Ibrahim
Ibrahim is of great importance to Judaism because he is the forefather of the Jews, through the line of his son, Isaac. Ibrahim is important to Muslims because, from the Muslim perspective, (1) Ibrahim is a prophet of the same message from God as Muhammad; (2) Ibrahim was responsible for erecting the Ka‘ba, the most holy place in earthly Islam; and (3) Ibrahim was the father of Isma‘il, the individual who is deemed to be the progeniture of the Arabs.
For Christians, the importance of the Jewish genealogy is less important than in Judaism, even though there are two unsuccessful attempts to construct kinship between Jesus and Ibrahim in the gospels. {See Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38 where it actually is the stepfather of Jesus, Joseph, who is in familial line of Ibrahim, and not Mary, Jesus' only human parent.}
In Judaism, Abraham (his name was at first Abram) is the first of the Hebrew patriarchs. A central theme in Judaism is Abraham’s exodus from Ur in Mesopotamia to Canaan. In Canaan, Abram and his tribe settle, and from this stems the Jewish claim to all of the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates (covering today’s Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and eastern Egypt) being the promised land. {See Genesis 15:18.}
The second story about Abram, is when he has to take refuge in Egypt because of drought in Canaan. In this story, Abram gives away his wife Sarai to Pharaoh saying she is his sister. But when Pharaoh finds out that Abram has lied, Abram has to return to Canaan. Next we learn that Abram and his nephew Lot divide the land of Canaan between them, Lot in the east and Abram in the west.
Abram is worried that he has no children, so his wife Sarai gives him her maidservant Hajar (Hagar). Hajar becomes pregnant, and gives birth to Isma‘il (Ishmael or Ishmail) when Abram is 86 years old. God promises Hajar that his descendants will reach uncountable numbers.
When Abram was 99 years old, God gave him a new name, Abraham, and told him also to change the name of his wife to Sarah. According to Jewish tradition, the reason given for the name change was God's promise to make Abram the father of a large people, through a son which would be named Isaac (Ishaq). Kings would come from his kin, and there would be a pact between God and Abraham’s people. The symbol of that pact would be circumcision of all boys at the age of 8 days. Abraham then had himself and all of his fellow men circumcised.
However, between the time of the promise, and the birth of Isaac, Abraham for a second time is deceptive and says that Sarah is his sister. King Abimelek sends his men to bring the 89 year old Sarah to him to become his wife, but is warned by God in a dream, saying what Abraham had not said, that Sarah was the wife of someone else.
As promised, Isaac is born to 90 year old Sarah and 100 year old Abraham.
Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son to God. No reason for this demand was given, but Abraham went ahead, without telling his son anything else than that they were going to perform a sacrifice. At the point where Abraham was about to kill his son, God intervened, and gave Abraham a lamb instead, while stating that he now knew that Abraham feared Him. Abraham then moved to Beer Sheba.
At some point, Sarah makes Abraham send Hajar and Isma‘il away. In the desert, near Beer Sheba the two cannot find water, but are saved by God, who creates a water source for them. (This story also appears in Islam, except for the geography. According to Islamic tradition, this event occurred in Mecca.)
Sarah died at the age of 127, and Abraham bought the Machpelah cave in Hebron from the local Hittites.
Abraham sent out his servant to bring home a wife from a foreign people to his son Isaac. He found Rebecca in Mesopotamia. Later, Abraham remarried. He married Keturah, with whom he had six sons, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Abraham died at the age of 175 from natural causes, and was buried in the Machpelah cave with Sarah.
With this ends the story of Abraham, and the story of the Jews begins.
In Islam, the Qur‘an clearly states that Ibrahim was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but rather a “God-seeker” (Sura 3:60). He has the status of being one of the earlier messengers of God, together with Adam, Moses, Jesus and others. According to Muslim theology, the message of Ibrahim was the very same as Muhammad‘s, but it was corrupted by the Jews.
