INDENTThis very rare set is of great historical significance. Abbas II Hilmi was invested with the Order of the Red Eagle by Kaiser Wilhelm II personally during a state visit to Istanbul in 1914. In December that year the Khedive was forced into exile by the British for his sustained anti-British stance. It was clear that Egypt under Abbas would have been a firm ally of Germany during the Great War, and this more than anything else, must have prompted the British to move against him. The preparations for this were made, ironically enough, while Abbas was away in Istanbul.

Historians now agree that the alliance with Germany was the most important single cause of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. After the Great War, Egypt emerged as the strongest monarchy in the Middle East. Abbas II, in exile in Constantinople, Switzerland and Vienna, remained the focus of intrigue against the post-war Egyptian monarchy, and during the Second World War was Germany's candidate for the Egyptian throne.