Nazli Sabri

Nazli Sabri (Arabic: نازلي صبري; 25 June 1894 – 29 May 1978) was the first queen consort in the Kingdom of Egypt from 1919 to 1936. She was the second wife of King Fuad I.

Nazli was born on 25 June 1894 to an Egyptian father and a mother of Turkish, French and Greek origin. Her father was Abdel Rahim Sabri Pasha, Minister of Agriculture and Governor of Cairo, and her mother was Tawfika Sharif Hanim. Nazli had two brothers: Sherif Sabri Pasha and Hussein Sabri Pasha, and two sisters: Amina Sabri and Nawal Sabri.

She was the maternal granddaughter of Major General Mohamed Sherif Pasha, prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, who was of Turkish origin. She was also a great-granddaughter of the French-born officer Suleiman Pasha.

Nazli first went to the Lycée de la Esclave-de-Dieu in Cairo, and later to the Collège Notre-Dame de Sion in Alexandria. Following the death of her mother, she and her sister were sent to a boarding school in Paris for two years. After returning, Nazli was forced to marry her cousin, Khalil Sabri. However, the marriage ended in divorce after eleven months. After the separation, she stayed at the house of Safiya Zaghloul, where she met Zaghloul's nephew Saeed Zaghloul; the two were engaged until Saeed broke up with her during his exile with his uncle Saad Zaghloul following the 1919 revolution.

The Sultan of Egypt, Fuad I, first saw Nazli at an opera performance. On 12 May 1919, Fuad proposed to her, although he was 26 years her senior. On 24 May 1919 Nazli married Sultan Fuad I at Bustan Palace, Cairo. It was the second marriage for both Nazli and Fuad. She later moved to the haramlek in the Abbasiya Palace. She was under pressure from her husband to produce a son, and was warned that she would be confined to the haremlek if she did not do so.

After the birth of their only son, Farouk, Nazli was allowed to move into Koubbeh Palace, the official royal residence, with her husband. When Fuad's title was altered to King, she was given the title of Queen. She then had four daughters: Fawzia, Faiza, Faika, and Fathia.

Restricted to the palace throughout most of Fuad's reign, Nazli was permitted to attend opera performances, flower shows, and other ladies-only cultural events. As her upbringing had left her remarkably educated, cultured and emancipated for an Egyptian woman of the time, she found this prescribed existence backward and stifling.

Nazli accompanied the king during part of his four-month tour of Europe in 1927, and was much fêted in France because of her French ancestry. With the inauguration of Parliament in 1924, she was among the royal attendees at the opening ceremony, seated in a special section of the guest gallery.