Shivakiar Ibrahim was an Egyptian princess and a member of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty.
Background
Princess Shivakiar was born on 25 October 1876 in Üsküdar (formerly Scutrai), Istanbul. She was the only daughter of Field Marshal, Prince Ibrahim Fahmi Ahmad Pasha and his first wife, Vijdan Navjuvan Khanum, an ethnic Circassian from the household of Ali Sharif Pasha. Her mother was divorced and was married secondly to Faridun Pasha, Lieutenant-General in Imperial Ottoman Army.
Career
She was the first wife of King Fuad. Shivakiar had two brothers, Prince Muhammad Vahid ud-din Ibrahim Bey and Prince Ahmad Saif ud-din Ibrahim Bey. Towards the end of her life she devoted herself to the furtherance of social welfare and, as the president of the Mohamed Ali Benevolent Society, and of the "March" al Guedida (New Woman), a society which trained young girls for various professions, notably nursing and dress-making, rendered great service to her country.
During her last years she was renowned both for the splendour of her entertainments and for her unfailing charity.
She was also the author of "Mon pays: la renovation de l"Egypte, Mohammed Aly" which was published in 1933, and The Pharaoh Ne-Ouser-Ra and His Little Slave Girl. Princess Shivakiar used to live close to Prince Yousuof Kemal"s palace, in a spacious villa which he had lent to her.
Princess Shivakiar, also had a "gallery of ancestors" at her Cairo palace, where she housed busts of all the viceroys down to a huge statue of King Faruk, the last ruler of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. She died at the Kasr al-Aali Palace, Cairo on 17 February 1947 and was buried in Hosh al-Basha, Imam al-Shafi"i, Cairo, Egypt.
Princess Shivakiar"s son then proceed to make the palace more palatial, installing, among other things, a splendid, aubergine marble staircase.
The garden was transformed, along completely formal lines, very pleasantly and successively.