Farouk of Egypt

===Decline===
{{multiple issues|section=yes|
{{cleanup reorganize|section|date=September 2019}}
{{cleanup|section|reason=section's structure is inconsistent both chronologically & causally.|date=September 2019}}
}}
[[File:Farouk_I_1946.jpg|thumb|Farouk attending a state dinner in Cairo, 1946]]
Egypt ended the Second World War as the richest country in the Middle East, owing largely to the high prices of cotton.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}} In 1945 in a reversal of the usual roles, Egypt was a creditor nation to the United Kingdom, with the British government owing Egypt £400 million.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}} The stark income disparities of Egyptian society meant the wealth of Egypt was very unequally distributed with the kingdom having 500 millionaires while the ''fellaheen'' lived in extreme poverty.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}} In 1945, a medical study showed that 80% of Egyptians suffered from [[Schistosomiasis|bilharzia]] and [[neonatal conjunctivitis|ophthalmia]], both diseases that were easily preventable and treatable.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}} The authors of the study noted both bilharzia and ophthalmia were spread by waterborne parasitic worms, and the prevalence of both diseases could easily be eliminated in Egypt by providing people with safe sources of drinking water. The bumbling response of the Egyptian authorities to the cholera epidemic in 1947 that killed 80,000 people was an additional cause of criticism as cholera is caused by drinking water contaminated with feces, and the entire epidemic could have been avoided if only ordinary Egyptians had sources of clean drinking water.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}} King Farouk had traditionally posed as the friend of the poor, but by 1945 such gestures that the king liked to engage in such as throwing gold coins at the ''fellaheen'' or dropping ping-pong balls from his plane that could be redeemed for candy were no longer felt to be sufficient.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}} Increasingly, demands were being made that the king should engage in social reforms instead of theatrical gestures like handing out gold coins during royal visits, and as Farouk was unwilling to consider land reform or improving the water sanitation, his popularity began to decline.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}} Farouk's social life also started to damage his image. The American journalist Norbert Schiller wrote "Farouk was seen frequently womanizing at the hottest night spots in Cairo and Alexandria. In Egypt, the king's gallivanting was put under wraps by the palace censorship office, but abroad pictures of a fat balding king surrounded by Europe's social elite were splashed across the world's tabloids."<ref>{{cite web
 |last         = Schiller
 |first        = Norbert
 |title        = Farouk and Narriman: Egypt's Last Royal Romance
 |publisher    = Photo-Orientalist
 |url          = http://www.photorientalist.org/exhibitions/farouk-and-narriman-egypts-last-royal-romance/article/
 |access-date  = 25 January 2019}}</ref> Farouk's only act of self-restraint was that he refused to drink alcohol as however much his lifestyle departed from the one recommended by the Koran, he could not bring himself to break the Muslim prohibition on alcohol.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=270}}
Farouk's chief advisers in ruling Egypt starting in 1945 were his "kitchen cabinet" consisting of his right-hand man, Antonio Pulli together with the king's Lebanese press secretary Karim Thabet; Elias Andraous, an ethnic Greek from Alexandria whom Farouk valued for his business skills; and Edmond Galhan, a Lebanese arms dealer whose official title was "general purveyor to the Royal Palaces", but whose real job was to engage in black market activities for the king.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=258–259}} Prince Hassanein warned Farouk against his "kitchen cabinet", saying all of them were greedy, unscrupulous men who abused the king's trust to enrich themselves, but Farouk disregarded his advice.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=258}} In February 1946, Prince Hassanein was killed in an automobile accident, and a secret marriage contract between him and Queen Nazli was found that was dated 1937, which infuriated Farouk.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=257}}
After much lobbying on the part of Farouk, the new Labour government in London decided to replace Lampson with Sir Ronald Campbell as the British ambassador in Cairo, and on 9 March 1946, Lampson left Cairo, much to the king's glee.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=253}} In May 1946, Farouk granted asylum to former king of Italy, [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|Victor Emmanuel III]], who had abdicated on 9 May 1946.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=269}} Farouk was repaying a family debt as Victor Emmanuel's father, King [[Umberto I of Italy|Umberto I]], had granted asylum to Farouk's grandfather, Ismail the Magnificent, in 1879, but as Victor Emmanuel had supported the Fascist regime, his arrival in Egypt did much damage to Farouk's image.