Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., is Professor Emeritus of Middle East History at Pennsylvania State University. He is (with Lawrence Davidson) the author of A Concise History of the Middle East, Eighth Edition, and is the author as well of Modern Egypt: Foundation of a Nation-State, Second Edition. He is the recipient of the Amoco Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching and the 2000 Middle East Studies Association Mentoring Award. Goldschmidt has been known during his years at Penn State for having created a series of courses that stimulated undergraduate interest in Middle Eastern history and culture. Educated at Colby College and Harvard University, Goldschmidt has held fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and the Fulbright Faculty Research fund, among others. He is author of numerous books and many articles and essays on Middle Eastern history. He was an elected faculty senator, chaired its committee on student affairs and served as secretary. He chaired the Middle East Studies committee for 25 years. He also was instrumental in helping to devise courses in non-western history and in developing the successor to those courses for the general education curriculum.

In addition, he is one of the most respected authorities on Egypt's Modern history. Prof. Goldschmidt is a frequent contributor on the Internet, including the prestigious and oldest forum: Egypt Net.

King Fuad had for some time had an infection of his gums necessitating the removal of various teeth. This painful process had been going on for some weeks; unfortunately the King's heart would not stand the strain of an anaesthetic with the result that each extraction caused him intense pain and physical shock. Unfortunately the infection of the gums was not improving despite this extraction of teeth and the King was undoubtedly losing strength. So worried was Dr. Grossi about this that he had on his own telegraphed to another doctor [Frugoni] in Italy to come and assist. All this, said Aly Maher, was not known even to the people at the Palace, and in telling it to me he must once more ask that I would observe the greatest reticence and secrecy. 

The Prime Minister had asked Dr. Grossi whether there was any immediate danger; the doctor had replied that so far as he could foresee there was not but in a question of weakness of the heart no one could possibly foretell. I thanked Aly Maher for informing me. I did not want to jump ahead of events but such questions as the Regency would have to be considered not, I hastened to add, during the King's lifetime but if anything untoward should occur. Aly Maher indicated that he fully realised this and promised to keep me informed.
 

At one o'clock came Aly Maher with a very bad bulletin of King Fuad's health. There seems no doubt that he is slowly sinking. I asked how long this was likely to last and Aly Maher said he thought about three days at the outside. Aly Maher told me that he had seen Nahhas and discussed the situation with him, making it clear that he thought the right thing to do was to leave the Regency question to be handled by the new Parliament. To this Nahas had agreed but had insisted that under the Constitution the present Government could not remain in office longer than ten days after the King's death. 

To this Aly Maher had objected that the new Parliament could not meet so quickly seeing that the Senatorial elections did not take place until the middle of May. To this Nahhas had replied that in that case the old Parliament of 1929 should be reconvoked. And when A.M. had pointed out the impracticability of this Nahhas had finally proposed that the new Chamber of Deputies should meet forthwith and that the 1930 Senate should be assembled so that there should be a Parliament of sorts to deal with the Regency question. 

Aly Maher had said that he would not object to this if it could be legally shown to be under the Constitution of 1923, a matter which he must submit to Bedawi. If it was legal, then he would act accordingly regardless of the minority parties; if it was not legal he would still be ready to adopt it if the leaders of all parties were ready to accept it; but if the minority parties would not accept it then he would not adopt it regardless of what Nahhas might say. I opined that this was all in order. My only doubt was whether he should not forthwith consult the members of the United Front. It was a fortunate coincidence that at this time such a body should exist containing as it did representatives of all political parties in Egypt. It seemed to me a heavensent dispensation of providence.

Aly Maher said that he would certainly consult the United Front the moment King Fuad died but to do so before that seemed to him impossible owing to the publicity which it would entail. I tried to shake him but he evidently did not wish to act as suggested so I thought it better to leave it alone save that I impressed upon him that he would do well at least to let Mohamed Mahmoud and Sidky know in advance that he would consult them when the moment came. Aly Maher told me that he had in fact already been in touch with Mohamed Mahmoud who was behaving himself pretty well - but he was significantly silent about Sidky. On the whole I thought it better not to press the matter further; but actually I think he is making a mistake in not consulting the United front ....

