Oct 30, 2018

Cairo's luxurious Manial Palace, on Roda, an island in the Nile, represents the desire of a 19th-century prince to combine the best examples of Islamic architecture with European art nouveau. Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik, called Prince Tewfik, the uncle and regent of King Farouk, set out to create an eclectic palace embracing such different styles as Mamluk and Ottoman.

The walls and archways of Manial Palace were inspired by Persian, Syrian, Moroccan, Andalusian motifs and European rococo. The prince, an avid traveler and collector, adorned the rooms with furniture and objets d’art that included carpets from all over the Middle East, tiles from Kutahya, in western Turkey, and swords from Jerusalem. The construction of the main building and a “garden of a thousand delights” lasted 30 years, from 1899 to 1929.

With the 1952 revolution, Prince Tewfik, like many other members of the royal family, had to abandon his beloved home and spend the rest of his life in exile. He died in Lausanne, Switzerland, three years later.

The Manial Palace, along with the prince's various collections, was handed over to the state. Some of the palace furnishings and decorations were transferred to other museums, but most objects remained in storage, along with PrinceTewfik's personal collection, until the Friends of the Manial Palace Museum (FMPM), a non-governmental organization founded in 2005 and headed by Prince Abbas Hilmi, grand nephew of PrinceTewfik, decided to ensure that the public have access to the entire collection.

“The Manial Palace is not an ordinary museum,” Prince Abbas Hilmi told Al-Monitor. “It has a unique collection … that includes ancient carpets, medieval manuscripts, textiles as well as weapons, such as swords.”