Shivakiar Ibrahim
Princess of Egypt
A nineteenth or twentieth century photograph of Shivakiar Ibrahim
Born(1876-10-25)25 October 1876
Üsküdar (formerly Scutari), Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died17 February 1947(1947-02-17) (aged 70)
Kasr al-Aali Palace, Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt
Burial
Hosh al-Basha, Imam al-Shafi'i, Cairo, Egypt
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1895; div. 1898)​
Raouf Thabet Bey
​
​
(m. 1900; div. 1903)​
Seyfullah Yousri Pasha
​
​
(m. 1904; div. 1916)​
Selim Khalil Bey
​
​
(m. 1917; div. 1925)​
Ilhami Hüseyin Pasha
​
​
(m. 1927)​
Issue
  • From first husband:
  • Prince Ismail
  • Princess Fawkia
  • From third husband:
  • Wahid Yousri Bey
  • Lutfia Hanim
  • From fourth husband:
  • Muhammad Wahideldin Selim
Names
Arabic: شیوہ کار ابراھیم
Turkish: Şivekâr İbrahim
HouseMuhammad Ali
FatherPrince Ibrahim Fahmi Pasha
MotherNevjiwan Hanim
ReligionSunni Islam

Shivakiar Ibrahim (Arabic: شیوہ کار ابراھیم; Turkish: Şivekâr İbrahim; 25 October 1876 – 17 February 1947[1]) was an Egyptian princess and a member of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. She was the first wife of King Fuad.

Early life

Princess Shivakiar Ibrahim was born on 25 October 1876 in Üsküdar (formerly Scutari), Istanbul.[1] She was the only daughter of Prince Ibrahim Fahmi Pasha (1847 – 1893), and his first wife, Nevjiwan Hanim (1857 – 1940). She was the granddaughter of Prince Ahmad Rifaat Pasha (1825 – 1858) and Shams Hanim (died 1891).[2] Shivakiar had two brothers, Prince Ahmad Saif ud-din Ibrahim (1881 – 1937),[3] and Prince Muhammad Wahid ud-din Ibrahim.[4] Her aunt Princess Ayn al-Hayat Ahmad was the first wife of Sultan Hussein Kamel.[2]

Marriages

Shivakiar with her first husband, Prince Ahmed Fuad (later King Fuad)

Princess Shivakiar first married her first cousin once removed Prince Ahmed Fuad (first cousin of her father), who later became the King of Egypt, on 30 May 1895 at the Abbasiya Palace. Fuad and Shivakiar had been no match whatsoever to each other, because at the time of their marriage, Shivakiar was one of the richest women in Egypt, while Prince Fuad's gambling debts had almost bankrupted him.[5] She gave birth to a son, Ismail, born in Naples in 1896, and died in infancy at Alexandria on 6 July 1897,[6] and a daughter, Fawkia Hanim,[4][7] born on 6 October 1897[8] in the Saffron Palace.[6]

Prince Fuad was deeply attached to his wife, but in May 1898, three years after their marriage the princess obliged him to divorce her and embarked on the series of matrimonial ventures which resulted in her having four successive husbands and three divorces.[4] The divorce was a result of a dispute of her brother, Prince Ahmad Saif ud-din Ibrahim Bey with Fuad, after which her brother shot Fuad in the throat. He survived, but carried that scar the rest of his life.[6][5][9] She then went on to marry four times and had numerous affairs.[10]

Shivakiar's second husband was Raouf Thabet Bey. She married him on 14 March 1900, and divorced him three years later in 1903. She then married Seyfullah Yousri Pasha on 2 January 1904.[1] He was the first Egyptian ambassador to Washington, D.C.,[11] and had been married to Mahmoud Sami el-Baroudi's daughter, Samira Hanim.[12] They had a daughter Sarwat Hanim, who married Prince Amr Ibrahim.[13]

With Seyfullah, Shivakiar had a daughter, Lutfia Hanim,[14][15] born in 1905,[11] and a son, Wahid Yousri Bey.[16] Shivakiar divorced him on 10 January 1916,[1] after which he married Princess Zainab Hanim, the daughter of Prince Ibrahim Hilmy, Fuad's elder brother,[17] and had two daughters, Nimet Hanim and Nevine Hanim.[18]

Shivakiar married her fourth husband Selim Khalil Bey on 5 July 1917.[1] He was the son of Halil Pasha, one of the most prominent Turkish painters and was sixteen years her junior.[10] With him, she had a son, Muhammad Wahideldin Selim.[18][19] Shivakiar divorced him on 2 March 1925,[1] and married her last husband, Ilhami Hüseyin Pasha (1899–1992),[20] son of Hafız Hüseyin Pasha[21] and Gülnev Hanım[22] in 1927.[5] He was an employee of a bank in Istanbul. She took him back to Egypt, where she managed to take the title of pasha for him form King Fuad.[10]

Autochrome by Georges Chevalier, 1931

Her elder daughter, Princess Fawkia Hanim married Mahmoud Fakhry Pasha on 12 May 1919. She died in 1974.[6] Her younger daughter, Lutfia Hanim's husband was Ahmed Hassanein, an Egyptian courtier, diplomat, politician, and geographic explorer. Hassanein was the tutor, Chief of the Diwan and Chamberlain to King Farouk. The two married in 1926,[23] and had two sons.[24] The marriage, however, ended in divorce.[11]

Last years and death

Shivakiar kept her position in the palace protocol even after the advent of King Farouk in 1936. She remained close to the young king and maintained her title of Princess until she died.[10] Towards the end of her life she devoted herself to the furtherance of social welfare and, as the president of the Muhammad Ali Benevolent Society, and of the ‘Mar’al-Guedida’ (New Woman), a society which trained young girls for various professions, notably nursing and dress-making, rendered great service to her country.[4]

