President Major General Muhammad Bey Naguib Youssef Qutb al-Qashlan (February 19, 1901 - August 28, 1984) is an Egyptian politician and military, the first president of the Republic of Egypt after the end of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic on June 18, 1953. He is also the leader of the July 23, 1952 revolution that ended with the dismissal and departure of King Farouk. About Egypt. He assumed the position of Prime Minister in Egypt during the period from (March 8, 1954 - April 18, 1954), and also took the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces and then Minister of War in 1952.
Born in Sudan, Mohamed Naguib joined Gordon College, then the Military School, where he graduated in 1918, then joined the Royal Guard in 1923. He obtained a Bachelor of Laws in 1927 and was the first officer in the Egyptian army to obtain it. He obtained a postgraduate diploma in political economy in 1929 and another postgraduate diploma in private law in 1931.
In December 1931, he was promoted to the rank of Al-Yuzbashi (captain) and transferred to the Frontier Corps in 1934 in Al-Arish, then became part of the committee that supervised the organization of the Egyptian army in Khartoum after the 1936 treaty. May 1938. Muhammad Naguib submitted his resignation following the incident of February 4, 1942, in which British tanks surrounded King Farouk's palace to force him to return Mustafa al-Nahhas to the prime ministership. Abedin gratefully thanked him and refused to accept his resignation. He was promoted to the rank of Qaimaqam (Colonel) in June 1944. In that year he was appointed regional governor of Sinai, and in 1947 he was responsible for the machine guns in Al-Arish. He was promoted to the rank of Admiral (Dean) in 1948.
He participated in the Palestine War in 1948 and was wounded 7 times. He was awarded the Fouad First Military Star in appreciation of his bravery in addition to the rank of Becky. After the war, he was appointed director of the Officers School, and got to know the organization of the Free Officers through the goldsmith Abdel Hakim Amer, and on July 23, 1952 the movement implemented the July plan. Which was called the (Corrective Movement) and ended with King Farouk abdicating the throne to his heir and leaving the country, and in 1953 Najib became the first president of the country after ending the monarchy and declaring the republic.
He announced the Six Principles of the Revolution, and specified agricultural ownership, but he was at odds with the officers of the Revolutionary Command Council because of his desire to return the army to its barracks and the return of civilian parliamentary life, and as a result he submitted his resignation in February, then returned again after the March crisis, but on November 14, 1954 forced him The Revolutionary Command Council had to resign, and put him under house arrest with his family in Zainab al-Wakeel Palace away from political life and prevented any visits to him, until 1971 when President Sadat decided to end the house arrest imposed on him, but he remained prohibited from appearing in the media until his death on August 28, 1984 .
Despite the prominent political and historical role of Muhammad Naguib, after his ouster from the presidency, his name was crossed out from documents, all records and books, and his appearance or the appearance of his name completely for thirty years until many Egyptians believed that he had died, and it was mentioned in documents and books that Abdel Nasser is The first president of Egypt, and this continued until the late eighties when his name reappeared and the decorations were returned to his family, and he named some facilities and streets, and in 2013 his family was awarded the Great Nile Necklace.
Muhammad Naguib was born in Sudan at the Abu El-Ela Saqiya in Khartoum, to an Egyptian father and an Egyptian-Sudanese mother named “Zahra Muhammad Othman.” His full name is Muhammad Najib Yusef Qutb al-Qashlan. It is usually not accurate, but in his memoirs, he mentioned that one of his elders told him that he was born forty days before one of his relatives, and by calculating, he found that his date of birth was July 7, 1902.
His father, Youssef Naguib, started his life as a farmer in his village of Nahariya, Kafr El-Zayat Markaz, in the Gharbia Governorate in Egypt, which is next to the famous Ebyar village. Then he joined the Military School and excelled in it, and after graduating, he participated in the campaigns to restore Sudan in 1898. Youssef Najib married a Sudanese woman named Sayyida Muhammad Hamza Al-Sharif and had her first son, Abbas, and then divorced her. Then he married Mrs. Zahra, daughter of Admiral Muhammad Bey Othman in 1900. An Egyptian officer whose family lives in Omdurman and was martyred in one of the battles against the Mahdist revolution. Youssef had three sons from Mrs. Zahra, Muhammad Najib, Ali Najib and Mahmoud Najib, and he also fathered six daughters. When Muhammad Najib was 13 years old, his father passed away, leaving behind a family of ten.
Muhammad Naguib received his education in the city of Wad Madani in 1905, where he memorized the Holy Qur’an and learned the principles of reading and writing. His father moved to Wadi Halfa in 1908 and enrolled in the primary school there, then joined Gordon College in 1913.
