Ibrahim Bey (Mamluk)

For others called Ibrahim Bey, see Ibrahim Bey (disambiguation).

Ibrahim Bey (born Abram Shinjikashvili; 1735 – 1816/1817) was an Egyptian Mamluk chieftain and regent of Egypt.

Ibrahim Bey
Regent of Egypt
1804 portrait of Ibrahim Bey (Center)
Regent	Regent to Abu al-Dhahab
Born	1735 Martqopi, Kakheti, Georgia
Died	1816/1817
Names Abram Shinjikashvili
Religion	Islam

Ibrahim Bey's mansion on Al-Rudah Island, near Cairo

Biography

Ibrahim Bey was born as Abram Shinjikashvili (აბრამ შინჯიკაშვილი), of Georgian origin, into the family of an Orthodox Christian priest in Martqopi in the southeastern Georgian province of Kakheti.^[1][2][3] As a child, he was captured by Ottoman slave raiders and sold out in Egypt where he was converted to Islam and trained as a Mamluk. Through loyal service to Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab, the Mamluk ruler of Egypt, he rose in rank and attained to the dignity of bey.

With time he emerged as one of the most influential Mamluk commanders, sharing a de facto control of Egypt with his fellow Murad Bey. The two men became a duumvirate, Murad Bey managing military matters while Ibrahim Bey managed civil administration. They survived through the persistent Ottoman attempts at overthrowing the Mamluk regime and civil strifes.^[2] They served as kaymakams (acting governors) in Egypt on occasion, although they effectively held de facto power for decades, even over the appointed Ottoman governor of Egypt.^[4][5][6] From 1771 to 1773, Ibrahim Bey served as the amir al-hajj (commander of the hajj caravan) of Egypt.^[7]

In 1786, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid I sent Kapudan Pasha (grand admiral of the Ottoman Navy) Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha to drive out Ibrahim and Murad Bey.^[8][9] Hasan Pasha was fervent and thorough in his efforts and succeeded in the short term, reestablishing direct Ottoman Empire control over Egypt.^[8] Ismail Bey was appointed as new Mamluk leader and Shaykh al-Balad (civil governor and de facto ruler). However, in 1792, only six years after their expulsion by Hasan Pasha, the duumvirate returned to Cairo from hiding in southern Egypt and took back de facto control.^[10]

When the French invaded Egypt in 1798, Ibrahim fought against Napoleon's armies at the battles of the Pyramids, Salahieh (11 August 1798), and Heliopolis but was defeated on each occasion. Though the French eventually withdrew from Egypt in defeat, the battle defeats of the Pyramids and Heliopolis effectively ended his reign over the country, and he died in obscurity in 1816 or 1817, having survived Mohammad Ali Pasha's 1811 massacre of Mamluk leaders.^[2]

See also

• Murad Bey, Ibrahim's career-long partner in ruling Egypt
• Saqaliba

References

1. Crecelius, Daniel; Djaparidze, Gotcha (2018). "Ibrāhīm Bey". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. ISSN 1873-9830. Ibrāhīm Bey (c.1148–1228/1735–1813), who experienced an unusually long career in Mamlūk politics in Ottoman Egypt, played a central role in virtually all the major events that engulfed that province during the last three decades of the eighteenth century. Born Abram Shinjikashvili, the son of a Georgian Orthodox priest in the village of Martkofi, Georgia, he was purchased by Muḥammad Bey Abū l-Dhahab (d. 1189/1775) around 1178/1765. Along with Murād Bey, another Georgian mamlūk purchased about the same time (...)
2. Mikaberidze, Alexander, "Ibrahim Bey", in: Gregory Fremont-Barnes (ed., 2006), The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Vol. 2, p. 471-2. ABC-CLIO, Inc.
3. Crecelius, Daniel; Djaparidze, Gotcha (2002). "Relations of the Georgian Mamluks of Egypt with Their Homeland in the Last Decades of the Eighteenth Century". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 45 (3): 320–341. doi:10.1163/156852002320896328. JSTOR 3632851.
4. 'Abd al-Rahman Jabarti; Thomas Philipp; Moshe Perlmann (1994). Abd Al-Rahmann Al-Jabarti's History of Egypt. Vol. 2. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart. p. 93.
5. 'Abd al-Rahman Jabarti; Thomas Philipp; Moshe Perlmann (1994). Abd Al-Rahmann Al-Jabarti's History of Egypt. Vol. 2. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart. p. 138.
6. 'Abd al-Rahman Jabarti; Thomas Philipp; Moshe Perlmann (1994). Abd Al-Rahmann Al-Jabarti's History of Egypt. Vol. 2. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart. p. 156.
7. Creighton, Ness. Dictionary of African Biography. p. 133.
8. 'Abd al-Rahman Jabarti; Thomas Philipp; Moshe Perlmann (1994). Abd Al-Rahmann Al-Jabarti's History of Egypt. Vol. 2. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart. p. 181.
9. Mehmet Süreyya (1996) [1890], Nuri Akbayar; Seyit A. Kahraman (eds.), Sicill-i Osmanî (in Turkish), Beşiktaş, Istanbul: Türkiye Kültür Bakanlığı and Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, ISBN 9789753330411
10. 'Abd al-Rahman Jabarti; Thomas Philipp; Moshe Perlmann (1994). Abd Al-Rahmann Al-Jabarti's History of Egypt. Vol. 2. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart. pp. 317–322, 373.