During her last years she was renowned both for the splendour of her entertainments and for her unfailing charity. She was also the author of "Mon pays: la renovation de l'Egypte, Mohammed Aly" which was published in 1933, and The Pharaoh Ne-Ouser-Ra and His Little Slave Girl. Princess Shivakiar used to live close to Prince Yusuf Kemal's palace, in a spacious villa which he had lent to her.[18] When she inherited from her brother Prince Ahmad Saif ud-din Ibrahim Bey, she went to live in a palace opposite parliament which had been built by Ali Pasha Gelal, son of Princess Zubeida and Menelikli Pasha.[18]

Tomb of Shivakiar Ibrahim

Princess Shivakiar, also had a "gallery of ancestors" at her Cairo palace, where she housed busts of all the viceroys down to a huge statue of King Farouk, the last ruler of the Muhammad Ali dynasty.[25]

She died at the Kasr al-Aali Palace, Cairo, on 17 February 1947 and was buried in Hosh al-Basha, Imam al-Shafi'i, Cairo, Egypt.[4] Her tomb, in accordance with her will, was made of marble in the shape of a large, untidy bed.[10] After her death her youngest son, Muhammad Wahideldin Selim, asked Prince Yusuf Kemal to allow him to buy the Princess's original villa, and the prince agreed.[18] Princess Shivakiar's son then proceed to make the palace more palatial, installing, among other things, a splendid, aubergine marble staircase. The garden was transformed, along completely formal lines, very pleasantly and successively.[18]

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Almanach de Gotha: annuaire généalogique, diplomatique et statistique (in French). J. Perthes. 1933. p. 142.
  2. ^ a b Doumani, Beshara (February 1, 2012). Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender. SUNY Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-791-48707-5.
  3. ^ Brookes, Douglas Scott (2010). The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. University of Texas Press. pp. 245 n. 40. ISBN 978-0-292-78335-5.
  4. ^ a b c d e Reina Lewis, Nancy Micklewright (9 Jul 2006). Gender, Modernity and Liberty: Middle Eastern and Western Women's Writings: A Critical Sourcebook. I.B.Tauris. p. 241. ISBN 978-1-860-64956-1.
  5. ^ a b c Fahmy, I. (2005). Around the World with Isis. Papadakis Publisher. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-901092-49-3.
  6. ^ a b c d "زوجات حكام مصر من عهد محمد على حتى عهد الملك فاروق الاول - فاروق مصر". www.faroukmisr.net. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  7. ^ Bassil A Mardelli (24 May 2010). Middle East Perspectives. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-450-21118-5.
  8. ^ Epstein, M. (2016). The Statesman's Year-Book. The Statesman's Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 805. ISBN 978-0-230-27060-2.
  9. ^ Russell, M.L. (2013). Egypt. ABC-CLIO's Middle East in focus series. ABC-CLIO. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-59884-233-3.
  10. ^ a b c d e Bardakçı, M.; Baran, M. (2017). Neslishah: The Last Ottoman Princess. American University in Cairo Press. p. 299 n. 51. ISBN 978-977-416-837-6.
  11. ^ a b c Mardelli, B.A. (2010). Middle East Perspectives: Personal Recollections (1947 - 1967). iUniverse. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4502-1116-1.
  12. ^ "THE FORGOTTEN CAIRO MAUSOLEUMS". Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  13. ^ Catalogue of the Abbas Hilmi II Papers. Durham University Library. 2020. p. 322.
  14. ^ Hassan, H.; Fernea, R. (2000). In the House of Muhammad Ali: A Family Album, 1805-1952. American University in Cairo Press Series. American University in Cairo Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-977-424-554-1.
  15. ^ Who was who. Who was who: A Companion to Who's who : Containing the Biographies of Those who Died During the Period. A. & C. Black. 196. p. 512.
  16. ^ Great Britain and the East. 1931. p. 41.
  17. ^ Woodward, P.; Bourne, K.; Watt, D.C.; Great Britain. Foreign Office (1995). British Documents on Foreign Affairs--reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print: From the First to the Second World War. Africa, 1914-1939. Part II. Series G. British Documents on Foreign Affairs--reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print: From the First to the Second World War. Africa, 1914-1939. University Publications of America. ISBN 978-0-89093-617-7.
  18. ^ a b c d e f Hassan Hassan (1 Jan 2000). In the House of Muhammad Ali: A Family Album, 1805-1952. American Univ in Cairo Press. pp. 57–8, 99. ISBN 978-9-774-24554-1.
  19. ^ Ramadan Annual. 1947. p. 200.
  20. ^ Arts of Asia. Vol. 31. Arts of Asia Publications. 2001. p. 65.
  21. ^ Şehsuvaroğlu, B.N. (1969). Göztepe. Türkiye Turing ve Otomobil Kurumu. p. 144.
  22. ^ "Ölüm" (PDF). Cumhuriyet (in Turkish). 20 October 1942. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  23. ^ Akyeampong, E.K.; Gates, H.L. (2012). Dictionary of African Biography. Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
  24. ^ Woodward, P.; Bourne, K.; Watt, D.C.; Great Britain. Foreign Office (1995). British Documents on Foreign Affairs--reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print: Egypt and the Sudan. British Documents on Foreign Affairs--reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print: From the First to the Second World War. Africa, 1914-1939. University Publications of America. p. 18l77. ISBN 978-0-89093-617-7.
  25. ^ Jayne L. Warner (2001). Cultural Horizons: A festschrift in honor of Talat S. Halman, Volume 1. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-815-68132-8.

External links

Muhammad Ali dynasty (1805–1953)
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