Ibrahim Bey al-Kabir

Ibrahim Bey al-Kabir al-Muhammadi, that is, the mamluk of Muhammad Bey Abu'l-Dhahab, was one of the two Mamluk amirs who shared power in Egypt in the decades before the French invasion of 1798. ¹ The Encyclopaedia of Islam has an article under his name, written by P.M. Holt. The scanned page of it breaks off in the middle of the article, so what follows covers his career up to 1798 and says nothing of his later years or death.

He was raised to the beylicate in 1182/1768-9, held the posts of amir al-hajj in 1186/1772-3 and daftardar in 1187/1773-4, and when Abu'l-Dhahab marched out on his last campaign in Muharram 1189/March 1775, he left Ibrahim as his deputy in command of Cairo. ¹ After Abu'l-Dhahab died, power passed to his retainers, the Muhammadiyya, headed by Ibrahim and Murad Bey, and Ibrahim became shaykh al-balad. ^{1 2}

The article contrasts the men: Murad was headstrong, bold and ruthless, while Ibrahim was conciliatory but less decisive. ¹ Murad's plot to assassinate Ismail Bey, a client of Ali Bey who had stayed out of the competition for power, started a faction fight in Cairo, and the two fled to Upper Egypt while Ismail became shaykh al-balad in July 1777. ¹ They re-entered Cairo and Ibrahim again became shaykh al-balad in February 1778, but were expelled once more later that year. ¹ In September 1784 the rivalry between the two led to open hostilities and Ibrahim was evicted from Cairo before they were reconciled and he was restored in February 1785. ¹

The article says security and agriculture had declined and that the pilgrimage caravan failed to visit Medina in two successive years. The Ottoman government then sent a force under Jazairli Ghazi Hasan Pasha demanding arrears of tribute. ¹ The two amirs decided to resist on 18 July 1786, Murad's forces were defeated, and Ibrahim left Cairo on 4 August; both took refuge in the south. ¹ Ismail Bey's death in the plague epidemic of 1791 tipped the balance, and Ibrahim and Murad returned to Cairo in July 1791. ¹ The Kazdughliyya article calls the arrangement that followed an uneasy duumvirate. ³ The article on Umar Makram adds that Umar Makram mediated the return of the banished amirs in 1791 and kept a long friendship with them. ⁴

The restored rule lasted seven years, until the French invasion under Bonaparte in July 1798. ¹ The defeat of Murad at Shubrakhit and Imbaba, followed by Ibrahim's flight to Syria on 21 July 1798, ended the duumvirate, and Ibrahim, the article says, never regained his ascendancy in Egypt and was one of several competitors for power after the French left. ¹ The museum's account of the battle, drawn from al-Jabarti, is the battle of the Pyramids; it records Ibrahim as the commander of the eastern bank. ⁵

His birth and death are not in the part of the article that could be read. The Wikidata description gives the years 1735 and 1817, which are not repeated as dates in this record.