Egyptian Chronicles

I love browsing in the Time Magazine archive especially their covers , the use of illustration since year 1923 ,the first edition of the magazine in the States is remarkable

And after browsing and searching through the various editions I found out the Egyptian Kings and Presidents had their significant share of appearing on the Cover of the famous international magazine more than one time

Reading through the rich archive of the time is one hell of experience ,you will learn a lot about the meaning of international politics and alliance ,how the shift in the American policies can affect the way the media's coverage to international events and the examples are many

I started my journey with the Time Archives when I was making  my posts regarding the 1956 war in an attempt to cover the story from all angles and despite I found that they were biased covering only the western point view yet it was a great experience , especially that in Egypt we are suffering from the lack of historical records , the online archives of the newspapers in Egypt are not for free and they only go back to the 1990s so to find this huge archive that goes back to 123 was a remarkable treasure

Anyhow back to what I discover in my research ,as I said before the journey of the Egyptian kings and presidents as cover boys of the time since 1923 , oh yes the first year of the time Magazine

The journey started in 1923 ,in the issue no.9 that dated to April 28th  of 1923 , of course anyone who knows the history of Egypt well , you will immediately that it was about the constitution of 1923 in Egypt which was the cover story

King Fouad appeared on the cover of the magazine as an illustration , already illustrations are used extensively on the cover of the Time for a long time till and many famous illustrators by the way were famous for their drawings in the Time

King Fouad I was the first Egyptian King to appear on the cover of the time ,it was his first and last time

His son King Farouk was the second Egyptian King to appear on the cover of the magazine.He appeared twice ,once when he took the rule of Egypt after his father ,when he was a promising young man in year 1937 surrounded by the love of the people and when he began his journey to the downfall of his era 

The first time was on August 09, 1937 , this time it was not an illustration but a photo for him , he was the cover story of that volume ,you feel that there was an underestimation for him as a young king if you read the title of the report "Boy Scout into Field Marshal" but it was expected , already Farouk became a King in a very early age even before the legal age , he became a King in the age of 18 where as they should have waited till he reached 21 years old ,at least he would have finished his education , still there was an excuse for that thanks to the conspiracies of old Prince Mohamed Ali ,the second to the throne who wanted to rule so much that he made an alliance with the British Commissioner in Egypt. In 1937 the politicians of the Palace like Ali Pasha Maher and Ahmed Pasha Hasseinein made arrangements with all the parties in Egypt including the ruling party then El-Wafad which had a long rivalry with King Fouad I  to support the new young king for the Sake of the nation and that proved an excellent choice then

The Second time was on September 10,1951 , an illustration for his chubby face which would his trade mark all over the world afterwards , that date came after the huge fire of Cairo that was followed with unstable time in Egypt, the time of the too successive unpopular cabinets.It was a strange thing that the King left Egypt during all terrible time and headed to Europe and so the cover story was about the Scout boy who became the locomotive , that was the beginning of the ending for Farouk's reign ,the lazy fat play boy started not in Egypt but in the west . I believe King Farouk thanks to the conspiracies of the parties with the British Commissioner and beginning under attack from the irresponsible behavior of his family was acting in a suicidal way , he did not care anymore , he did not give a damn , he just could not fight anymore and the signature on the order to abdicate and proclaim his son King Ahmed Fouad II ,and that was the last time Farouk was on the cover of the magazine , of course it would not be the last time to mention in the news of the magazine , his name was unfortunately was mentioned in a way not less bad then the way it was mentioned in Egypt back , a lazy fat playboy ex-king in exile

Farouk had gone and a new era came : The Free Officers

The free officers had their great share in the time after they were the new rulers with new era , the republic era

The First one of them was the first president of Egypt General Mohamed Naguib in an illustration ,which I believe was very meaningful , the face of Naguib in the background and the foreground was the landmarks of Egypt , the Citadel,the sphinx and the Nile. Mohamed Naguib was a very promising face ,on the cover you will find the Time had described him as "Egypt's Strong Man Naguib" and under the description you will find his quote "We have enough from corruption" ,during that time the west and the United States had hopes in the their new allies in Cairo .Dated September 08, 1952 just months after the coup in July and before the declaration of the Republic in 1953 The Cover story  was about that  Good man the General who led a coup to end the rule one of the oldest monarchies in the Middle east and sure he was a good and great man. That was the first and the last time for him , he was like King Fouad I and he was not president yet when he appeared on the cover the Time