Middle East and Islamic Studies Collections: an Exhibition of Treasures
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Petition to Khidevi Signed by Local of Dinshawi
Abbas Hilmi II Papers
Abbas Hilmi II (1874-1944), the great-great-grandson of Muhammad ‘Ali, Khedive of Egypt, succeeded his father, Muhammad Tawfiq Pasha, as Khedive in 1892. The papers cover the period of Abbas Hilmi II's Khedivate 1892-1914 and extend after his deposition in December 1914 until his death in 1944 at Geneva.
The Dinshawi Incident, 1906
In June 1906 a British officer died after trouble between a pigeon-shooting
party and the villagers of Dinshawi in lower Egypt. A special court passed
severe sentences: four villagers were hanged, four condemned to life-imprisonment
and 17 to varying periods of imprisonment and / or flogging. No appeal
was allowed and the sentences were carried out in public in the village
two weeks after the incident. The severity of the punishments outraged
Egyptians and British alike.
This petition for mercy to the Khedive Abbas Hilmi II is one of 130 similar
signed petitions in the Khedive’s files. Some 13,000 signatures
are said to have been collected.
HIL 61/137
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