Muhammad Naguib says in his memoirs: “I was a student in the second year of the college in 1914, and Mr. Simpson, the English language teacher, came to dictate to us a piece of dictation in which he said: Egypt is ruled by the British, so I did not like that. And I stopped writing. I got up and said to him: No, my lord, Egypt is occupied only by Britain, but is internally independent and belongs to Turkey. The English teacher got angry and insisted that I go before him to his office and ordered me to be given ten lashes on my back, and I surrendered to the painful punishment without moving or opening my mouth.
After graduating from college, he joined the Tropical Research Institute to be trained on the typewriter in preparation for a job as a translator, with a salary of three pounds per month. After graduation, he was not convinced of what he had achieved and insisted on entering the Military College in Cairo.
He joined the Military College in Egypt in April 1917 and graduated on January 23, 1918, then traveled to Sudan on February 19, 1918. At the same age as his father, he joined the same Egyptian battalion in which his father worked to begin his life as an officer in the Egyptian army in the 17th Infantry Battalion.
With the outbreak of the 1919 revolution, he insisted on participating in it, despite that violating the rules of the army, so he traveled to Cairo and sat on the stairs of the House of the Nation, carrying the Egyptian flag, and next to him a group of young officers. Then he moved to the Fendi Cavalry. The battalion in which he served was abolished, and he moved to the Western Araba Division in Cairo in 1921.
He obtained a certificate of competency, entered the police school for two months, encountered various groups of the Egyptian people, graduated and served in the departments of Abdin, Old Cairo, Bulaq, Helwan. He returned again to Sudan in 1922 with the Sudanese 13th Division and served in Wau and Bahr al-Ghazal, then moved to the Machine Guns Unit in Malakal.
He then moved to the Royal Guard in Cairo on April 28, 1923, then moved to the Eighth Division in Maadi because of his support for the Sudanese militants. He obtained his baccalaureate degree in 1923, joined the Faculty of Law, and was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in 1924, and he was fluent in English, French, Italian and German languages. In his memoirs, he also learned Hebrew, and despite his responsibility, he was passionate about science.
In 1927, Mohamed Naguib was the first officer in the Egyptian army to obtain a law degree, a postgraduate diploma in political economy in 1929 and another postgraduate diploma in private law in 1931 and he began preparing a doctorate, but the nature of his military work, and his frequent movements, prevented his completion.
In 1929, Muhammad Naguib learned a lesson from Mustafa al-Nahhas. King Fouad issued his decision to dissolve Parliament because the majority of its members were from the Wafd Party, which was constantly clashing with the king, so it hid in the clothes of a Nubian servant, and jumped on the roof of Mustafa al-Nahhas’s house, and offered him the intervention of the army to force the king to Respecting the opinion of the people, but Al-Nahhas told him: I prefer the army to be away from politics, and for the nation to be the source of the authorities. .
He was promoted to the rank of yuzbashi (captain) in December 1931, and was transferred to the Frontier Corps in 1934, then moved to Al-Arish. He was part of the committee that supervised the organization of the Egyptian army in Khartoum after the 1936 treaty, then founded the Egyptian Army magazine in 1937 and was promoted to the rank of Al-Sagha (Major) on May 6, 1938, and in that year refused to conduct joint military exercises with the English in Marsa Matrouh.
Following the incident of February 4, 1942, during which British tanks surrounded the palace of King Farouk to force him to return Mustafa al-Nahhas to the premiership or to abdicate the throne. Muhammad Naguib, who was at the time of the rank of Sagheer (a major), was angry and went to the extent of submitting his resignation in protest and anger because he was unable to protect his king, who had sworn an oath of allegiance to him. The officials in Abdeen Palace thanked his feelings and refused to accept his resignation.
He was promoted to the rank of Kaimakam (Colonel) in June 1944, and in that year he was appointed regional governor of Sinai, and in 1947 he was responsible for the machine guns in Al-Arish, and was promoted to the rank of Admiral (Brigadier) in 1948.
His participation in the 1948 Palestine War
The beginning of Muhammad Naguib’s knowledge at the popular level, and at the level of the Egyptian army, during his participation in the 1948 war, and despite his great rank (brigadier) he was at the head of the ranks of his forces, as he was wounded seven times in this war, three of which were serious injuries. Badge with the number (3) on his official military uniform.” The most serious of these was the third and final injury in the Battle of Al-Tabba 86 in December 1948, when he was hit by bullets while trying to save one of his soldiers when his tanks broke down. Najib’s injury was severe, as the bullets settled several centimeters away from His heart, and when he hid behind a tree, found blood erupting from his chest, and wrote his will to his children, in which he said: “Remember, my children, that your father died with honor. His last wish was to avenge the defeat in Palestine and strive for the unity of the Nile Valley.
