Prologue

Summary

On 3 July 2013 the Egyptian Armed Forces ousted Dr Mohammed Morsi from power. The sixty-two-year-old chemical engineer had risen from humble provincial origins to win the presidency of the Arab world’s mightiest nation only one year before. But within twelve short and turbulent months, the opposition against him had escalated in dramatic ways. On 1 July, as Morsi’s supporters and opponents gathered across Cairo in a number of spectacular sit-ins, demonstrations, protest marches and rallies, the Minister of Defence and the Commander of the Armed Forces, ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, issued an ultimatum, ordering Morsi to leave office within forty-eight hours. When the latter refused, the army seized power in a well-orchestrated coup d’état.