Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein
Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein (Arabic: ( )كمال الدين حسين20 December
1874 – 6 August 1932) was the son of Sultan Hussein Kamel of Egypt. Kamal el Dine Hussein
Renunciation of succession rights
Several otherwise reliable sources mistakenly assert that Kamal el Dine
Hussein held the position of heir during his father's three-year reign.[1] In
reality, Hussein Kamel had agreed with the British government upon his
ascension to the throne to postpone the establishment of new rules of
succession for the sultanate, meaning that the position of heir to the throne
remained vacant. The succession issue was discussed between Hussein Kamel
Successor Prince Ali Samy Kamal
and British High Commissioner Henry McMahon in May 1915 in the wake of
the failed assassination attempt against the sultan. Hussein Kamel preferred to Born 20 December 1874
be succeeded by his son Kamal el Dine, but also recommended his half-brother Cairo, Egypt
Ahmed Fouad and his cousin Youssef Kamal in case Kamal el Dine was Died 6 August 1932 (aged 57)
unwilling to assume the position of heir.[2] For his part, Kamal el Dine wrote a Toulouse, France
letter to his father in which he expressly and voluntarily renounced the Burial Mausoleum in the Mokattam Hills
succession.[3] This was the only time in Egyptian history that an eligible heir
Spouse Princess Nimet Allah
gave up his rights to the throne of his own free will.[2]
House House of Muhammad Ali
On 21 September 1917, three weeks before Hussein Kamel's death, the British Father Hussein Kamel
chose Ahmed Fouad as his successor. However, they first requested that Kamal Mother Ayn al-Hayat Ahmad
el Dine make a formal renunciation of the throne, in order for the United
Religion Islam
Kingdom not to appear in the eyes of the Egyptian public as having deprived
him of his legitimate rights. Although there were rumours that Kamel el Dine Occupation Officer, collector, explorer,
had declined the succession under the influence of his wife Nimet Allah (who traveler
did not recognize the legitimacy of her brother Abbas Hilmi II's dethronement),
most historians explain his decision by his unwillingness to reign under a British protectorate which he strongly opposed.[2]
Others give more mundane reasons, pointing out that the prince asked to be relieved of responsibility in order to be able to pursue
an exciting life of discovery and travel.[4] Kamal el Dine Hussein was indeed an avid explorer, traveler and collector of oriental
antiquities and works of art. In 1925 and 1926 he led expeditions to the Gilf Kebir ('great wall') which he named, using innovative
Citroën half-tracks.[5]
A famous reference to Kamal el Dine Hussein occurs in the opening pages of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz's novel Palace
Walk (1956), where one of the protagonists states: "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."[6]
In 1934, a year after his death, fellow desert explorer László Almásy erected a monument
to his one-time sponsor and friend, at the southern tip of the Gilf Kebir plateau at the far
end of Egypt's Western Desert, part of the greater Libyan Desert.
Military career
Educated at the Theresian Military Academy in Austria, Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein
Rock monument at the foot of the
attained the rank of general and became the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Army in
Gilf Kebir Plateau
1914.
Marriage
Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein married in Cairo on 5 May 1904 to Princess Nimet Allah (1881–1965), the youngest daughter of
Khedive Tewfik Pasha. The couple gave birth to Prince Ali Samy Kamal (1920-2008).
Ancestry
Ancestors of Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein
16. Muhammad Ali Pasha (= #24)
8. Ibrahim Pasha (= #12)
17. Amina Nosratli (= #25)
4. Isma'il Pasha
9. Khushiyar
2. Hussein Kamel
5. Jananyar
1. Kamal el Dine Hussein
24. Muhammad Ali Pasha (= #16)
12. Ibrahim Pasha (= #8)
25. Amina Nosratli (= #17)
6. Ahmed Rifaat Pasha
13. Shivakiar
3. Ayn ul-Hayat
7. Dilbar-Jahan
References
1. "New Ruler of Egypt Is a Dancing Sultan" (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/12/27/10463877
7.pdf) (PDF). The New York Times: SM6. 27 December 1914. Retrieved 2009-08-09. "Sultan Hussein's son,
Kemal Eddine, now becomes Crown Prince and next heir to the throne."
2. Rizk, Yunan Labib. ( المكانة بين االحتالل والحمايةhttp://www.sis.gov.eg/Ar/egyptparl/intro/190100000000000009.htm)
[Status Between the Occupation and the Protectorate] (Reprint). AlMussawar (in Arabic). Egypt State Information
Service. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
3. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh, ed. (1980). "The Royal House of Egypt". Burke's Royal Families of the World (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=bnsUAQAAIAAJ&q=renounced+succession) (snippet view). Vol. II: Africa & the
Middle East. London: Burke's Peerage. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-85011-029-6. OCLC 18496936 (https://search.worldcat.
org/oclc/18496936). Retrieved 2009-08-16. "His only son renounced the succession, which passed to his half-
brother Fuad"
4. El-Hebeishy, Mohamed (4–10 May 2006). "Into the heart of mystery" (https://web.archive.org/web/2013052818564
2/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/793/tr1.htm). Al-Ahram Weekly (793). Archived from the original (http://weekly.a
hram.org.eg/2006/793/tr1.htm) on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
5. F. J. R. R., "A Reconnaissance of the Gilf Kebir by the Late Sir Robert Clayton East Clayton" and P. A. Clayton,
"The Western Side of the Gilf Kebir" Geographical Journal 81, 249-254 and 254-259, (1933)
6. Mahfouz, Naguib (2001) [1956]. "( "بين القصرينhttps://archive.org/details/cairotrilogy00mahf/page/16) [Palace
Walk]. The Cairo Trilogy (in Arabic). trans. William M. Hutchins. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 16 (https://archive.or
g/details/cairotrilogy00mahf/page/16). ISBN 978-0-375-41331-5. OCLC 48641887 (https://search.worldcat.org/ocl
c/48641887).
External links
Soszynski, Henry. "Prince Kemaleddin HUSAYN" (https://web.archive.org/web/20121024072646/http://freepages.
genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~royalty/islamic/i856.html#I856). Ancestry.com, Inc. Archived from the original
(https://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~royalty/islamic/i856.html#I856) on 24 October 2012.
Retrieved 15 August 2009.
The Prince Kamal Monument on Wikimapia (http://wikimapia.org/#lat=22.7039886&lon=25.8604431&z=12&l=0&m
=b)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_Kamal_el_Dine_Hussein&oldid=1256294963"