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=269}}   In June 1946, Farouk granted asylum to [[Amin al-Husseini]], the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who escaped from France where he was being held on charges of being a war criminal, arriving in Egypt on a forged passport.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=262}} Farouk did not care that al-Husseini was urgently wanted in Yugoslavia on charges of being a Nazi war criminal for his role in organizing the massacres of Bosnian Serbs and Jews.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=262 & 268}} Farouk wanted the British to keep the 1936 agreement by pulling their troops out of Cairo and Alexandria, and felt having notoriously Anglophobic rabble-rousing Grand Mufti in Egypt would be a useful way of threatening them.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=269}} However, the way that Farouk addressed al-Hussenini as the "king of Jerusalem" appeared to suggest that he envisioned the Grand Mufti as the future leader of a Palestinian state.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=268}} Starting in June 1946, the British did finally pull out of the Nile river valley and henceforward the only place the British Army were stationed at in Egypt was at the gigantic base around the Suez Canal.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=272–273}} In August 1946, the British pulled out of the Citadel in Cairo.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=252–253}} By September 1946, the British pull-out from the Nile valley was complete.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=253}} Farouk continued to press the British to leave Egypt altogether, but the question of who would control the Sudan led to the collapse of the talks in December 1946.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=272–273}} Farouk considered the Sudan to be part of Egypt, and wanted the Anglo-Egyptian condominium over the Sudan to end at the same time that the British would pull out of Egypt, which the British were unwilling to accept.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=272–273}}

Having the charismatic al-Husseini in Egypt had the effect of focusing attention on the Palestine issue, a matter which most Egyptians had previously ignored, all the more so when al-Husseini made an alliance with [[Hassan al-Banna]], the Supreme Guide of the fundamentalist [[Muslim Brotherhood]], which was rapidly becoming the most powerful mass movement in Egypt with over a million members.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=269–270}} Farouk himself welcomed the Grand Mufti to royal receptions, and his speeches calling for ''jihad'' against Zionism did much to put the "Palestine Question" on the public agenda.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=31}} Farouk himself was not personally anti-Semitic, having a Jewish mistress, the singer Lilianne Cohen, better known by her stage name [[Camelia (actor)|Camelia]], but given increasing discontent with the very stark income inequalities in Egypt, Farouk felt taking a militantly anti-Zionist line was the best way of distracting public attention.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=270–271 & 274}} At the Royal Automobile Club in Cairo, Farouk engaged in all night gambling sessions with rich Egyptian Jews despite his professed anti-Zionism and often joked: "Bring me my Zionist enemies so I can take their money!"{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=274}} In December 1947, a demonstration organized by the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo calling for Egyptian intervention in Palestine drew 100,000 people.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=28}} In November 1947, when Britain announced it was terminating the Palestine Mandate in May 1948, a civil war erupted between the Jewish and Arab populations of Palestine, and the fighting was very extensively covered by the Egyptian media.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=28}} The stories about atrocities, both real and imagined, against the Palestinians, served to greatly agitate the Egyptian people.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=28}} Furthermore, there was a widespread belief in Egypt that once the British left Palestine and the Zionists proclaimed a new state to be called Israel, that the resulting war would be an easy "march on Jerusalem" lasting only a few days.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=28}} In December 1947, a summit of the leaders of the Arab League was held in Cairo to discuss what to do when the Mandate of Palestine came to an end in May 1948.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=275}} King [[Abdullah I of Jordan]] wanted all of Palestine for himself and dismissed Farouk as a pseudo-Arab who should not even be attending the summit, saying with reference to Farouk's Albanian ancestry: "You do not make a gentleman out of a Balkan farmer's son simply by making him a king".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=275}}[[File:King_Farouk_and_El-Noqrashy_Pasha.jpg|thumb|Farouk and his Prime Minister [[Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha|El Nokrashy Pasha]] in an official visit, 1947]]Reflecting the influence of King Ibn' Saud of Saudi Arabia who spoke in the same way, Farouk often described Zionism as a ploy by the Soviet Union to take over the Middle East, calling the Zionists Jewish "communists" from Eastern Europe who were working on Moscow's instructions to "wreck" the traditional order in the Middle East.