When he was taken to the hospital, the doctors believed that he was martyred. Al-Yuzbashi Salah al-Din Sharif entered to take a look at his body, so he removed the cover and a tear fell on Muhammad Najib’s face, and the miracle happened. His eyes moved suddenly. The doctors realized that he was still alive and rushed to help him. The First Military” in recognition of his bravery in this battle, with the title of Becky awarded to him, as he was the first Egyptian officer to command more than a legion on his own.
Joining the Free Officers Movement
After the 1948 war, Naguib returned to Cairo as the leader of the Great Officers School, and realized that the main enemy was not the Jews, as much as they are these men who commit sins behind our backs and stab their honor with the foolishness they commit, and he always said that the real battle is in Egypt, not in Palestine, nor He is hesitant to say this in front of the officers he trusts, and at one time, the goldsmith Abdel Hakim Amer was the staff of the war for Major General Mohamed Naguib, and it seems that Mohamed Naguib’s words about corruption in Cairo affected him, so he went to his friend Gamal Abdel Nasser and told him as Amer narrated Let us answer after that: I found in Major General Muhammad Naguib a great treasure.
Gamal Abdel Nasser had begun to form the Free Officers Organization since 1949, when the defeat of Palestine caused a state of discontent and a desire to eliminate feudalism and internal corruption and establish a strong army, with a commitment in his system to absolute secrecy, the organization wanted to be led by one of the senior officers In order for the organization to obtain the support of the rest of the officers, Nasser actually presented the matter to Muhammad Naguib, and he agreed immediately.
Tharwat Okasha, one of the Free Officers, says in his book “My Diary between Politics and Culture”: “Major General Muhammad Naguib was one of the distinguished army commanders for three reasons: the first is his high morals, and the second is his extensive culture. Language, and the third is his courage in the Palestine war, in which he set an example for others and won the admiration of all officers on the battlefield.
The Free Officers’ Organization’s choice of Muhammad Najib was the secret of the organization’s success within the army. When the organization’s officers offered the rest of the army officers to join the movement, they would ask the leader, and when they knew that he was Major General Muhammad Najib, they hurried to join.
Military historian Major General Jamal Hammad, one of the Free Officers, said that the movement would not have succeeded without Muhammad Najib joining it, because he had a good reputation in the army, and because his position was of importance, as the rest of the Free Officers were of small and unknown ranks.
His candidacy for the officers' club elections
The officers’ club elections were the first effective step in the path of the July 23 revolution. Before the club’s elections, the Executive Committee of the Free Officers Organization believed that it was not possible to carry out the revolution before 1955, but after the elections the officers felt their strength. Muhammad Najib nominated himself as chairman of the club’s board of directors to test the pulse of the army and test the strength of the Free Officers and a challenge to the king. The king accepted the challenge and nominated Hussein Serri Amer. The elections were the first real test of Mohamed Naguib's popularity within the military.
With the dawn of the first day of January 1952, the result was announced and Muhammad Naguib obtained an overwhelming majority, almost collectively, and his rivals received only 58 votes. The result was a severe shock to the king, so he decided to dissolve the club's board of directors.
The atmosphere in Egypt was on fire as a result of the Cairo fire incident on January 24, followed by the Ismailia incident on January 25 after the killing of a number of policemen. The British forces demanded them to hand over their headquarters and weapons and they refused, and they clashed with the English forces until they left more than 40 people dead. The king’s popularity was in decline This made him in a weak position, which made it easier for the Free Officers to organize.
On July 18, 1952, Muhammad Najib Muhammad Hashem met the Minister of Interior - the prime minister’s daughter-in-law - at the request of the latter, who asked him about the reasons for the officers’ discontent, and offered him the position of Minister of War, but Najib refused and preferred to stay in the army because he suspected a scheme aimed at keeping him away from the armed forces. And during their conversation, Muhammad Hashem informed him that there were 13 names of officers in the army who had organized an organization called (the Free Officers), and that the Royal Brigades had identified 8 of them and they would be arrested, which prompted Najib to meet urgently with the Higher Committee for the Organization of the Free Officers to expedite the implementation of the plan. Which was carried out on July 23, 1952.
July 23 Revolution
On July 19, 1952, the High Committee of the Free Officers met and Najib did not attend, so as not to draw the attention of the security authorities. The plan that was presented and discussed later with Muhammad Naguib stipulated that the groups would move to seize the leaders of the army, and the plan began to expand until it turned into control of government agencies and the radio And turned into a plan for a complete military coup.
