Remembering Mohamed Naguib on His Birth Anniv.

Today (Feb. 19) marks the birth anniversary of Mohamed Naguib, an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary. Along with Gamal Abdel Nasser, he was one of the two principal leaders of the Free Officers movement of 1952. This movement toppled the monarchy of Egypt and the Sudan, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Egypt and the independence of Sudan, and eventually, South Sudan in 2010.

Naguib was born on 19 February 1901 in Khartoum, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to Youssef Naguib and Zohra Ahmed Othman. Zohra was from an Egyptian family residing in Sudan, while Youssef was a ranking officer of the Egyptian Armed Forces, who had come from a notable Egyptian family of army officers. Naguib was the eldest of nine children.

After graduating from secondary and military school at Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum in 1918, Naguib joined the Egyptian Royal Guard in 1923. He became the first Egyptian military officer to obtain a law license in 1927 and earned postgraduate degrees in political economy and civil law in 1929 and 1931, respectively.

Naguib continued to climb the ranks of the Egyptian military, becoming the regional governor of the Sinai Peninsula in 1944 and taking on leadership of the mechanized infantry of the Sinai in 1947. 

He was promoted to brigadier general in 1948 and performed outstandingly during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, where he was wounded seven times. For his service, he was awarded the first military star of Fuad and the title of Bey. He was also subsequently awarded the directorship of the Egyptian Military Academy, where he would ultimately encounter the members of the Free Officers Movement.

Following the toppling of Farouk in July 1952, Naguib served as the head of the Revolutionary Command Council, the prime minister, and first president of Egypt. He successfully negotiated the independence of Sudan and the withdrawal of all British military personnel from Egypt.

His tenure as president came to an end in November 1954 due to disagreements with other members of the Free Officers, particularly with Nasser, who forced him to resign and succeeded him as president.

On 28 August 1984, Naguib died from liver cirrhosis in Cairo, Egypt. He was 83.