Murad Bey Muhammad

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Murad Bey is said to have been blonde when she was younger
Murad Bey Muhammad.PNG

Murad Bey Muhammad (* 1750; † April 7, 1801 in Sohag ), also known as Murad Bey the Great ("al-Kabir"), was an emir of the Mamluks and, together with Ibrahim Bey, regent of Egypt .

Muhammadija

According to Georgian historians, Murad Bey's parents were farmers in Georgia and he himself was born in or near Tbilisi . According to other sources, he was of Circassian origin. Murad came to the Ottoman army through boy reading and in 1768 to Muhammad Bey Abu Dahab , the successor of the Mamluks Sultan Ali Bey in Egypt. After Ali's death, Murad married his rich widow Sitt Nafisa.

Murad was the commander of the cavalry and after Muhammad Bey's death initially rivaled Ibrahim Bey , and then was Muhammad Bey's successor together with him. Despite two necessary retreats to Upper Egypt (1777–1778 and 1786–1791), their Muhammadija faction prevailed against the Ottoman-supported Allawija faction of Ali Bey's confidante Ismail Bey . The Ottoman Sublime Porte finally had to recognize her as governor in 1792.

Duumvirate with Ibrahim Bey

Murad Bey received the post of Amir al-Hajj , the commander of the pilgrim caravans, and carried out the military armament of Egypt. Apart from a brief period (1784–1785) when Murad ousted Ibrahim from Cairo, they ruled together as the Duumvirate . Murad largely left the affairs of government to Ibrahim Bey, who, however, always coordinated with him. They divided the tariffs of the country among themselves: Murad received the Nile tariffs, Ibrahim those from the trade with the Hejaz . Mostly Murad Bey ruled over the western bank of the Nile, Ibrahim Bey over the eastern bank. Murad Bey created a cannon-armored Nile flotilla, for which he recruited Christian sailors (especially Greeks), built a huge artillery arsenal and set up a customs administration in Damiette . He had a palace built on the island of Rauḍa outside Cairo, another on the so-called Gold Island in the Nile and one in Tarsā. Finally he set up his residence in Giza , where he stayed away from the other Mamluk leaders. At the suggestion of Islamic scholars, however, he also had the mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (the old Friday mosque of Cairo) rebuilt.

Opponent and ally of the French

At the beginning of the Egyptian expedition , Murad initially offered the French under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte money if they would evacuate occupied Alexandria and leave Egypt. After his defeats in the battles at Chebreiss (Chobrakit, July 13, 1798) and at the Pyramids (July 21, 1798) Murad escaped to al-Fayyūm , but the French general Louis-Charles-Antoine Desaix followed him and defeated him again Sediman (Sedment el-Jebel in Bani Suwaif Governorate , October 7, 1798). Murad fled on to Girga in Upper Egypt and briefly developed asymmetrical warfare against the French. However, he did not come to the aid of the Kairins who rose against the French. When Desaix pursued Murad in Upper Egypt, he came to Dendera , Thebes , Edfu and Philae .

Unlike Ibrahim Bey, who fled to Syria via Gaza and allied himself with the Ottomans, Murad Bey made peace with General Jean-Baptiste Kléber in 1800 and submitted to the French, who recognized him as governor in Upper Egypt. On the way to Cairo , Murad died of the plague in 1801 .

Muradija

After Murad's death, his Mamluken, the Muradija faction, Uthman Bey (Osman Bey) al-Bardīsī (1758-1806) and Muhammad Bey al-Alfi (1751-1807), called Alfi Bey (Elfi Bey), followed.

literature

  • ʿAbdarraḥmān al-Ǧabartī, Arnold Hottinger (translator): Bonaparte in Egypt - From the chronicles of ʿAbdarraḥmān al-Ǧabartī , pages 58 and 332-340. Piper, Munich 1989
  • Robin Leonard Bidwell : Dictionary of Modern Arab History , 286–28. London / New York 1998
  • Arthur Goldschmidt jr .: Historical Dictionary of Egypt , page 280f. Lanham 2013

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alexander Mikaberidze: Murad Bey , in: Gregory Fremont-Barnes (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. A political, social, and military history. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2006, Volume 2, ISBN 1-85109-646-9 , p. 663.
  2. ^ Kadir I. Natho: Circassian history , page 256f. Xlibris 2009
  3. ↑ J. Christopher Herold: Bonaparte in Egypt , pages 70 and 252. New York 1962/2009


personal data
SURNAME Murad Bey Muhammad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Murad Bey; Murad Beg; Murad Bek; Murad Bei; Murad Bey al-Kabir; Murad Bek al-Kabir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bey of the Mamluks in Egypt
DATE OF BIRTH 1750
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1801
Place of death Sohag