The plan was scheduled to be implemented on August 8, but Najib’s interview with the Minister of Interior contributed to the development of events, and it was decided to implement it on July 22 or 23. Hassan Farid, Chief of Staff of the Army, called for a meeting at ten o’clock in the evening, in the presence of the army’s leaders, except for Major General Muhammad Najib, director of the infantry corps, for their suspicion that he was linked to this organization. However, Muhammad Najib learned of this meeting of leaders, and ordered Abd al-Hakim Amer to arrest all the leaders present in the meeting.
And what some did not expect happened, as Youssef Siddiq, commander of the 1st Artillery Battalion, actually moved and arrested two leaders. During the movement of his forces, he met Abdel Nasser and Abdel Hakim Amer, who were in civilian clothes, and learned from them the changes in the plan, so the forces headed directly towards the General Command of the army, and with the influx of forces In succession, the rest of the leaders and control of the army were arrested. The agreement stipulated that Muhammad Najib would remain in his home, ready to take any alternative steps in the event of the failure of the control operation. Jamal Hammad called Najib to inform him of the success of the operation, as the General Command and the communications center were seized, and the army moved The armored vehicles entered Cairo, and Major General Mohamed Naguib moved to the General Command building.
At seven in the morning of that day, the young Muhammad Anwar Sadat issued a statement to the Egyptian people announcing the outbreak of a peaceful and bloodless movement carried out by the armed forces for the sake of national security on a revolutionary basis. legitimacy. He cleanses the army.
At the time, the king was residing in Alexandria and there were ministry men seeking to swear an oath on the new government headed by Najib al-Hilali. After hearing the statement, the king and the politicians considered it a purification movement within the army. The Ministry of Najib al-Hilali contacted Major General Najib, who informed him of the demands of the movement, which are:
These demands were simply feeling the king's pulse and learning about his current situation, whether he was in a position of strength or weakness. The fall of the army leadership and its subjugation under the leadership of Naguib and the army’s control over the state apparatus in Cairo decided the balance of power in their favour, especially after many officers supported the movement, and the king found nothing but acquiescence to them. stimulate. King Pasha issued his decision to Ali Maher to form the new government, and appointed Muhammad Najib as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and promoted him to the rank of Lieutenant-General.
The Free Officers Authority sent forces to besiege the king's palace in Alexandria in preparation for his dismissal. These moves were made with caution, since the navy was still subordinate to the king as well as the royal guard. Mortada Al-Maraghi also hinted to Najib that King Farouk might use the English forces present in the canal area, which prompted some forces to besiege the Cairo-Suez road to prevent any movement towards Cairo.
The king's efforts to enlist the help of the British or the Americans yielded no result. Ali Maher's government was sworn in on July 24, and army formations reached Alexandria without much resistance. The army's movements were unknown to anyone at the time, and on July 25, Muhammad Najib informed Maher Pasha of the army's demands that King Farouk abdicate the throne to his heir, Prince Ahmed Fuad II, and that he should leave the country before that. Six in the evening. He traveled, but Mohamed Naguib informed the American ambassador that this resulted from a misunderstanding by the Royal Guard forces, and that the forces in Alexandria were merely a routine measure to maintain security.
Ras al-Tin Palace is besieged, and amid fears of clashes that might lead to civil war, Farouk agrees to the demands that she will keep the throne in his family, and Ali tells Maher Pasha his agreement on the condition that he accompany him. The wife and children and that he be bid farewell as a king and that the government and the leadership share the army in this farewell, and that some pieces of the Egyptian fleet guard the ship on which he will board until his arrival in Italy, and Abdel Razek Al-Sanhouri, the head of the State Council, prepared the document of abdication signed by King Farouk and handed over to Ali Maher .
And King Farouk left, this evening, on board the Mahrousa ship. He was seen by statesmen and army officers, the navy fired 21 bullets and the royal anthem was played. Muhammad Najib wanted to be one of the depositors, but the crowds of the streets blocked his way and delayed his arrival, but he insisted on saying goodbye to the king himself, and Najib went up with his companions on the guard deck, and after the king’s departure, he broadcast the statement regarding the king’s abdication of the throne to his heir, and Muhammad Najib abdicated the rank of the team Which he received so that the state does not burden the burdens of his new salary.
