Muhammad Naguib
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Muhammad Naguib (Arabic: محمد نجيب) (20 February 1901 – 28 August, 1984) was the first President of the Republic of Egypt. He served as President of Egypt from the declaration of the Republic on June 18, 1953 to November 1953 and again from 4 March 1954 to 18 April 1954.
Naguib was born in Khartoum, Sudan, then officially a dominion of the Kingdom of Egypt. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Cairo. The general is considered one of Egypt's few heroes from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and enjoyed wide respect in the country. Naguib was recruited as figurehead leader to the revolutionary Free Officers Movement to lend credibility to the group. The Free Officers, led by Colonel Gamal Abd al-Nasser were young members of the military – all under thirty-five and all from peasant or lower middle-class backgrounds. Nasser's goal was to seize power in Egypt from the British-dominated King Farouk I, but he was worried that he and his followers would not be taken seriously; with this in mind, he recruited General Naguib to serve as a useful figurehead.
In the 23 July 1952 ‘’coup d'état’’, the Free Officers forced King Farouk to abdicate in favour of his six-month old son King Fuad II. Naguib was appointed, first as Commander-in-Chief of Army, in order to keep the armed forces firmly behind the junior officers' coup. In September, Naguib was appointed Prime Minister of Egypt and a member of the Royal Regent Council, with Nasser serving in the background as Minister of the Interior.
When the Republic was declared on 18 June, 1953, Naguib was sworn in as the first President of the Republic. In late 1953, however, Nasser accused Naguib of supporting the recently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and of harbouring dictatorial ambitions. A brief power struggle broke out between the Naguib and Nasser for control of the military and of Egypt. Nasser ultimately won the struggle and was sworn in as President of the Republic on February 24, 1954.
Naguib was placed under house arrest until (according to some sources) 1960, and he remained under supervision in Cairo until his death there in 1984.
See also
| Preceded by: Fuad II, King of Egypt | President of Egypt 1953–1954 | Succeeded by: Gamal Abdel Nasser |