Youssef Zulficar Pasha

Youssef Zulficar Pasha (; 6 June 1866 – 15 July 1965) was an Egyptian judge and politician. He was the father of Queen Farida of Egypt and thus father-in-law of King Farouk I.

Biography Youssef Zulficar belonged to an Egyptian Circassian family, whose ancestors came to Egypt with viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha at the beginning of the 19th century, and who went on to become part of the country's aristocracy. He was the grandson of Youssef Bey Rasmi, commander of the Egyptian armies in the Abyssinian and Russian Wars. His father was Ali Zulficar, a former Governor of Cairo. Youssef Zulficar obtained a law degree from the Khedivial School in Cairo and entered the judiciary. He became vice-president of the Alexandria Mixed Court of Appeal. Zeinab served as lady-in-waiting to Queen Nazli. Zulficar and Zeinab had a daughter, Safinaz (born in 1921), as well as two sons, Muhammad Sa'id (born c. 1926) and Sherif (born c. 1931). After her son Farouk ascended the throne as King of Egypt, Queen Nazli urged him to take Zulficar's daughter Safinaz as his wife. Although Zulficar was wary at the prospect of his daughter becoming part of the royal family and feared the outcome of the marriage, the wedding eventually took place. Safinaz became Queen of Egypt and changed her name to Farida when she married King Farouk I on 20 February 1938. Farouk conferred upon Zulficar the nobiliary title of Pasha on 25 August 1937, six months before the wedding ceremony. Upon his daughter's marriage, Zulficar received from the Royal Chamberlain an envelope containing a cheque for 10,000,000 Egyptian piastres (US$257,000), half of the royal dowry.

Zulficar was appointed the first Egyptian ambassador to Iran on 13 March 1939. His appointment came after diplomatic relations between the two countries were upgraded to ambassadorial level. Following the outbreak of World War II, Zulficar secretly communicated with representatives of the Axis powers in Tehran. King Farouk and many Egyptians at the time sympathized with Nazi Germany in the hope that an Axis victory would put an end to the decades-old British occupation of Egypt. Zulficar informed the German minister plenipotentiary in Tehran of Egypt's goodwill towards Germany and of the king's respect for Adolf Hitler. The most dangerous mission of Zulficar's ambassadorship took place in 1941, when he forwarded to the Germans a letter by King Farouk containing details of the forthcoming Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. In 1942, Zulficar was replaced as Egypt's ambassador to Iran by Abdel Latif Pasha Talaat.

Decorations Zulficar was a recipient of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Nile.