“The Last Farouk” .. A behind-the-scenes story of the last rulers of the Muhammad Ali family

The novel begins in Rome, where the last scene in the life of King Farouk, who died in 1965. Archive

With the anniversary of the July 1952 revolution in Egypt, the novelist Montaser Amin sheds light on the era of King Farouk's rule, which inspired many writers and novelists over decades, through his novel "The Last Farouk".

The novel, issued by Al-Riwaq for Publishing and Distribution in Cairo, comes in 236 pages of medium pieces, topped by a rare picture of King Farouk in his youth, and it is the sixth in a series of novels by the writer who works as a lawyer.

The novel begins in Rome, where the last scene in the life of King Farouk, who died on March 18, 1965, at the age of 45, after a hearty dinner in a restaurant, then the controversy over his burial place, with the Egyptian authority at the time not welcoming his burial in Egypt.

In the following chapters, the author returns to the beginnings, bypassing the early years of Farouk's life, to start from the point of his studies in England, which he suddenly interrupted after the death of his father, King Fouad I, in April 1936, and his return to Egypt to take over power.

Since historical events and facts are proven and difficult to change, the author found ample space for his imagination in the scenes of the years of King Farouk’s rule and his relationship with his family and his entourage, and prominent political figures at the time, especially his mother Queen Nazli, Chief of the Royal Court Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, and Princess Shwikar, his father’s first wife.

In this regard, he came with a few lines to introduce the novel on the back cover: “The young boy (at the age of 17) was surprised by himself as king of Egypt.. At that time, senior statesmen bowed to him, everyone flattered him.. He lived a victim of father’s oppression, family disputes and disease, and he fell prey. For bad advisors and those seeking high positions, he lost his throne before he ascended it when he accepted the king while he was in the freshness of his youth and the shallowness of knowledge.” While many books and novels dealt with Queen Nazli's relationship with Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, and the bitterness that she instilled in King Farouk, Princess Shwikar stands out in the work as a surprising and worthy of contemplation. Princess Shwikar plays a pivotal role in moving the events of the novel. The author attributes to her the rumor about her rival Queen Nazli's relationship with Ahmed Hassanein Pasha to the king, as well as to Farouk's introduction into the world of nightlife and private parties, which wrote the end of his first marriage to Queen Farida.The novel does not overlook the political framework of this era, which was characterized by tensions and bickering between political parties, the king and foreign occupation, represented by the British ambassador, Sir Miles Lampson.

It also pauses a little on the traffic accident that King Farouk suffered in his car in 1943, and the transformation that occurred in his thinking and his style of governance after the accident.

With the advent of the end scene, in which the abdicating king leaves abroad, the contradiction that the author threw from the title of his novel (Farouk the Last), the man who bore the title of Farouk I, was the last ruler of Egypt from the family of Muhammad Ali.

"The young boy (at the age of 17) was surprised by himself as king of Egypt, at that time senior statesmen bowed to him, everyone flattered him, he lived a victim of father's oppression, family disputes and disease."

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