Ali Bey Al-Kabir
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Ali Bey Al-Kabir (Arabic علي بك الكبير, lived 1728 – May 8, 1773) was a politician and general, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in 1760-1772. He was born in 1728, in Western Georgia (Abkhazia). His father was a Georgian monk. In 1741 he was kidnapped by Turkish soldiers.
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), effectively declaring Egypt's independence from Ottoman rule. 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. However, in June 1771, the commander of his troops in Syria, Abu al-Dhahab, refused to continue to fight against the Ottomans, and turned against Ali Bey. As a result, Ali Bey lost power in 1772.
Ali Bey was killed in 1773, in Cairo.
