LOCATED near Qubba Palace, AI-Tahra Palace in Zaitoun in eastern Cairo has a very special quality with its size, gardens, history and exceptional status. All Egyptian presidential palaces (formerly royal palaces) were owned, since the time of Tawfiq Pasha (grandfather of King Farouk), by the State, with the exception only of AI-Tahra Palace, privately owned by King Farouk.
The palace was originally built as a residential villa, owned by Prince Mohamed Taber Pasha, the cousin of King Farouk, who was a prominent figure in Egyptian society with a diver¬sity of interests.
He was the patron of several sporting clubs (Automobile, Aeronautics, Fencing and Equestrian) and one of his regular Al-Tahra houseguests was Laszlo Almasy, the Hungarian desert explorer, pilot and cartographer.
Taher Pasha and King Farouk maintained an admirable friendship throughout their life so that Taher Pasha headed the committee in charge of the celebrations of the royal wedding of King Farouk and Queen Farida in 1938.
Later in the same year, the villa of Taher Pasha figured in the life of King Farouk when its owner offered it to host the Crown Prince of Iran, Mohamed Reda Pahlavi, who had come to Egypt to wed the beautiful Princess Fawzeya, King Farouk’s favourite sister.
After marriage, on March 30, 1939, a picturesque event took place at Taher Pasha’s residence. Mohamed Hassanein Bey, the notable diplomat and desert explorer, who was deputy com missioner of the Egyptian Boy Scouts Association, visited the Crown Prince at his residence and presented him with the ‘Golden Falcon’ insignia.
It was during the Crown Prince of Iran’s period of residence at Taher Pasha’s villa that King Farouk initiated the purchase of the premises in the name of his wife Queen Farida. The offi-cial contract was signed on March 26, 1939, awarding Taher Pasha the sum of LE40,000.
On November 2, 1942 King Farouk purchased the villa next to AI- Tahra Palace from Madame Livia Gattegno for LE16,000 and annexed it to the palace.
By 1944 King Farouk requested the legal transfer of the ownership of Al- Tahra Palace from Queen Farida to himself. AI-Tahra Palace then became the getaway retreat of King Farouk and the scene of many private parties and romantic encounters.
In the next article we shall be visiting the palace and tracing its course after King Farouk stepped down following Egypt’s 1952 Revolution.
