Ibrahim Bey

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

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. 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. From 1771 to 1773, Ibrahim Bey served as the amir al-hajj (commander of the hajj caravan) of Egypt.

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 in the Egypt Campaign (1786-1787). Hasan Pasha was fervent and thorough in his efforts and succeeded in the short term, reestablishing direct Ottoman Empire control over Egypt.

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. , also stating that he "obtained with the place of Schaich-el-Belled the widow of Aly [Ali Bey al-Kabir]" after Abu al-Dahab's death. The end of Vol.1 and beginning of Vol. 2 of the novel takes place amid civil war in Egypt as Murad-Bey and Ibrahim-Bey vie for power with rival Mamluk leaders in the aftermath of the death of Ali Bey al-Kabir.