Sulayman Hafez was an Egyptian lawyer and politician. Hafez drafted the abdication letter of

King Farouk Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1 ...

and negotiated his stepping down following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.Kandil, p. 27. In early 1953, following the revolution, Hafez was selected by the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) to serve as both Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister in the government of Prime Minister

Muhammad Naguib Mohamed Bey Naguib Youssef Qutb El-Qashlan ( ar, الرئيس اللواء محمد بك نجيب يوسف قطب القشلان, ; 19 February 1901 – 28 August 1984), also known as Mohamed Naguib, was an Egyptian revolutionary, and, along ...

, the senior officer who took part in the overthrow of King Farouk. He handpicked all but two of the ministers in the cabinet and his relatively young appointees consisted of technocrats, members of the youth wing of the Nationalist Party of Fathi Radwan and two associates of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hafez became one of the chief antagonist against the

Wafd Party The Wafd Party (; ar, حزب الوفد, ''Ḥizb al-Wafd'') was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period from the end of World War I through the 1930 ...

in Egypt following the revolution. He sought to have

Mustafa el-Nahhas Mostafa el-Nahhas Pasha or Mostafa Nahas ( ar, مصطفى النحاس باشا; June 15, 1879 – August 23, 1965) was an Egyptian politician who served as the Prime Minister for five terms. Early life, education and exile He was born in ...

ousted as the party's president, penning a letter on behalf of the revolutionary officers that described el-Nahhas as a "tumour in the body politic." At the time, there were sharp internal divisions within the party, with the young guard seeking to show more flexibility towards the officers and viewing the old guard, represented by el-Nahhas, as being out of touch. El-Nahhas had refused to negotiate the party's renewal of license with President Naguib as long as party veteran

Fouad Serageddin Fouad Pasha Serageddin (2 November 1911 – 9 August 2000), was a leader of Egypt's Wafd Party. When President Hosni Mubarak allowed the Wafd to emerge from a prolonged period of dormancy in 1984, Serageddin proved a skilful political operator ...

remained imprisoned. However, he eventually relented after significant defections from the party and submitted the application to Hafez's interior ministry.Gordon, p. 73. Hafez, a major legal figure prior the revolution, was among the law-based civilian allies of Naguib, which also included

Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri Abd el-Razzak el-Sanhuri or ‘Abd al-Razzāq al-Sanhūrī ( ar, عبد الرزاق السنهوري) (11 August 1895 – 21 July 1971) was an Egyptian jurist, law professor, judge and politician. He is best remembered as the primary author of ...

. Naguib's appointment of Hafez to the interior ministry, which was responsible for domestic security among other tasks, was seen by later historians as weakening his hand. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the officer who led the revolution, managed to take advantage of the appointment by easily managing to appoint himself to both of Hafez's positions in June 1953, amid the growing rivalry between Nasser and Naguib. Hafez then became the official legal adviser Naguib.Kandil, p. 39. While Naguib drew on constitutional lawyers and the leaders of pre-revolutionary political parties, Nasser surrounded himself with his fellow officers. Hafez resigned from his advisory position on 27 March 1954 as tensions between Nasser and Naguib escalated.

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Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hafez, Sulayman 20th-century Egyptian lawyers Interior Ministers of Egypt