Central in the Qur‘an is the conflict between Ibrahim and his father, Azar. Azar was an idolater, and Ibrahim turned away from him, when he could not make his father follow the message of God (Sura 19:42-49).
Ibrahim’s mission has many parallels to Muhammad‘s, and throughout the Qur‘an, the reader reads about the scepticism and hostility that Ibrahim faced when bringing the message of a new rite of one God only to his contemporaries.
In the Qur'an, relatively little is told about Ibrahim’s journeys. However, it is noted that Abraham settled by God’s command in the place of what would become the Ka‘ba (Sura 22:27). Most of the stories about Ibrahim in the Islamic tradition (hadith) come from other sources than the Qur‘an, and there are many parallels to the life of Moses. Around the time of the birth of Ibrahim, king Namrud had a dream about a threat to his kingdom. He introduced laws to have all pregnant women watched and their newborn sons killed. But when the mother of Ibrahim was examined, the child in her stomach hid from the slayers hands, so he was spared.
As a grown man, Ibrahim and his men defeat Namrud (Nimrod), after which they set out for Palestine. Other important parts from these stories tell that Ibrahim circumcised himself at the age of 120, and that he died at the age of 175. On the day of resurrection, Ibrahim will sit on the left side of God, and lead the pious into Paradise.
In the Christianity, the Judaic stories concerning Abraham are maintained but with a different emphasis. In Christianity, Abraham plays a different role than with the Jews. For Christians, Abraham belongs to the old religion, both before Moses got the covenant, and Judaism was transformed into Christianity by Jesus.
Although Abraham gives a certain legitimacy to the traditions of Christianity, there are no Christian celebrations of any sort in his remembrance. Theologically, there are many details regarding the story of Abraham that are frowned upon in Christianity. Stories concerning Abraham’s being married to his half-sister Sarah; Lot having children with his own daughters; and Abraham’s deceptions concerning his marriage to Sarah, all appear to be foreign to the theology of Christianity. However, Abraham's total obedience to the one God is an element that lives on as the purest virtue in Christianity.
Abraham see Ibrahim.
Abram see Ibrahim.
Forefather of the Jews see Ibrahim.
Forefather of the Muslims see Ibrahim.
Forefather of the Christians see Ibrahim.
Ibrahim (Ibrahim I) (Ibrahim the Mad) (Deli Ibrahim) (November 5, 1615 - August 12/18, 1648). Ottoman sultan (r.1640-1648).
Ibrahim I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1640 until 1648. He was born in Istanbul the son of Ahmed I by Valide Sultan Kadinefendi Kösem Sultan, an ethnic Greek originally named Anastasia. He was unofficially called Ibrahim the Mad (Turkish: Deli İbrahim) due to his mental condition.
One of the most famous Ottoman Sultans, he was released from the Kafes and succeeded his brother Murad IV (1623–40) in 1640, though against the wishes of Murad IV, who had ordered him killed upon his own death. Murad IV had himself succeeded their older brother Osman II in 1622, and had ordered his three other brothers executed. Ibrahim I was allowed to live because he was too mad to be a threat. Ibrahim brought the empire almost to collapse in a very short space of time — paralleled only perhaps, by the rule of Phocas (602–610) in the Byzantine Empire. Probably mentally unstable, he is claimed to have suffered from neurasthenia, and was also depressed after the death of his brother. His reign was essentially that of his Greek mother, Kösem Sultan, who was no longer hindered in controlling the empire as she willed.
Ibrahim is known to have had an obsession with obese women, urging his agents to find the fattest woman possible. A candidate was tracked down in Georgia or Armenia who weighed over 330 pounds and was given the pet name Sheker Pare (literally, "piece of sugar"). Ibrahim was so pleased with her that he gave her a government pension and the title of Governor General of Damascus. When he heard a rumor his concubines were compromised by another man, he had 280 members of his harem drowned in the Bosporus Sea. He was seen feeding coins to fish living in the palace's pool. These feats earned him the nickname "mad".
