EGYPT: Fevered Nuptials

Last week a wedding took place in Abdin Palace, Cairo, at which not a single woman, not even a bride, was present. The ceremony consisted of two signatures on a contract—that of the groom, 19-year-old Crown Prince Shahpur Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran; and that of 19-year-old King Farouk of Egypt, acting on behalf of the bride, his 17-year-old sister, Fawziya.

Moslem custom decreed that the bride should be absent. Because of another custom, the couple had never met until two weeks before the wedding. (Rumors that they had met and fallen in love in Switzerland were last week denied.) The Crown Prince’s strong-willed father, Shah Reza Khan Pahlavi, had arranged the match so as to bring together not only Egypt and Iran but also two great Moslem sects, the Sunni and Shiah, which for years have been as unmixable as oil and water.

After the ceremony a series of celebrations began which even Cleopatra would have found titillating. Three million Egyptians from the hinterland cheered floats of flowers in the streets. Airplanes showered Abdin Palace with rosettes in Egyptian and Iranian colors. Sudan racing camels and Arab stallions crowded the capital’s streets. At a reception, each guest received a jewel-encrusted gold box of bonbons (value: $1,000). At night there was a huge banquet at which no liquor flowed (Moslems are dry). The Nile shimmered with reflections of colored fireworks. Later, at another reception for Egyptian royalty and nobles, Fawziya herself shimmered—in bracelets, necklaces and pendants which the Crown Prince had given her (estimated value: $1,500,000).

After all this the newlywed Crown Prince went to bed with a fever of 102°. But he was not through. Before he is really Fawziya’s husband, he will have to travel with his bride to Iran (in a separate stateroom), be married the Persian way, feast 96 hours on goat’s meat, watch nautch girls (professional dancers) do their stuff.