She could be blonde or brunette as they preferred (either is possible; her ancestry was almost entirely Macedonian, despite some modern Afrocentrist efforts to claim her as African). And there were also preferences for how to portray her, usually either her first meeting with Caesar (according to legend arriving wrapped in a carpet) or her suicide (supposedly by a poisonous asp). The latter was a particularly popular theme, since she is said to have held the asp to her breast, allowing the artist to portray her naked or nearly so.

In the Renaissance, Piero di Cosimo painted Simonetta Vespucci, allegedly the most beautiful woman in Florence (married to a cousin of Amerigo Vespucci and also believed by many to have been the model for Botticelli's Venus). as Cleopatra, with the asp around her neck. The asp became a standard part of artistic representation.

Guido Cagnacci, 1658

The Renaissance and later painters soon standardized on a Cleopatra who was frequently blonde and usually rather underdressed. The death scene, with or without the asp, soon became a standard part of the iconography.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1866

Needless to say, later artists continued the tradition, including 19th-century artists in the Orientalist tradition like Jean-Léon Gérôme, known for his harem scenes, who in 1866 depicted Cleopatra's meeting with Caesar, looking a bit like a harem girl.

Mose Biamce, 1865

Jean-Andre Rixens, 1874

Other romantic artists followed suit. The Orientalist era seems to have been particularly rich in these themes, with an emphasis on nudity.

Theda Bara, Cleopatra,  1917

And then came the movies. Cleopatra has been a major theme of cinema from its very beginnings. In fact, the first film about the Egyptian queen, 1917's silent Cleopatra starring Theda Bara, may have been the most daring of all; unfortunately, only stills and a few brief clips survive, since after the introduction of the Hays Code in 1930 it was banned as obscene, and the only surviving copies were destroyed in a fire. Stills like the one at left suggest it was more suggestive than its more modern successors, at least until recently.

Claudette Colbert, Cleopatra,, 1934

Claudette Colbert's  1934 interpretation in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra (right) was a lot less daring than Theda Bara's,

Liz Taylor, 1963

Lindsey Marshal, HBO's Rome, 2005-2007

The definitive Cleopatra for those of us of the Baby Boomer generation was 1963's Joseph Mankiewicz's Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton; it was hugely expensive for its era and remembered for that and for the beginning of the Taylor-Burton romance.

Vivien Leigh

UPDATE: A commenter notes  that I left out Vivien Leigh, who played Cleopatra in 1945's Caesar and Cleopatra. I hadn't realized she'd played the role. Either she didn't come up in a Google image search, or else I didn't recognize her because she wasn't dressed like Scarlett O'Hara. So for the sake of completeness, I add her.

These are just the Anglo-American film interpretations, of course; other cultures have filmed the queen, and the story continues to be told. The queen remains a fascinating character, and each country and generation interprets her in its own way and through its own eyes. Cleopatra remains a popular brand in Egypt as well, where it has been applied to cigarettes, wine, hotels and much besides.

It would appear that Shakespeare, as usual, got it right:

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy
The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies ...

Some Ramadan Nostalgia: Coffee for King Farouq's Iftar

Some Ramadan nostalgia: the servants prepare the coffee for King Farouq's guests for Iftar at the palace in the 1940s, from this site.

Will Sheikh Tamim Differ from His Father?

After a couple of weeks of rumors, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar has met with members of the Royal Family and confirmed rumors that he will hand over power to his 33-year-old son and Heir Apparent, Sheikh Tamim.

The transfer of power in Qatar today is likely to draw a great deal more attention than when Sheikh Hamad took power in 1995, despite the fact that Hamad overthrew his father at that time. Qatar's international clout has vastly increased under Hamad's policy of making Qatar a regional power; its role in Lebanon, in Sudan, and more recently in the Syrian conflict and supporting the Morsi government in Egypt (not to mention the role of Al Jazeera), mean that any change at the helm will be closely watched.

