Black Hand (Egypt)

The Black Hand Association/Society (Egyptian Arabic: جمعية اليد السوداء, romanized: Jam'ia al-Yad al-Sawda') was one of the irregular armed organizations that arose in Egypt in order to resist the British occupation. It was founded out of the secret apparatus of the 1919 Egyptian Revolution and led by Abdel Rahman Fahmy. It was known as the Assassination Group (جماعة الإغتيالات). One of the first missions of that group was to kill Prime Minister Mahammad Sa'id Pasha, who was a danger to them at that time.

The period of the 1919 revolution witnessed a state of national movement in Egypt, where the “Black Hand” and “Blue Shirts” movements, which were affiliated with the Wafd Party, and the “Green Shirts” group, which were affiliated with Young Egypt, were founded. The secret group began with the 1919 revolution and took its name from the Black Hand organization, which was launched in Serbia during World War I, was formed and a major committee was formed that included members, the most important of whom were Ahmad Bey Maher and Abdel Latif al-Soufani, whose mission was to identify the figures to be assassinated.

The assassination of Sir Lee Stack was the biggest blow to the group after it was proven that a number of members of the association were involved in the incident. It caused problems for the Wafd government headed by Saad Zaghloul, which was the first national government, and the incident caused its resignation. The Egyptian police then made a number of arrests and many of its members fled. While many of them remained in secret and the organization was not revealed until many years later.