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=31}} Both Farouk and Ibn' Saud detested Abdullah, and both preferred that a Palestinian state headed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem be created rather than see Palestine annexed to Jordan or becoming a Jewish state.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=31}} Farouk did not bother to tell the prime minister [[Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha]] about his decision for war with Israel, who only learned of his decision a few days before the war was due to start on 15 May 1948, from the Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=32}} Farouk was so convinced that the war would be a victorious "march on Jerusalem" that he had already started planning the victory parade in Cairo before the war started.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=32}} Farouk was described as "like some boy playing with so many lead soldiers" as he involved himself deeply in the military planning, personally deciding where his army would march when it invaded Palestine.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=32}} As late as 13 May 1948, Norakshy Pasha was assuring foreign diplomats that Egypt would not attack Israel when it was expected to be proclaimed on 15 May, and Egypt's intervention in the war took most observers by surprise.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=20}} In the diplomacy in the run-up to the war, Egypt was generally seen as a moderate state with Egyptian diplomats repeatedly saying that their country was opposed to a military solution to the "Palestine Question".{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=21}} Nokrashy in 1947 asked in private if it was possible for the United States to take over the Palestine Mandate when the British left, saying he did not want a war.{{sfn|Mayer|1986|p=23}}
In May 1948, the prime minister [[Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha]] advised against going to war with Israel, saying the Egyptian Army was not ready for war.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=276}} However, King Farouk overruled him, as he feared the growing popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was clamoring for war with Israel.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=276}} Farouk declared that Egypt would fight Israel as otherwise he feared the Muslim Brotherhood would overthrow him.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=276}} The war with Israel ended in disaster with the Egyptian Army fighting very poorly and Edmond Galhan of the king's "kitchen cabinet" making a fortune by selling the Egyptian Army defective Italian Army rifles left over from World War II, a matter which greatly angered many Egyptian officers.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=276}} Though the defective rifles were not the only reason why Egypt was defeated, many Egyptians came to be fixated on the issue, believing if it were not for Galhan, then Egypt would have been victorious.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=276}} It was after being defeated by Israel that the Abdeen Palace incident of 1942 started to be viewed in Egypt as an abject, contemptible surrender, which showed Farouk's cowardice and general lack of leadership.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=383–384}}

The Muslim Brotherhood, which had been so hawkish on war with Israel, turned its fury against the government in reaction to the defeats inflicted by Israel and in October 1948, a Brother killed the Cairo police chief, followed up by the governor of the Cairo province.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=280}} On 17 November 1948, Farouk divorced the very popular Queen Farida which, coming in middle of the losing war with Israel, was a profound shock to the Egyptian people.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=277}} On the same day, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, divorced Princess Fawzia.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=278}} Farouk and Mohammad Reza had planned to divorce their wives on the same day to distract the media from giving too much attention to either of their stories.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=279}} On 28 December 1948, Prime Minister Nokrashy Pasha was assassinated by a Brother disguised as a policeman.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=280}} In January 1949, Egypt signed an armistice with Israel with the only gain being the Gaza Strip.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=277}} In February 1949, the Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, al-Banna, who called for Farouk's overthrow in response to the armistice with Israel, was shot by a Cairo policeman, and was taken to the hospital, where the police prevented him from receiving blood transfusions, causing his death later the same day.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=280}} Shortly afterward, al-Hussenini left Egypt for Lebanon.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=280}}[[File:King_Farouk_1948.jpg|alt=King Farouk 1948|thumb|200x200px|Farouk in 1948]]In the meantime, Farouk spent his nights at the ''Auberge des Pyramides'' nightclub with Cohen or his latest mistress, the French singer Annie Berrier.