Sultan Hussein Kamel (; 21 November 1853 – 9 October 1917) was the Sultan of Egypt from 19 December 1914 to 9 October 1917, during the British protectorate over Egypt.
He was the first person to hold the title of Sultan of Egypt since the killing of Sultan Tuman II by the Ottomans in 1517 following their conquest of Egypt.
Life
Hussein Kamel was the second son of Khedive Ismail Pasha, who ruled Egypt from 1863 to 1879.
He was declared Sultan of Egypt on 19 December 1914, after the occupying British forces had deposed his nephew, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, on 5 November 1914.
Though presented as the re-establishment of the pre-Ottoman Egyptian sultanate, the newly created Sultanate of Egypt was to be a British protectorate, with effective political and military power vested in British officials.
This brought to an end the de jure Ottoman sovereignty over Egypt, which had been largely nominal since Muhammad Ali's seizure of power in 1805.
Upon Hussein Kamel's death, his only son, Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein, declined the succession, and Hussein Kamel's brother Ahmed Fuad ascended the throne as Fuad I.
At the beginning of Naguib Mahfouz's novel Palace Walk, Ahmad Abd al-Jawwad says "What a fine man Prince Kamal al-Din Husayn is!
Do you know what he did?
He refused to ascend the throne of his late father so long as the British are in charge."
Naguib Mahfouz, Palace Walk (Anchor Books, 1991), p. 12
Stereoscope photographs of the coronation procession and burial procession of Sultan Hussein are available on the Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library of the American University in Cairo.
Honours
;Domestic
Founder and Sovereign of the Order of Muhammad Ali
Founder and Sovereign of the Order of Ismail
Founder and Sovereign of the Order of the Nile
Founder and Sovereign of the Order of the Virtues
;Foreign
Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class
Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class
Grand Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph, 1869
Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword, 1891
Honorary Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (civil division), 19 December 1914
Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur, 1916
Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, 1916
Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, 1916
Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown, 1916
Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II, 1917
References
External links
Stereoscopes of Hussein Kamel's coronation and burial processions
Category:1853 births Category:1917 deaths Category:Egyptian Muslims Category:20th-century Egyptian monarchs Category:Muhammad Ali dynasty Category:Sultans of Egypt Category:Government ministers of Egypt Category:Speakers of the Parliament of Egypt Category:Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
