Farewell, Fatima

Michael Collins Dunn:

Queen Fatima of Libya, widow of King Idris, died in Cairo on Saturday at the age of 98. Like the recently deceased last Ottoman born under the Empire, she had lived quietly for years, in her case in Cairo, after the death of deposed King Idris in 1983. She lived long enough to have been aware of Qadhafi’s celebration of 40 years since the overthrow of the monarchy.

Cairo, eh? Most dictators go to Paris to die, but Cairo seems to be the number one cemetary for deposed Middle Eastern royals — didn’t the Shah end up there as well? Must be the pyramids that attract them, or the apparent immortality of Mubarak.