Ibrahim at first stayed away from politics, but eventually he took to raising and executing a number of viziers. A war with Venice was fought, and in spite of the decline of La Serenissima, Venetian ships won victories throughout the Aegean, capturing Tenedos (1646), the gateway to the Dardanelles. Ibrahim's rule grew ever more unpredictable. Eventually, he was deposed in a coup led by the Grand Mufti. There is an apocryphal story to the effect that the Grand Mufti acted in response to Ibrahim's decision to drown all 280 members of his harem, but there is other evidence to suggest that at least two of Ibrahim's concubines survived him (particularly Turhan Hatice, who was responsible for the death three years later of Kösem, then serving as regent for Ibrahim's son by Hatice, Mehmed IV. Chances are this story was circulated after the coup to silence those who for whatever reason preferred a mad sultan. Ibrahim was strangled in Istanbul.
Ibrahim was married to Valide Sultan Turhan Hatice, a Ukrainian (the mother of Mehmed IV), to Valide Sultan Saliha Dilaşub (the mother of Suleiman II), and to Valide Sultan Khadija Muazzez (the mother of Ahmed II).
Until about 1644, Ibrahim concerned himself with his empire, establishing peaceful relations with Persia and Austria. Afterwards, however, he came increasingly under the influence of concubines and court favorites. In 1645, he embarked on a war with Venice, which was to last for 24 years.
Ibrahim was born on November 4, 1615, in Istanbul. In 1640, he became sultan. In 1642, peace treaties were signed with Austria and Persia. The Sea of Azov (north of the Black Sea) was taken back from the Cossacks.
In 1644, Ibrahim had his grand vizier, Kemankes Kara Mustafa, executed. Later that year, an expedition was dispatched towards Crete.
In 1645, provoked by the Ottoman aggression towards Crete, Venice entered into war against the Ottomans. This war would last for twenty-four years.
On August 8, 1648, Ibrahim was deposed by an uprising of the Janissaries and the ulama.
Ibrahim was a relatively weak leader. He was interested in governing the empire and extending and securing its borders, but he had an unstable character and he led a life of excess. He was also strongly influenced by the women of his harem and his viziers.
In order to pay for his luxurious life style, Ibrahim imposed heavy taxes, which led to discontent among both the average person and the elite in the society. This was the main reason why an unusual union between the Janissaries and the ulama had Ibrahim removed from power, and executed.
Ibrahim I see Ibrahim
Ibrahim the Mad see Ibrahim
Deli Ibrahim see Ibrahim
Ibrahim (Ibrahim Pasha) (1789, Kavalla, Rumelia [now Kaval, Greece] – November 10, 1848, Cairo, Egypt). Conqueror and governor of Syria (1832-1840). Ibrahim was the son of Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt.
Ibrahim Pasha was a 19th century general of Egypt. He is better known as the son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt. Ibrahim served as Regent for his father from July to November 10, 1848.
A son, or adopted son, of the famous vali Muḥammad ʿAlī, in 1805 Ibrahim joined his father in Egypt, where he was made governor of Cairo. During 1816–18, he successfully commanded an army against the Wahhabite rebels in Arabia. Muḥammad ʿAlī sent him on a mission to the Sudan in 1821–22, and on his return he helped train the new Egyptian army along European lines. When the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II asked for Egyptian assistance to crush the Greek revolt, an expedition commanded by Ibrahim landed in Greece in 1824 and subdued the Morea (Peloponnese), but a combined British, French, and Russian squadron eventually compelled the Egyptian force to withdraw.
It was in Syria that Ibrahim and his French chief of staff, O.J.A. Sève (Suleiman Pasha al-Faransawi), won military fame. In 1831–32, after a disagreement between Muḥammad ʿAlī and the Ottoman sultan, Ibrahim led an Egyptian army through Palestine and defeated an Ottoman army at Homs. He then forced the Bailan Pass and crossed the Taurus, gaining a final victory at Konya on December 21, 1832. By the Convention of Kütahya, signed on May 4, 1833, Syria and Adana were ceded to Egypt, and Ibrahim became governor-general of the two provinces.