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=282–283}} At the same time, Farouk was engaged in a relationship with the American model [[Patricia Wilder|Patricia "Honeychilde" Wilder]], who stated in an interview that of all her lovers, he was the one who had the best sense of humour and made her laugh the most.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=52}} In September 1949, when [[Jefferson Caffery]] arrived in Cairo as the new U.S. ambassador and met Farouk for the first time, the king told Caffery (who came from Louisiana) that just as the South had its blacks good only for picking cotton, so too did Egypt have its ''fellaheen'' likewise only good for picking cotton.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=7}} Karim Thabet of the "kitchen cabinet", a man whom Caffery called a "jackal", convinced Farouk that the best way of renewing his popularity was to marry again, saying the Egyptian people loved royal weddings and to marry a commoner again would show his populist side.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=283}} Caffery reported that the king had listed his requirements for his new bride that she be of the ''grande bourgeoise'' class, be at least 16 years old, be an only child, and be of Egyptian descent only.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=283}} Thabet selected [[Narriman Sadek]] to be the new bride of the king, notwithstanding she was already engaged to Zaki Hashem, a PhD candidate in economics at [[Harvard University]] who was working in New York as a United Nations economist.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=284}} After Farouk had made Sadek's father a bey, he broke off her engagement to Hashem who complained to the American press that the king had stolen his fiancée and broken his heart.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=286–287}} After Farouk announced his engagement to Sadek, he sent her off to [[Rome]] to be taught how to be a proper cultured lady to make her fit to be a queen.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=287}} In January 1950, in a volte-face that stunned observers of Egyptian politics, Thabet arranged an alliance between the king and Nahas Pasha.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=293}} Caffery reported to Washington:<blockquote>The proposal was that the King would receive Nahas in private audience prior to summoning a Wafd government and that if the King were not satisfied by his conversation with Nahas, Nahas gave his word of honor that he would retire from the leadership of the Wafd Party&nbsp;... The King agreed to this proposal and was completely captivated by Nahas, who tactfully started the interview by swearing that his one desire in life was to kiss the King's hand and to remain always worthy in His Majesty's opinion of being allowed to repeat the performance. At this point Nahas went on his knees before the King who according to Thabet was so charmed that he assisted him to his feet with the words, "Rise, Mr. Prime Minister".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=293}} </blockquote> Caffery reported in his cable to Washington that he was appalled that Nahas, whom Caffery called the stupidest and most corrupt politician in Egypt, was now prime minister.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=294}} Caffery stated that Nahas was unqualified to be prime minister because of his "completely total ignorance of the facts of life as they apply to the situation today", giving the example: <blockquote>Most observers are willing to concede that Nahas knows of the existence of Korea, but I have found no one who would be willing to seriously contend that he is aware of the fact that Korea borders on Red China. His ignorance is as colossal as it is appalling&nbsp;... At the time of my interview with Nahas he was totally unconscious of the subject which I was discussing. The only ray of light which penetrated was the fact that I wanted something from him. This prompted the street politician's response of "''aidez-nous et nous vous aiderons''".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=294}}</blockquote> Caffery called Nahas a venal "street politician" whose only platform was the "tried and true formula of 'Evacuation and Unity of the Nile Valley'" and stated the only positive aspect of him as prime minister was that "we can get anything which we want from him if we are willing to pay for it".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=294}} Nahas as prime minister proved to be as corrupt and venal as he was during his previous times in office, going on a rampage of rapacious looting of the public coffers to enrich himself and his even more greedy wife.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=295}} The Korean War caused a shortfall in the American cotton production as young men were called up for national service, causing a cotton boom in Egypt.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=295}} As the international prices for cotton rose, Egyptian landlords forced their tenant farmers to grow more cotton at the expense of food, leading to major food shortages and inflation in Egypt.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=295}} In face of the corrupt Nahas government, the Egyptian people looked to their king for leadership who in the meantime had departed for France for a two-month-long bachelor party.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=295}} Farouk's biographer, William Stadiem, wrote about how the king in 1950 "went on the most excessively lavish, self-indulgent bachelor party in the annals of sybaritism.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=296}}

