the revolution of july 1952 did not immediately lead to the abolition of the monarchy. king farouk i abdicated in favour of his six-month-old son ahmad fuad, who ascended the throne as king fuad ii. however, the latter only reigned as a nominal king-in-exile. initially, his powers were assumed during a week by the cabinet, headed at the time by ali maher pasha. on 2 august 1952, a temporary regency "body" (not a formal regency council) was created. headed by prince muhammad abdel moneim (son of the late khedive abbas helmi ii and fuad ii's second cousin), the three-member regency body also included bahey el din barakat pasha (a former minister of education and speaker of parliament) and rashad mehanna (a colonel appointed as representative of the army). the regency body was dissolved on 7 september 1952, and prince muhammad abdel moneim was appointed as sole prince regent. however, throughout this period, real powers lay in the hands of the revolutionary command council. the monarchy was formally abolished on 18 june 1953: egypt was declared a republic for the first time in its history, and muhammad naguib became its first ever president.