Ruler
ʿAli Bey al-Kabir
Grandee who sought Egypt’s independence
1728 – 1773
Lifespan.
Biography
One of the Mamluk beys who dominated Egypt under the Ottomans. In the 1760s he expelled the Ottoman governor and sent armies to the Hijaz and Syria. His commander Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab turned against him, and he died in 1773.
Key facts
Certainty: Established
ʿAli Bey al-Kabir tried to rule Egypt independently of the Ottoman sultan, and his campaigns reached the Hijaz and Syria.
Scholarly note: Historians differ on whether he formally declared independence or simply ruled de facto.
- Jane Hathaway (2008) “The Arab Lands under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1800” Pearson Longman
- M. W. Daly (ed.) (1998) “The Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume 2: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century” Cambridge University Press