3-082-339 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Khedive's Wedding at Cairo: reading the news, 1895. 'There has boon lately quite a fierce light beating upon the young Khedive of Egypt. In the midst of a more or less serious crisis Abbas signed marriage contracts on Feb. 19 with Ikbal Hanem, the Circassian slave who had borne him a son in the previous week. The formal signing of the documents took place at the Koubbeh Palace, and constitutes marriage. The royal bridegroom will be twenty-one years old in July. There has naturally been plenty of interest in Cairo, such as our Artist has depicted on the frontispiece. There has been a certain amount of disappointment at the Khedive's selection of a wife, as it had been expected that his Highness would not have continued the patriarchal custom of his country. Nothing is said about the visit which, it was rumoured, he had been invited to pay to this country during 1895. The Khedive intimated to Lord Cromer his intention of reviewing the British army in the occupation of Cairo, and this is taken as a sign that the latest crisis has passed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.