Muhammad Naguib took over as prime minister
After Farouk stepped down, a guardianship council was formed headed by Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim, with the membership of Bahey El Din Barakat Pasha, and the mayor of Rashad Muhanna. During this period, several legislations were issued, including the abolition of civil ranks. And after 50 days, as a result of the clash with the Revolutionary Command Council, the Ministry of Ali Maher submitted its resignation, and formed a new ministry headed by Muhammad Najib to be the first non-civilian prime minister. Then, on December 10, 1952, a decree was issued to abolish the 1923 constitution and a decree was issued to dissolve political parties. in january
In August 1952, massive demonstrations erupted in the Spinning and Weaving Company in Kafr al-Dawwar to demand the rights of workers. These events, the army is taking more harsh measures, so it carried out a massive arrest campaign among the communists, and military trials were formed in Kafr al-Dawwar, headed by al-Bakbashi Abdel Moneim Amin, and the court issued a death sentence for: Mustafa Khamis and Muhammad Hassan al-Baqari. The court, Najib was reluctant to ratify the verdict, and demanded to meet with Mustafa Khamis to disclose his aides, but he refused, and Najib ratified the death sentence that was carried out on September 7, 1952. They were sentenced to death under pressure from the Minister of Interior - Gamal Abdel Nasser - to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. This trial aroused a lot of local and international reactions at the time, and led to the shattering of the image of the army and the blessed movement, which gained wide popular support.
Declaration of the Republic
Despite the problems and events that the organization faced in the months following the July Revolution, especially with disagreements within the ranks of the army, the Revolutionary Command Council gained great strength that made it control the reins of affairs, especially with the absence of a strong opposition at that time, and on 18 June 1953 The establishment of the republic and the abolition of the monarchy in Egypt was declared, and Mohamed Naguib was chosen as the president of the republic, who retained his position as prime minister while relinquishing the position of minister of war and commanding the army.
Create the editorial board
The editorial board was established during his reign in 1953 after the abolition of parties.
President of the Republic
Naguib’s first days in the presidency were full of problems and clashes, especially with Nasser’s desire to appoint his friend Abdel Hakim Amer as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and to promote him directly from the rank of Sagheer to the rank of major general, as this decision was inconsistent with the rules of the army because he exceeded many ranks and infringed on the regime The seniority in the army, and therefore Muhammad Najib refused this order, and continued to resist it for more than 3 weeks until he finally acquiesced before the decision of the Council and issued its decision to appoint Amer.
Najib’s first decision was to establish the National Guard, a military force based on popular volunteering to assist the regular army in defending the country’s independence. The dispute over the appointment of Abdel Hakim Amer was a turning point for Najib, as he found that the reins of power began to gather in the hands of some personalities. And she became so influential and powerful, that he thought about restoring civilian life again and ending the army's control of power.
Disagreement with the Revolutionary Command Council
During this period, many began to notice a clear change in the behavior and decisions of the army officers and members of the Revolutionary Command Council, until it became common among the officers that the revolution expelled one king and brought thirteen kings. The catastrophe that we are still suffering from until now in Egypt, every commanding officer wanted to be strong. So each of them became a "group", and this group was mostly hypocrites who did not play a role, neither in preparing for the revolution nor in carrying it out. He also claimed that he had observed some wrong behaviors committed by some officers against the revolution and against the people who trusted them. The first thing the commanding officers did was change their jeeps and ride in luxury saloon cars, and one of them left his modest apartment and took over one of the princes’ palaces so that he would be close to one of the princesses whose palace was close to the palace he seized, and another of the commanding officers left the rope on the west For his wife, who knew everything that was going on in the leadership council, and took advantage of this for her and his benefit, and another chased Nahed Rushd, the wife of naval doctor Youssef Rashad, King Farouk's private doctor. These actions shocked the rest of the Free Officers, who are characterized by idealism, so some of them carried these scandals and confronted the commanding officers with them. But they heard them and decided to get rid of them, as happened with the artillery officers
The first dispute was between him and the commanding officers about the Revolutionary Court, which was formed to try the leaders of the royal era, then a second dispute occurred after the issuance of a bulletin about the arrest of some political leaders, among whom was Mustafa Al-Nahhas. The revolution’s decisions compounded people’s hatred of the revolution, including the confiscation of 322 acres of Zainab al-Wakeel’s property, the Nahhas Pasha’s campus. Four journalists were also sentenced to life imprisonment and the confiscation of their newspapers on charges of corrupting political life.
In addition to these decisions, other decisions were issued even though he refused to sign them, including the republican decision to withdraw the Egyptian citizenship from six Egyptians from the Muslim Brotherhood, and the clash between him and the Leadership Council increased when he discovered that they were transferring officers without his advice, and Zakaria Mohieldin refused to take the constitutional oath before him after His appointment as Minister of the Interior, as well as Gamal Salem's rejection.
Muhammad Naguib said in his memoirs that he discovered that the men of the revolution had held many meetings without him, all of which prompted him to seriously consider submitting his resignation.
February resignation
Gentlemen, members of the Revolutionary Command Council... After much respect, I am saddened to announce, for reasons that I cannot mention now, that I can no longer assume my responsibility to govern in an appropriate manner acceptable to national interests. Therefore, I ask to accept my resignation from the tasks I occupy, and as I thank you for your cooperation with me, I ask God Almighty to help us serve our country in a spirit of cooperation and brotherhood.”