10.15. Prime Minister's weekly visit. He told me he had been sent for early this morning to go and see King Fuad; that he had arrived at 8.30 at Koubbeh and had been immediately received. King Fuad was not in bed but lying on a "chaise longue". With his other people the King has recently been communicating in writing owing to his difficulty in speaking (his mouth is all to bits). But with Aly Maher he did not do this. The Prime Minister said that he had been able to hear what the King said though naturally H.M. spoke with considerable difficulty. The first point he had alluded to was the question of Prince Farouk; during the night, at the urgent insistence of the Queen, a telephone message had been sent to Hassanein that Farouk should return immediately. On hearing of this King Fuad told Aly Maher that the instructions should be countermanded and it was only when Aly Maher pressed the point that King Fuad whispered that. he would accept his advice and let the order stand. King Fuad had next asked to be shown some of the recent bulletins about his state of health; this had thrown Professor Frugoni into a pretty pother, but finally he had selected the least alarmist and shown it whereupon the King said that it was far too alarmist in tone. Next King Fuad has said that he was quite prepared to sign any Decrees, etc. that were ready and Aly Maher had said that some would be submitted to him during the course of the morning. 

We had some general talk on developments to date and he told me that he had sent me Bedawi's note of the constitutional position saying that the compromise arranged with Nahhas - i.e. the immediate assembly of the Chamber of Deputies after the elections and calling back the Senate of 1930 in order that the question of the Regency might be dealt with by Parliament -was in order and as the result Aly Maher would follow that procedure. I told him I thought he was acting very wisely. 

The only doubt which still lingered in my mind was whether he would not do better to take the other leaders besides Nahhas into his confidence; I gathered that he would consider doing something of the kind. I told Aly Maher that naturally all sorts of suggestions of intrigue were afloat and all sorts of ulterior motives were being attributed to him; I had been at pains to dissipate these, explaining whenever the opportunity occurred that I was convinced that His Excellency was determined to act strictly constitution- ally. This I think pleased Aly Maher. 
 

12 noon. Keown-Boyd. Nothing special. I told him that at my talk with the Prime Minister this morning I had put in a word in connection with the proposed new arrangements (financial and otherwise) for the improvement of the conditions of service in the Police Force. Aly Maher had promised to send K.B. the text of the actual budget proposals before they were passed by the Cabinet; K.B. would thus be able to see that all was in order, and if it was not to point out the particular directions in which the proposals required amendment. I told this to K.B. who said that he was entirely satisfied ....

In the middle of lunch I was summoned out to see Smart on urgent business. A telephone message had just come through - at 1.30 - from Aly Maher to say that at 1.20 pm King Fuad had died. I thought it better to say nothing when I went back to join the party but passed the word to Jack not to dally unduly and as soon as we had gone back to the drawing room I explained what had happened and the party dispersed.

From Koubbeh I drove straight to the office of the Prime Minister. Here I found the place in a complete turmoil: all the Cabinet Ministers running about like scared chickens and evidently not knowing what to do. Aly Maher was still down at the Palace so for the first few minutes I sat and talked with all the members of the Cabinet to whom I made a formal little speech explaining the regret of the British Government and of myself at Egypt's loss. They all seemed considerably moved. Almost immediately I was joined by Aly Maher when the other Cabinet Ministers left so I sat and had a little talk with him on the same lines: he was genuinely attached to him. And so back to the Residency to send off various telegrams, etc.We were going to have had a dinner party tonight including Sidky Pasha, but naturally that has all had to be postponed .... Again no golf this afternoon owing to the double mourning - for King Fuad and our own Court Mourning which of course still goes on.