Sheikh Tamim has been Heir Apparent since 2003 He is Sheikh Hamad's fourth son; the others were passed over for succession. He is the second son by Sheikh Hamad's second and best-known wife, Sheikha Moza. Before Hamad took power in 1995 the Al Thani family had a long history of internal feuding and maneuvering; at least visibly, Hamad seems to have kept that under control, and his meeting with the Royal Family this morning was presumably intended to smooth the way for Tamim.

Many reports suggest that Tamim is even more conservative and potentially supportive of Islamist groups than his father.

Another question will be the role of the powerful Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, a royal cousin who is also Foreign Minister and CEO of the Qatar Investment Authority, the country's sovereign wealth fund (the British press has called him "the man who bought London").

The internal dynamic of Gulf royal families is often discussed but generally is opaque to those outside the ruling families. Expect a lot of speculation, but wait and see what happens. Sheikh Hamad (the ruler, not the PM) addresses the country tomorrow.

Weekend Nostalgia Video: King Farouq's Succession, Two Weddings

We're going into the three-day Memorial Day weekend here in the US; I may have a post or two later, but let's do a weekend nostalgia post in case I don't. Here are some videos of key moments in King Farouq of Egypt's life, in brief clips (apparently previews) of British newsreels (not responsible for the narrator';s commentary):

Farouq's return to Egypt from the UK after the death of his father, Fuad I, in 1936:



Farouq's marriage to Queen Farida (Safinaz Zulfiqar), January 20, 1938 (Farouq divorced Farida in 1948:


Farouq's second marriage, to Queen Narriman (Narriman Sadek,a commoner), May 6, 1951:

For the Royalty Buffs: Son of Last King of Egypt Engaged to Granddaughter of Last King of Afghanistan

A social note for the fans of former royalty (and you know who you are): Former King Ahmad Fuad II of Egypt, who was the last King of Egypt (his father King Farouq abdicated in his then-six-month-old son's favor in July 1952, and though he went into exile with his father, he nominally remained king until June 1953, when Egypt was declared a republic), has announced that his eldest son, Prince of the Sa‘id (traditional title of the Heir to the Throne), Prince Muhammad ‘Ali, is engaged to marry Princess Nawal Zahir, granddaughter of the last King of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who died in 2007.  Fuad II (who is divorced) is 61, Prince Muhammad ‘Ali is 34, and Princess Nawal is 33.  Prince Muhammad ‘Ali works in real estate in Paris. Fuad II, who increasingly looks like his father Farouq, lives in Switzerland.

I vaguely understand how sitting royal families matchmake, but is there a matchmaking service for deposed royal families?

Fuad II at the right, happy couple in the middle (possibly bride's mother at left?)

Turtlegate: Did King Farouq's Turtle Die (Again?) Last Week, or Not?

Apparently not. I was too busy last week to mention the widespread report that a turtle that had once belonged to King Farouq and that was believed to be the second oldest turtle in the world, had died at the age of 270 at the Cairo Zoo in Giza. The story may have originated with the sensational paper Yom 7, but was widely repeated, for example here.

There were variants. The turtle was not 270; it was 280. Or 217. It had been given to the Giza Zoo by King Farouq in 1936, or by Khedive Ismail in the 1870s. Or Khedive Tewfiq.

It was suggested it was the turtle that Farouq's daughter Princess Ferial is riding in this picture, from the late 1930s or 1940-ish (Ferial was born in 1938.)

Gradually, someone must have noted the varied stories weren't terribly consistent. Then someone noticed that the King's turtle had reportedly died in 2009. Oh, and again in 2011. And again last year.

A couple of Twitter posts:

As the first of those posts suggests, people were grasping at any story linking to King Farouq as a contrast to the present situation; this may be one reason why the story spread so quickly. This story in Britain's Independent debunks the whole story, saying the turtle, named Samir, actually died 15 years ago, quoting Egypt's Director of Regional Zoos. (But what would he know?) It suggests the story was made up (fairly clearly true) to discredit President Morsi (less clear).