In 1950, Farouk's fortune was estimated to be about £50 million pounds sterling or about US$140 million, making him into one of the world's richest men, and a billionaire many times over in today's money.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=296}} Farouk's wealth and his lifestyle made the centre of media attention all over the world.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=296}} In August 1950, Farouk visited France to stay at the casino at [[Deauville]] for his bachelor party, leaving Alexandria on his yacht ''Fakr el Bihar'' with an Egyptian destroyer as an escort and landed at Marseilles.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=297}} Farouk together his entourage consisting of his "kitchen cabinet", 30 Albanian bodyguards, assorted Egyptian secretaries and doctors, Sudanese food tasters and various other followers traveled across the French countryside in a column of 7 Cadillacs surrounded by motorcycle-riding bodyguards and an airplane flying overhead with orders to land in case Farouk wanted to fly instead.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=297}} Upon the king arriving in Deauville, a media circus began as hundreds of journalists from Europe and North America descended on Deauville to report on Farouk's every doing as he stayed at the Hotel du Golf with his entourage occupying 25 rooms.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=297–298}} Journalists watched on as the corpulent king gorged himself on food, eating in one single meal dishes of ''sole à crème'', ''côte de veau à la crème'', ''framboises à la crème'', and ''champignons à la crème'', each dish tasted in advance by Farouk's Sudanese food tasters.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=298}} At his first night at the casino in Deauville, Farouk won 20 million francs (about $57,000 U.S. dollars) gambling at baccarat, and on his second night won 15 million francs.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=297–298}} As Farouk spent extravagant sums of money during his visit to Deauville, staying at the casino every night until 5 am, he earned himself a reputation for flamboyant high living that never went away.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=298–299}}

From Deauville, Farouk went to Biarritz, where he stayed at the Hotel du Palais and resumed his friendship with the Duke of Windsor as the former King Edward VIII was now known.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=301}} Farouk then crossed over to San Sebastian in Spain to attend a film festival with four "of his ladies of the moment" as the British ambassador to Spain called them.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=301}} Farouk's next stop was Cannes, where he engaged on the night of 22 September in a $80,000 game of chemin de fer at the Palm Beach Casino with the Nawab of Palanpur, the Italian industrialist [[Gianni Agnelli]], the Hollywood mogul [[Jack L. Warner]] and the British industrialist Myers "Lucky Mickie" Hyman.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=301}} Hyman won the game and then promptly died of a heart-attack, leading to newspaper headlines such as "Lucky Mickie Beats Farouk-and Dies!"{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=301}} Finally, Farouk ended his bachelor party in San Remo in Italy where he purchased a number of Roman antiques at an auction to add to his collection and afterwards arrived in Alexandria in October 1950.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=301}} Upon his return, Farouk received an anonymous public letter from the "opposition" which warned "a revolt is near; that would not only destroy those who are unjust but would leave the country in a state of financial, moral and political bankruptcy".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=303}} The letter warned: <blockquote>Circumstances have placed in the palace certain officials who do not deserve that honor. These ill-advised and mishandle matters. Some of them have even come under suspicion that they are implicated in the arms scandal effecting our valiant army. The belief prevails that justice will be incapable of touching these officials, just as the belief has prevailed&nbsp;... that Parliamentary government has become mere ink on paper. The world press describes us as a public that bears injustice slightly and says we do not know that we are being maltreated and driven like animals. God knows that our breasts are boiling with anger, and that only a little hope restrains us&nbsp;... The country remembers the happy days when Your Majesty was the honest good shepherd. All the hopes of the country were concentrated on Your Majesty. No occasion passed when the country did not demonstrate its loyalty and sincerity to Your Majesty.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=304}}</blockquote>