Anyway, on top of this letter I received tonight 3 or 4 distinctly alarmist. Reports regarding the activities of the "Green-Shirts" (Young Egypt) so alarming in fact that I there and then sent for Smart to see Aly Maher and to warn him of the information which I had got; to say that it would be lamentable if on the occasion of the funeral tomorrow there was anything in the nature of a shemozzle and that it was really deplorable that political organisations with subversive tendencies such as "Young Egypt" should be even contemplating profiting by the present political uncertainty. Smart duly saw Aly Maher who protested that he knew nothing of any such machinations on the part of "Young Egypt" and there and then rang up Hassan Rifaat, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior to ask if there were any reports in. Hassan Rifaat thereupon gave Aly Maher down the telephone the sense of the same reports which had moved me to send Smart down to see him. The trouble is that as regards "Young Egypt" & their leader (Ahmed Hussein),' Aly Maher, I very much fear, is not playing straight. I don't quite follow what his motive is, but I suppose he wants to have some element with him in case it should so develop that the students &c. come out again on the streets. Very mistaken I have certainly noticed that when I have ever had to allude to Ahmed Hussein (1), Aly Maher had always rather stood up for him; and in tonight's reports there is one saying that the Prime Minister had been trying to draw on the secret funds of the Ministry of the Interior to give them to Ahmed Hussein - an attempt which I gather from the same source has in fact failed.

Anyway it is probably just as well that this representation should have been made to Aly Maher. Even if there was any truth in the idea of troubles tomorrow it is quite wholesome that he should know that we are on to any intrigues that he had afoot with "Young Egypt".

(1) Ahmad Husayn (1911-82). Founder and leader of the nationalist Young Egypt Society 1933 (reformed as a political party in 1936), which organised the para-military youth movement known as the Green Shirts. See J.PJankowski, Egypt's Young Rebels, Stanford 1975.
 

King Fuad's funeral. We all left the Residency at 9.30 and then to the side entrance at Abdin Palace. We were shown up through the hall into a room at the top of the stairs where the rest of the foreign diplomats were assembled. Immediately opposite to us in another room were the Princes of the Royal House.Down in the hall on either side were the delegation of British officers - Naval, Army and Air Force. After a few minutes interval we saw the coffin carried out and down the stairs by a large posse of Egyptian sailors. We fell into our places; Aly Maher & Prince Mohammed Aly, representing Farouk, immediately behind the coffin; then the Princes; the specially appointed envoys (including myself and various others); and then the rest of the diplomats. And so down the grand staircase and out through the hall where we saw the coffin being placed on the gun-carriage. 

At 10 sharp the procession started and encircled the big Palace courtyard. Over this had been erected an enormous marquee through the middle of which we emerged towards the main Palace gates. This was a most ingenuous device, for all the foreign bodies - ex-Ministers, public bodies, foreigners, etc. - were arranged in sections inside the big marquee and as the procession came through they fell in section by section into the procession behind. This device worked excessively well. And so we emerged into the main street and walked slowly for a couple of hours till we reached the Rifai Mosque, where the King was to be interred. The streets were absolutely packed and it was rather jarring to hear the crowds all shouting and even indulging in cat-calls. Sedki Pasha, the Turk, who was walking on my right, was much shocked by this saying it was entirely contrary to all traditional Moslem sentiment. Even in modern Turkey such a thing would never have happened. 

I must say it struck a very jarring note. This shouting went on during the whole time of the procession and reached its climax when we got down into the poorer quarters of Mohammed Aly Street. Here the number of women on all the balconies etc. was extraordinary and many of these worked themselves up into a sort of hysterical paroxysm (I thought entirely faked but the rest told me that that was not so and that when they begin to shriek and wail they get beside themselves. The din was appalling.) And so up the final slope leading to the Rifai Mosque. Just as we were getting to the top there was a perfectly disgusting incident. I heard a noise of struggling on my right with frenzied grunts and on looking round saw a wad of oxen and buffaloes in process of having their throats cut right on the edge of the street, the blood gushing out quite close `to us and the wretched animals struggling in their death agonies. Perfectly disgusting. It still gives me quite a turn when I think about it.

