My Grandparents
This is a picture of my maternal grandparents Aquila (my grandmother) & Zaki Khaled (my grandfather)
Picture approx 75 years old. Grand dad wears the "Tarboosh", which was the only way a gentleman could be seen in Egypt up to 1952. All school children had to wear it as well. The Tarboosh is the same as the Moroccan Fizz
My grandfather graduated in 1917 from the school of Medicine in Cairo, then left to the UK, where he studied tropical Medicine & Microbiology. He was the first Egyptian doctor to own an independent medical lab in Cairo. He was prominent doctor in the pre 1952 era and had strong ties with all political parties, but refused to join as a minster of health in the late 1940s. He told me that he could not take sides (the political scene was unpredictable, with many governments coming and going, a bit like what happened in Italy in 1970s). He loved travel & travelled widely in central & Western Europe (He particularly loved Austria, a passion I seem to have inherited). He was also a staunch anti-communist and that may have been the reason he was invited to the US as a guest of the state department in 1952 (He was also a freind of the American Ambassador in Cairo at the time). He was due to fly to the states on the 26th July 1952 (3 days after the 1952 revolution in Egypt, which toppled the monarchy). He postponed his visit till October, so as not to be taken as anti the new regime. That visit left a big impression on him wrote a book about it (America under the microscope). He also wrote several general interest books in Medicine (one was; danger signs in health & disease) and translated one anti-communist book.
My grandmother came from aristocratic background. She was a descendent of several Pashas and was ultimately of Albanian descent. Her Great Grandfather (Mohamed Thaquib Pasha) was said to have been the deputy of Mohamed Ali Pasha (also an Albanian) who ruled Egypt and essentially laid the foundation of Modern Egypt. She had Family ties to Khedive Abass Helmi the 2nd.
Another picture of my grand parents and my aunts (Mother was away in England, doing her PhD). Seated from left to right: Aunt Naguiba (Baby), grand mom, grandad - amazing what age does to people -, aunt Nadia & late aunt Nafisa (Kotkot). Standing at the back left to right: uncle Ahmed Sabry, uncle Abed Abed, late uncle Hosni Khaled and uncle Gamal Hatata