To distract the Egyptian people from anger at the vast expenses occurred by Farouk's two-month-long bachelor party, Farouk choose to go on the political offensive by demanding the British leave Egypt altogether.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=304}} Prime Minister Nahas announced on the opening of the Parliament on 6 November 1950, that the government's chief priority for this term would be seeking the removal of all British forces from Egypt and the end of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium of the Sudan, asserting the Sudan was rightfully part of Egypt.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=304}} About the corruption of Nahas, Farouk joked to Caffery about the original profession of Mohammad Ali the Great: "Don't think I know nothing of business matters. Don't forget that the founder of my dynasty was a tobacco merchant".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=311}} To provide further distraction, on 11 February 1951, Farouk announced the date of his wedding to Narriman Sadek, whom he married in his usual lavish style on 6 May 1951.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=305–306}} The Sudanese singer Hawa Al-Tagtaga sang at their wedding.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://oladiab.com/2012/12/19/who-sudan-lost-in-2012/|title=Who Sudan Lost in 2012|last=Chapel|first=Ambrose|date=19 December 2012|website=Ola Diab|language=en|access-date=14 January 2020}}</ref>
[[File:King_Farouk_1951.jpg|thumb|261x261px|Farouk in 1951]]
However, whatever goodwill Farouk acquired by his wedding was lost by his three-month-long honeymoon in Europe, where both he and his new queen spent vast amounts of money while the king ate gargantuan amounts of food in the day during the holy month of Ramadan.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=308}} In Turin, Farouk purchased from Fiat a $2 million US private train to ship back to Egypt complete with a TV, air-conditioning, 14 phones and alligator-trimmed furniture, which he took the press on during a trial run.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=309}} At Cannes, Farouk played a 7-hour game of baccarat against the Hollywood mogul [[Darryl F. Zanuck]] and lost some $150, 000, a record sum.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=309}} In Paris, Queen Narriman brought from Hollywood the dress designer, Marusia, to create a custom wardrobe for her.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=309}} Throughout the honeymoon in France, Italy, and Switzerland, the royal couple were followed by ''paparazzi'', much to the king's vexation.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=310}} The ''paparazzi'' who took photos of him sunbathing by a pool with a bottle of Vichy in a champagne bucket, which he feared would be misconstrued by the "Zionist papers" that he was drinking alcohol.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=310}} Caffery reported to Washington that a popular rumor had it because Farouk's wealth abroad was worth about $75 million US dollars, that he would not return to Egypt, leading to a "precarious" situation that might have led to a communist revolution, but that "all sources agree the King still likes being king".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=314}} While Farouk was on his honeymoon in Europe, Nahas had passed a law forbidding farmers from growing wheat, which had lessened the food shortages and inflation, as he wanted to maximise cotton production.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=311}} In Paris, Farouk told the Aga Khan that he was feeling depressed over his "unnatural" alliance with Nahas, saying he knew he was becoming unpopular and he would appoint a new prime minister when he returned.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=310}} However, Nahas struck first by unilaterally abrogating the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian treaty in October 1951, making himself the hero of the hour.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=311}}

On 17 October 1951, the Egyptian government got Parliamentary approval to cancel the [[Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936|1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty]]. Nahas told Parliament: "It was for Egypt that I signed the 1936 treaty and it is for Egypt that I call on you to abrogate it".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=311}} As a result, the British forces in the [[Suez Canal]] were considered enemy forces and King Farouk was declared "King of Egypt and Sudan". This title was not recognised by many countries, and Egypt entered diplomatic debates as well as internal political unrest.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=312}} As the British refused to leave their base around the Suez Canal, the Egyptians cut off all food and water to the base, ordered a boycott of British goods, recalled all of the Egyptian workers on the base and began guerrilla attacks, turning the area around the Suez Canal into a war zone.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=312}}