And we turned left to the door of the mosque where the coffin was removed from the gun carriage and borne inside the portals by the same sailors. The rest of us fell out and entered another large marquee erected facing the mosque door. Here we sat and drank glasses of deliciously cool water and some of us smoked a cigarette. Prince Mohammed Aly came over and sat with me and once more improved the shining hour by pressing his claims to the Regency. I was guarded but at the same time left him in no doubt that I thought his claims to the nomination were likely to be realised.

At a signal Prince Mohammed Aly and Aly Maher took leave of us and we all filed out back to our cars and so home. The long two hours march in heavy uniform had naturally been fatiguing but, all things considered, it might have been very much worse. The only damage so far as I personally was concerned was a slightly blistered foot; but how some of the poor old boys, such as Zulficar, stuck it out I really do not know. Actually he did only march about half the way and then was taken out by the police through the crowd and motored on to the mosque where he joined up with the rest of us.

The crowds on the streets today were most remarkable and there were far more signs of genuine grief than one would ever have anticipated. Paradoxically enough King Fuad had succeeded in staging something of a come-back these last few months: how far due to his own initiative, how far due to the skill of Aly Maher I am not sure: personally I think mainly the latter; for it was Aly Maher who forced the King to take the line he did over the United Front; and it was Aly Maher who forced the King to bury the hatchet as regards his personal animosities with individual political leaders; and finally it was Aly Maher who made the King publish a patriotic manifesto to his people a few months back. Anyway, to whomever the credit is due there is no doubt that King Fuad's loss is universally recognised by the Egyptian people as a very serious one. I share that view completely. 

I have always felt that, slippery customer though he was, he was an immense factor in the situation here and that we could always in the last resort get him to act in any particular line that we wished. He was in fact a sort of final screen behind us and Egyptian political parties. Now he has gone we find ourselves left face to face with the various warring elements and I am afraid, indeed I am sure, we are going to find our task a great deal more difficult; in short we may look forward to a particularly difficult and trying time henceforth - not made the easier either by having a young immature King on our hands. I frankly don't know quite how that problem is going to be handled. But sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; and I don't doubt that if we plug consistently ahead things will clear as is their usual habit.

The new naval Commander-in Chief, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, came up for the procession today, having stayed with us last night for the purpose. After lunch I sat in the garden with him the whole afternoon and we discussed every sort of question. He strikes me as a sound man though he certainly has not got the presence of his predecessor. But then no one has!

At 6.30 pm came Aly Maher, to discuss Regency and constitutional questions. He tells me that the party leaders are all meeting him on Sunday night and that their intention is to disregard the late King's nominees for the Regency and to elect men of their own choice. If therefore I wished to ensure that men acceptable to us were elected I had no time to lose, and he suggested that I should see the various party leaders and sound them. He also suggested that I should do well to communicate with the Queen and see what she felt. As regards the constitutional position, despite the fact that under the 1923 Constitution he felt that he and the present Government were legally entitled to carry on until the present elections and the election of the Senate had been duly carried out, he had come to the conclusion that what really mattered was to act on lines nationally acceptable. Accordingly he would be quite ready to depart from the strict legal forms so long-as he had it in writing from the heads of the political parties that they were fully in agreement. I told him that I thought that this was very wise.

After he had left I had over Kelly and Smart and said that I felt that the position was now so critical and the issues so important that I must waive any idea of non-intervention and that I ought to see Nahhas, Mohammed Mahmoud, and Sidky first thing tomorrow and have a frank talk to them about the Regency. It would be so prejudicial to harmonious relations with England that I must warn them to do nothing silly. They agreed and I sent off Smart to arrange times for the three leaders to call upon me tomorrow morning ....