Fārūq ibn Fu'ād, Arabic: فاروق الأول, Fārūq I, sometimes transliterated Farouk I and more widely known as Faruq I of Egypt, was the tenth ruler of the Mehmet Ali dynasty, and the second and penultimate King of Egypt, succeeded to his father, King Fu'ād I, in 1936. His sister Fawzia was Empress of Iran for 8 years. His complete title is "His Majesty Faruq I, by the grace of Allah, King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, of Kordofan and Darfur". His reign ended by the coup d'état, called inappropriately "the Egyptian Revolution of 1952", since it was the work of the military only, following which the sovereign was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of the newborn son Ahmad Fu'ād. He remained faithful to his country even after exile. He died in Italy in 1965.
Before the death of his father, King Fu'ad I, he was educated at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England. For his coronation, which took place at only 16 years of age, King Fārūq gave a public announcement on the radio. It was the first time that a sovereign of Egypt was addressing his people in this way. His speech was incisive:
"If the will of Allah is to place on my shoulders, at such a young age, the responsibility to reign, I deeply appreciate this" burden "that will be mine, and I am therefore ready for all the sacrifices of my duty ... My noble people I am proud of you, of your faithfulness and I am confident in the future, as I am in God. Let's work together. We will succeed in achieving full happiness. Long live the country! "
S. M. King Fārūq I in an official portrait.
During the Second World War, the young king worked to keep the country as far as possible from the discomforts of the conflict. He made an important contribution to the foundation of the Arab League.
The long British occupation of Egypt had made the people and the same dynasty discreetly sympathizing with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, in the hope that the greatest adversaries of the United Kingdom were coherently favorable to a fully independent Egypt and master of its destinies . Despite the presence of large British troops at home, Egypt remained officially neutral until the last year of the war. The only act carried out by the King before 1945 against the Axis (Germany-Italy-Japan) was to internment in the labor camps all Italians suspected of being on Mussolini's side, when Italy tried to invade Sudan Anglo- Egyptian, using his colony in Ethiopia as a base. Only in 1945 Faruq, subjected to strong pressure from the government of His Majesty Britannicus, declared war on the two European dictatorships.
On July 23, 1952, a group of soldiers, later known as Free Officers, commanded by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser and General Muhammad Nagib, implemented a coup. Fārūq was forced to abdicate in favor of the newborn son, Fu'ād II with Naguib, head of the government. Although the son of Fārūq was King of Egypt, the powers of the state were actually in the hands of Nasser, who the following year overthrew the monarchy and proclaimed Naguib president of the Egyptian Republic. In 1954 he had him arrested and took his place.
Fārūq and his family were forced, following the coup, to leave in exile aboard the royal yacht "El-Mahrūsa" to the Principality of Monaco, from where they then continued to Italy (here he was given hospitality as Fārūq had granted the same favor to the former sovereign Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoia when in 1946 he had abdicated in favor of his son Umberto II, last King of Italy).
The Republic was officially proclaimed on 23 July 1953 and that act marked the end of a monarchy that had reigned for 150 years, since the Khedive era Mehmet Ali. In the period following the collapse of the old regime, many assets of the former royal family were auctioned, giving the new government millions of dollars. The sovereign depositor was also allowed to take with him, in his yacht that would take him to Europe, a casket full of family jewels, which allowed Fārūq a luxurious and expensive life in the years that would have remained to live.
Fārūq, the day of his departure for exile, told one of his friends: "The Revolution will say bad things about me and the Royal Family, and many people will believe their lies. If possible, write about my life and show everyone that they are wrong. Tell the truth so that the new generations know that I am not a bad person. Save my good reputation from what those soldiers will say. "
The former sovereign spent a large part of his exile in Rome, where together with his wife he was one of the protagonists of the social life in the period called the Dolce Vita. [1] [2] Fārūq died in Rome on March 18, 1965, at the end of a gargantuan dinner in his favorite restaurant. On his death many versions were hypothesized, including that dear to the murderers of murder by poisoning, but there was no reason to doubt a natural death, 13 years after his bloodless deposition, while the popularity of Nasser and his regime they were at their peak. That there was no particular hostility towards the former sovereign proves the permission to burial given him in the large and well-known Ahmad al-Rifā'ī mosque, in Cairo, at the foot of the citadel on which the Mehmet Ali mosque stands.
The words remained famous, it seems, pronounced at death by the former sovereign: "In the twenty-first century there will be only five kings: those of the decks of cards and the tenant of Buckingham Palace".