English: Photograph taken aboard HMS
Medina at Port Said in December 1911. It was taken during a stopover of the ship bringing King George V and Queen Mary to India for the Delhi Durbar in the course of which George V will be formally proclaimed Emperor of India.
Sitting next to Queen Mary is Kâmil Pasha, four-time grand vizier of Turkey. A well-known anglophile and an advocate of a British-style constitutional monarchy for the Ottoman Empire, the 78-year-old Kâmil Pasha, who spoke English, represented Sultan Mehmed V and the Young Turk government.
Standing, from left to right: Sir Reginald Wingate, Sirdar (commander-in-chief) of the Egyptian army and Governor-General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik, younger brother of Khedive Abbas II; the Duke of Teck (a relative of Queen Mary); Prince Mehmed Ziyaeddin, eldest son of Sultan Mehmed V; Abbas II, Khedive of Egypt; King George V. Not shown on the picture, standing to the left of King George, was Lord Kitchener, since June 1911 British Agent and Consul-general in Egypt.
This photograph illustrates the complex multi-layered political setup under which the Egyptians lived in 1911. The hereditary Khedive was the effective ruler of Egypt, recognized as such by the international community, but he was still the vassal of the Ottoman sultan, his nominal suzerain, and had to pay a hefty annual tribute to him. As for the British, since 1882 they were in permanent occupation of Egypt, exercising an ill-defined semi-protectorate over the country.