In December 1951, Farouk backed General Sirri Amer for the president of the Cairo Officers' Club, and in a surprise upset, Amer was defeated in the election by General [[Mohamed Naguib]], which was the first public sign of military dissatisfaction with the king as the secret Free Officers group had issued pamphlets urging other officers to vote for Naguib under the slogan "The Army says NO to Farouk".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=14}} Farouk invalidated the results of the election and ordered an investigation of the Free Officers.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=15}} Queen Narriman gave birth to Crown Prince Fuad on 16 January 1952, finally giving Farouk a son.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=314}} Farouk was so pleased that he made Dr. Magdi who delivered Fuad a pasha.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=315}} On 24 January 1952, Egyptian guerrillas attacked the British base at the Suez Canal, during which the Egyptian Auxiliary Police were observed helping the guerrillas.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=315}} In response, General [[George Erskine]] on 25 January had British tanks and infantry surround the auxiliary police station in Ismailia and gave the police an hour to surrender their arms under the grounds the police were arming the guerrillas.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=315}} The police commander called the Interior Minister, [[Fouad Serageddin]], Nahas's right-hand man, who was smoking cigars in his bath at the time, to ask what to do.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=315}} Serageddin ordered the police to fight "to the last man and the last bullet".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=316}} The resulting battle saw the police station leveled and 43 policemen killed together with 3 soldiers.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=316}}

The [[Battle of Ismailia (1952)|Battle of Ismailia]] outraged Egypt and the next day, 26 January 1952, was [[Cairo fire|"Black Saturday"]], as the riot was known, that saw much of downtown Cairo which Ismail the Magnificent had rebuilt in the style of Paris, burned down.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=316}} [[Shepheard's Hotel]], which long been a symbol of British power in Egypt, was burned down together with Groppi's, the most famous restaurant in Cairo, and Cicurel's, the most famous shopping centre.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=317}} Serageddin ordered the police not to intervene during the Black Saturday riot, which saw 26 people killed and over 400 cinemas, cabarets, nightclubs, bars, restaurants and shops burned down in [[downtown Cairo]].{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=316}} During the Black Saturday riot, Farouk was at the Abdeen Palace holding a luncheon attended by 600 guests to celebrate the birth of Fuad, and first became aware of the riot, when he noticed the black cloud of smoke rising up from downtown Cairo.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=316}} Though Farouk ordered the Egyptian Army to put down the riot, it was too late and the fashionable and glamorous downtown Cairo built by his grandfather was destroyed that day.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=317}} Farouk blamed the Wafd for the Black Saturday riot, and dismissed Nahas as prime minister the next day.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=318}} Nahas and the rest of the Wafd leaders were so shocked by the fury of the "Black Saturday" riot that they meekly accepted Farouk's dismissal without protest.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=225}}

The "Black Saturday" riot was the beginning of a crisis of legitimacy in Egypt's institutions, including the monarchy, as the riot had starkly shown that most Egyptians did not feel their political system represented them.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=223}} The American historian Joel Gordon wrote that "Black Saturday" forced "Egypt's political leaders to confront the severity of the crisis which the country faced".{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=225}} For the next six months, Farouk frequently shuffled prime ministers in an attempt to quell widespread demands for reform.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=318}} The sense of crisis was captured by the widespread call for "salvation ministries" and a "just tyrant" that would end corruption, secure the evacuation of the British from the canal zone, and institute social reforms.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=224}} Each of the prime ministers in the period January–July 1952 were judged by this criterion.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=224}} The popular slogan was ''al-tathir qabl al-tahrir'' ("purification before liberation"), namely a leader who would make Egypt strong enough to force the British to leave.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=224}} The Battle of Ismailia had shown that Egypt was too weak to militarily expel the British from the Canal zone, and the principal criticism of Farouk and Nahas was that they recklessly launched the "popular struggle" that Egypt could not hope to win.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=225}} After the Battle of Ismailia, the feeling amongst the policial classes was that Egypt had to end the "popular struggle" and negotiate a British withdrawal, which underlined Egypt's weakness.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=225}} Gordon called Farouk an unscrupulous leader with a "shrewd ability for statecraft" who could have posed as the "just tyrant" if it was not for his addiction to gluttony and partying.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=226}} Sir [[Ralph Stevenson]], the British ambassador, reported that "where own amusement and distraction are concerned, the king is fighting a losing battle against the man".{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=226}} Farouk's more responsible advisers like Hussein Serry Pasha together with Andraous of the "kitchen cabinet" tried their best to persuade the king to pose as the "just tyrant", but were constantly sabotaged by Pulli, Galhan and Thabet.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|pp=226–227}}

