Hussein Kamel of Egypt

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.

In 1915, Kamel was the target of two assassination attempts. The first occurred on 8 April 1915 , when an assassin targeted the Sultan's carriage while in Cairo. A second attempt was made 3 months later, on 9 July 1915, when a bomb was thrown at Hussein Kamel's carriage as he travelled to a mosque for Friday prayers.

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."

Stereoscope photographs of the coronation and burial processions 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 Ottoman Empire: Order of Osmanieh, 1st Class Ottoman Empire: Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class Austria-Hungary: Grand Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph, 1869 Sweden: Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword, 1891 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: Honorary Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (civil division), 19 December 1914 French Third Republic: Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur, 1916 Kingdom of Italy: Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, 1916 Greece: Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, 1916 Kingdom of Romania: Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown, 1916 Belgium: Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II, 1917