In these brief terms, Muhammad Najib submitted his resignation on February 22, 1954. On February 25, the Leadership Council issued a statement dismissing Muhammad Najib, and the statement claimed that Muhammad Najib requested greater powers than the authority of the members of the Council and that he had the right to object to the decisions of the Council even if these decisions had been taken Unanimously, he also claimed that he was chosen as the leader of the revolution two months before its outbreak, and that he learned of the revolution on the night of July 23 from a phone call from the Minister of Interior, so he moved to the leadership building and there he met with Abdel Nasser, who agreed to include him and gave him the presidency of the Council.
But after his dismissal statement was publicly broadcast, the masses protested against him, telegrams poured into the council and newspapers refused to resign. Spontaneous demonstrations erupted in Cairo and the provinces for three days in support of Naguib, and the masses were chanting (Mohamed Naguib or the revolution), and in Sudan, sweeping demonstrations erupted chanting (No unity without an answer), and the army was divided between supporters of the return of Muhammad Najib and the approval of parliamentary life, and supporters of the Revolutionary Command Council.
The cavalry was the army’s most sympathetic weapon, and the country was on the verge of a civil war and to remedy the situation. The Command Council issued a statement at six o’clock in the evening of February 27, 1954, in which it said: “To preserve the unity of the nation, the Revolutionary Command Council announces the return of Muhammad Najib as President of the Republic, and his sovereignty has agreed to that.” Mohamed Naguib returned to his position as President of the Republic.
Despite the statement of the Revolutionary Council, which was characterized by clear hostility, it did not take a decision in this regard, so that Al-Yuzbashi Riyad, commander of Najib’s guards, offered him to move and reserve the members of the Revolutionary Command Council, but Najib rejected this idea to prevent a direct clash, but Muhammad Najib stated Later, after the 1967 setback, he deeply regretted not resolving this matter in his time, as he enjoyed great popularity and the loyalty of many leaders to him.
March crisis 1954
Some see that the March crisis was not just a public struggle for power between Muhammad Naguib and members of the Revolutionary Command Council, but rather the crisis was more profound. He insists on consolidating individual rule, abolishing parties and imposing censorship on newspapers, while others believe that the crisis was just a power struggle between Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser.
The starting blow in the March crisis was on the part of Muhammad Najib, who, upon his return to power, began his consultations with the Leadership Council to expedite the return of parliamentary life. political prisoners.
These decisions were in favor of the return of democratic life, and here the anti-Mohammed Naguib faction realized that all the plans prepared to overthrow him are in danger of failure, so he began plotting other schemes that would circumvent the decisions of March 5 and return to individual rule.
On March 25, 1954, the Revolutionary Command Council met in full and the meeting ended with issuing the following decisions: Allowing the establishment of parties, the Revolutionary Command Council does not form a party, there is no deprivation of political rights so that there is no influence on the elections, the Constituent Assembly elects freely and directly without appointing any individual It shall have full parliament authority and elections are free. The Council of the Revolution is dissolved on July 24 next, considering the revolution has ended and the country is handed over to the nation’s representatives. The Constituent Assembly elects the President of the Republic as soon as it convenes.
The helplessness of Muhammad Naguib was compounded by his preoccupation with King Saud bin Abdulaziz, who was visiting Egypt at the time, while his opponents were plotting to deal the final blow to Muhammad Naguib. The newspapers reported that there were secret contacts between Muhammad Najib and the delegation.
On March 28, 1954, the strangest demonstrations in history chanting for the fall of democracy, parties and reaction took place. The demonstrations took place around Parliament, the Republican Palace, and the State Council, and repeated their chants, including “No parties, no parliament.” Transport and pushed them to a strike that paralyzes life and transportation, and a large number of trade unions participated in it, and the demonstrators chanted, "Down with democracy, down with freedom." Al-Sawy admitted that he received 4,000 pounds for organizing these demonstrations.
Members of the Revolutionary Command Council won the battle against Muhammad Naguib, and new decisions were issued to cancel the March 25 decisions.
relieved of the presidency
Muhammad Naguib lost in the battle of March 1954. In fact, it was not only his loss, but rather a loss for the march of democracy in the Nile Valley. Naguib insisted on resigning, but Abdel Nasser strongly opposed Naguib’s resignation, fearing that demonstrations would break out, as happened in February 1954, and Muhammad Naguib agreed to continue in order to save the country. From a civil war and an attempt to complete unity with Sudan.
