Sultan of Egypt and the Sudan (1853–1917)
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.
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.