Ali Bey Al-Kabir
Ali Bey Al-Kabir (
1728 -
May 8,
1773) was a
Mamluk Sultan of
Egypt in
1760-
1772. He born in
1728, in
Abkhazia (Western Georgia). His father was a
Georgian monk. In
1741 he was kidnaped by
Turk kidnapers. In
1743 he was purchased in
Cairo and gradually rose in influence, winning the top office of
sheikh al-balad (chief of the country) in
1760. In
1768 Ali Bey deposed the
Ottoman governor and assumed the post of acting governor. He stopped the annual tribute to
Istanbul and in an unprecedented usurpation of the Ottoman
Sultan's privileges had his name struck on local coins in
1769 (alongside the sultan's emblem). In
1770 he gained control of the
Hijaz and a year later temporarily occupied
Syria, thereby reconstituting the Mamluk state that had disappeared in 1517. But Ali Bey lost power in
1772. He was killed in
1773, in Cairo.