Nahas was replaced with Ali Maher who wanted to negotiate an exit agreement with the British and sought in turn to have the Wafd support his government to provide him with the necessary votes in parliament.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=318}} One of Maher's first acts was an anti-inflation bill lowering the prices of basic staples and another was an anti-corruption bill, both of which were popular, but his unwillingness to prosecute the Wafd leaders for "Black Saturday" as Farouk wanted ensured his dismissal.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|pp=229–230}} On 2 March 1952, Maher was sacked and replaced with [[Ahmed Naguib el-Hilaly]] as prime minister.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=318}} Hilaly had a reputation for incorruptibility and began a crackdown on corruption while having Serageddin arrested for charges of complicity in the "Black Saturday" riot.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=318}} Hilaly also announced he was would pursue "purification before liberation", namely prosecute the Wafd leaders for corruption and "Black Saturday" before tackling the question of the British evacuation.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=231}} In early May 1952, Farouk confessed to Caffery that Hilaly was his last hope as for once he did not have an alternative prime minister if he should have to sack him.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=233}}

Thabet told Caffery that the prime minister's Fortunes Bill, which would require all past, present and future cabinet ministers to reveal the origins of their wealth would destroy the monarchy saying that <blockquote>by purging the Wafd a veritable Pandora's box would be open and Egypt would go through a Roman holiday of charges and counter-charges which could only result in the man-in-the-street becoming aware of the fact that he has been ruled by crooks of various colorations for at least the past ten years&nbsp;... such an awareness could only result in a further deterioration of the King's reputation with the people for having held him responsible for the naming of such men to his Cabinets&nbsp;... His conclusion was that Hilay Pasha must be discharged from office immediately.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=319}}</blockquote> Owing to pressure from Thabet and rest of the "kitchen cabinet", Hilaly was sacked and replaced with [[Hussein Serry Pasha]] as prime minister on 1 July 1952.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=320}} The popular rumour in Cairo had it that Ahmed 'Abbud, a Wafdist industrialist had paid a million Egyptian pound bribe to the king to sack Hilaly before he lost his monopoly on sugar production that he had bought from Nahas.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=233}} Serry was well regarded, but his reputation as the "king's man" together with a genial, easy-going personality that made him unsuitable for the role of a "just tyrant" ensured that nobody took him seriously.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=234}} Alone of the four prime ministers between January–July 1952, Serry sensed rising discontent in the ranks of the Army officer corps.{{sfn|Gordon|1989|p=234}} Thabet then issued a press release claiming that genealogists had discovered that Farouk was a direct descendant of [[Muhammad]], a claim that caused widespread mockery.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=320}} General Mohammad Naguib wrote: "If there was any Arabic blood in Farouk's veins, it was so diluted that it couldn't possibly have been traced back to Mohammad and it was a sacrilege for anyone to have tried to do so".{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=320}}

Farouk was always very anti-communist, but by 1952, a conviction arose among American decision-makers that based on the way that things were going in Egypt, a communist revolution was inevitable unless the government started social reforms at once.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=12–13}} Caffery reported to Washington that the Egyptian Communist Party was growing in popularity and it was the Egyptian Communists who were behind the "Black Saturday" riot.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|p=7}} In what became known as [[Project FF]] (Fat Fucker), officers of the Central Intelligence Agency led by [[Kermit Roosevelt Jr.]] were in contact with Free Officers.{{sfn|Stadiem|1991|pp=13–14}} The extent and importance of American assistance to the Free Officers has been hotly debated by historians with the historian [[P. J. Vatikiotis]] maintaining that various CIA officers in their memoirs such as [[Miles Copeland Jr.]] in his 1969 autobiography ''The Game of Nations'' vastly exaggerated their role assisting the Free Officers.{{sfn|Vatikiotis|1978|pp=41–42}}{{full citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Farouk is also reported as having said "The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left—the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts, and the King of Diamonds."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/86.html|title=Quotation #86|publisher=The Quotation Page}}</ref>