On November 14, 1954, Muhammad Naguib went from his home on Said Street in Helmeyet al-Zaytoun to his office in Abdeen Palace. He noticed that the military police officers did not perform the military salute. When he got out of his car inside the palace, he was surprised by Hussein Arafa from the Military Police, with two officers and 10 soldiers carrying machine guns surrounding him. He shouted In the face of Hussein Arafa, asking him to move away so that his soldiers would not be exposed to fighting with the soldiers of the Republican Guard, so the officers and soldiers of the Military Police responded to him. Muhammad Najib noticed two officers from the Military Police following him as he went up to his office, they river and told him that they had orders to enter from Admiral Hassan Kamal, senior Al-Yawran, then phoned Gamal Abdel Nasser to explain to him what happened, and Nasser replied that he would send Abdel Hakim Amer, the commander in chief of the armed forces, to deal with the situation in his own way.
Abdel Hakim Amer came to him and said to him in shame, “The Revolutionary Command Council decided to exempt you from the presidency of the Republic.” He replied, “I do not resign now because I will be responsible for the loss of Sudan. If the matter is dismissal, then welcome.” Major General Abdul Hakim Amer swore that his stay in Zainab al-Wakeel's villa would not exceed a few days, after which he would return to his home, but he did not leave the villa for 30 years.
Muhammad Naguib left his office quietly with Hassan Ibrahim in a car to the Marj Detention Center. He was saddened by the way he went out, and the military salute was not given to him, and he did not call Al-Brouji to greet him. He compared his farewell to King Farouk, who fired him 21 shots, with his farewell.
When he arrived at Zainab al-Wakeel's villa in the suburb of al-Marj, the officers and soldiers rushed to pick the fruits from the garden. They took from inside the villa all the furniture, rugs, paintings and antiques and left them completely empty. They also confiscated the furniture of Zainab Al-Wakeel's villa. They confiscated Major General Najib's papers, antiques, medals and money that were in his house. And completely prevent him from going out or from meeting anyone, even his family.
Determine his residence
Heavy security was set up around the villa, and everyone in the house was required not to go out from sunset to sunrise, and they had to close the windows in the summer to avoid headaches caused by the soldiers. The soldiers used to shoot in the middle of the night and at dawn, they would delay the children’s transport They arrive late at school, and the trolley does not reach them at school until a long period of time after everyone in it has left.
His room in the meadow villa was neglected, with a modest bed that almost disappeared from the large number of books placed on it, and he used to spend most of his time in this room constantly reading various books in various types of sciences, especially medicine, astronomy and history. For the past thirty years, I had no choice but to pray, read the Qur’an, or browse through various books.”
During the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956, he was transferred from the Marg prison camp to the city of Tama in Sohag, Upper Egypt. Muhammad Naguib and re-imposed him as President of the Republic again instead of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, but after the failure of the aggression, he was returned to the Marj prison. He was abused to the extent that one of the guards hit him on the chest in the same place of injury he suffered in the 1948 war, which caused deep sadness for Muhammad Naguib, and during the setback of 1967 he sent a telegram to Gamal Abdel Nasser asking him to allow him to leave the ranks of the army under a pseudonym, but he did not He receives no response from him.
release him
Muhammad Naguib remained confined to his villa in Marg until President Sadat ordered his release in 1971. Despite this, Sadat ignored him just as the rest of the Revolutionary Command Council members ignored him. Muhammad Najib says in his memoirs:
“Sadat said to me: You are free and free, I did not believe myself. Can I go out and enter unguarded? Can I speak on the phone without listening? Can I receive people without supervision? I couldn't believe it so easily. The prisoner needs some time to get used to his imprisonment, and he needs some time to return to his freedom. And I was not an ordinary prisoner, I was a prisoner counting his breath. They eavesdrop on his words and plant microphones and lenses in his living room. And I was afraid that approached one so as not to disappear. I avoid visiting family and friends so as not to disturb their lives. I stay away from public places so that people do not gather around me and go behind the sun, but after a while and gradually I returned to my freedom and returned to people and returned to public life, and I wish I had not returned. All people had bitterness in her throat from defeat and occupation. And all of their talk is a complaint, pain and despair over the expulsion of the Israeli occupier. In addition to these feelings, there were the groans of the victims of the revolution. Those who have been released from prisons and detention centers are victims of oppression, fabrication and torture. Even those who did not go to prisons, did not experience detention centers, did not taste torture and humiliation, were afraid, and they waited for their steps and words. And then I knew how heinous the revolution’s crime against the Egyptian person was.”
What entertained Muhammad Naguib throughout the years of house arrest in Al-Marg was to raise cats and dogs. He considered cats and dogs more loyal than humans, and Najib kept a rare picture of a dog lying on its side and being breastfed by a cat who lost its mother, and this picture, Najib said, is evidence that animals are softer and gentler in getting rid of their ferocity than humans. When one of his dogs died, he buried him in the garden and wrote on the tombstone: Here lies my best friend.
Muhammad Najeeb says: “These loyal friends were the salwa of my unit in the years of loneliness, the time when the degree of slander reached the point of rumoring the news of my death, and I heard this news with my own ears from the world’s radio stations. And I read it with my own eyes in the book Army Officers in Politics and Society, which was written by an Israeli writer named Eliezer Pierre, that Muhammad Najib died in 1966!!!”, and he would often say: “What did I get for them to do all this to me?”
On April 21, 1983, President Hosni Mubarak ordered the allocation of a villa in the Qubba neighborhood in the Qasr al-Qubba area in Cairo for the residence of Muhammad Naguib, after he was threatened with expulsion from the Zainab al-Wakeel Palace as a result of the court ruling in the interest of her heirs who were demanding the palace, a palace in which he lived for 29 years, including 17 years He is detained.
When some media professionals asked him how he came back to public life, he said at the time: “Where am I going after 30 years in which I did not come out to life? I have no acquaintances or anyone who cares about me. I live here alone, after two of my children have died, and only one of them remains. Where shall I go?”
his death
Mohamed Naguib died on August 28, 1984, after entering a coma at Maadi Military Hospital in Cairo, due to complications from cirrhosis of the liver. After he wrote his memoirs, it was included in his book, "I was president of Egypt."
Despite the desire of Muhammad Naguib in his will to be buried in Sudan next to his father, he was buried in Egypt in the cemeteries of the martyrs of the armed forces in a solemn military funeral, from the Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City, and his body was carried on a cannon cart. The funeral was presented by then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak personally and the surviving members of the Revolutionary Command Council.
his personal life
He married Zainab Ahmed and had his daughter Samiha, who died in her final year at the Faculty of Law in 1950. After his divorce from her, he married Aisha Muhammad Labib in 1934 and had three children with her: Farouk, Ali and Youssef.
Ali, the second son of Muhammad Najib, was studying in Germany and had extensive activity against the Zionist activities there. He used to hold festivals in which he defended Egypt and the revolution and the right of the Palestinians, and they did not like this talk. On a night he was driving a colleague to him, so he saw a jeep with three men and a woman attacking him and trying to kill him, and when he escaped, the car ran after him and stuck him between it and the wall. His strength failed and he bled to death, and his body was transferred to Egypt. General Naguib asked to come out of his detention to receive his son's coffin and participate in his burial, but they refused. This was in 1968.
Farouk, the first son, was not spared the same fate. One of the informants who were following him provoked him and said to him: What did your father do for the revolution? no thing. It was nothing more than a fantasy facade decoration, nothing more, nothing less. Farouk could not bear these words and hit the informant, and on that day Farouk did not sleep in the house, he entered Liman Tora and stayed there for five and a half months, after which he came out wrecked, collapsed and sick with the heart, and after a short time he died.
As for the third son, Youssef, he worked for the Arab Contractors Company in Alexandria and was dismissed by a decision from Abdel Nasser, then he worked as a taxi driver later, and he died in 1988.
Decorations and badges
He was awarded the first Fouad Military Star, and with it he also received the rank of Bey.
And 30 years after his death, in December 2013, interim President Adly Mansour awarded the Nile necklace to the name of President Mohamed Naguib, which was given to his grandson, Mohamed Youssef Mohamed Naguib.
feats and honor
The metro station in Abdeen was named after Muhammad Najib
Muhammad Naguib is considered one of the most marginalized political figures, although he was once the head of state and commander-in-chief of the army and his former military status, but - after his removal from the presidency - his name was written off from documents, records and books, and he was mentioned in documents and books. That Abdel Nasser is the first president of Egypt, and prevented his appearance or the appearance of his name completely for 30 years until many Egyptians believed that he had died.
During the era of President Hosni Mubarak, his name began to appear in school books timidly, as he named a square in the city of Kafr El-Zayat in the western region and two schools in Alexandria in Sidi Bishr and the other in Hanoville, and he named his name on one of the train stations in Cairo (Mohamed Naguib Metro Station).
On September 24, 2007, a museum for Muhammad Naguib was opened in the Pharaonic Village, which includes his holdings and a large number of photographs. A President from Egypt is the title of the film to be filmed on the life story of President Mohamed Naguib, the January 25, 2011 revolution in Egypt. There have been calls for his justice and giving him his historical right to amend some history textbooks and prove that he is “the first president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, not Abdel Nasser,” as was the case for him.
His writings
A letter about Sudan 1943
The Fate of Egypt (English) 1955
My word for history 1975
I Was President of Egypt (Mohamed Naguib's Memoirs 1984)
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