Ibrahim’s administration was relatively enlightened. At Damascus, he created a consultative council of notables and suppressed the feudal regime. But his measures were harshly applied and roused sectarian opposition. Sultan Mahmud resented the Egyptian occupation, and in 1839 an Ottoman army invaded Syria. At Nizip on June 24 Ibrahim won his last and greatest victory; the Ottoman fleet deserted to Egypt. Fearing the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the European powers negotiated the Treaty of London in July 1840, by which Muḥammad ʿAlī forfeited Syria and Adana in return for the hereditary rule of Egypt. British naval forces threatened the Egyptians, who evacuated the occupied territories in the winter of 1840–41. By 1848 Muḥammad ʿAlī had become senile, and Ibrahim was appointed viceroy but ruled for only 40 days before his death on November 10, 1848.
Ibrahim Pasha see Ibrahim
Ibrahim (d. 1846). Titular ruler of the Kanuri state of Bornu (r.1820-1846). He and his son were the last kings of the ancient Sefawa dynasty. Ibrahim’s older brother, Dunama, had allied with al-Kanemi to protect Bornu against the invading Fula armies of ‘Uthman dan Fodio. However, al-Kanemi gradually usurped power and Dunama was killed trying to eliminate him. Ibrahim immediately tried to reassert Sefawa authority, but failed. Nine years later, Ibrahim persuaded the sultan of neighboring Wadai to invade Bornu when the Bornu army was away from Kakawa, the capital (in 1846). The invasion forced ‘Umar to flee, but he had uncovered the plot and killed Ibrahim first. The sultan of Wadai installed Ibrahim’s son, ‘Ali Minargema, as the new ruler, but fled when ‘Umar’s armies advanced to recapture the capital. ‘Ali’s supporters were quickly defeated, while Ibrahim himself was killed and his family dispersed ending the thousand year history of the Sefawa dynasty.
Ibrahim IV was a titled Mai of the Kanuri state of Bornu from 1820-1846. He was one of the last rulers from the Sefawa ruling dynasty. Ibrahim's father, and previous ruler of Bornu, had called on El-Kanemi, an Islamic Scholar and Warrior, to help him fight against the Fulani's and their leader Goni Mukhtar. The two were able to push back the Fulani from much of Bornu. In the process, El-Kanemi grew powerful and was a threat to the Sefawa ruling house which had produced Ibrahim and his father, Dunama. Dunama was later killed in a failed putsch to murder El-Kanemi. His son, Ibrahim succeeded him. When El Kanemi died in 1837, he was succeeded by his son, Umar. The two figures became enmeshed in a battle of supremacy and they renewed hostilities between the Kanemis and the Sefawas. Ibrahim hatched a plan to kill Umar by inviting an external army from Wadai under the command of the Sultan of Wadai. However, Umar knew about the plan and had Ibrahim killed before fleeing Bornu, further continuing the assault on the Sefawa ruling dynasty.
Ibrahim IV see Ibrahim
Ibrahim
Ibrahim (Ibrahim Iskandar Al-Masyhur ibni Abu Bakar) (September 17, 1873 - May 8, 1959). Sultan of Johor. He became sultan in 1895 on the death of his father, Sultan Abu Bakar. He ruled the state through the turbulent period in which it passed from nominal independence to British colonial rule to Japanese rule (from 1942 to 1945) and finally to independence within the Federation of Malaya. Educated in England, Ibrahim traveled widely after becoming a sultan, making frequent visits to Europe and Britain.
Although a general adviser from Britain was accepted in 1910 and Johor became an “unfederated” state, the Malay administrators of Johor continued to exercise significant control over the state’s day-to-day affairs. Ibrahim’s administration oversaw the beginnings of modernization in Johor, including the opening of a railroad linking the west to Singapore and to the Malay states to the north and the expansion of rubber planting. In the postwar period, he played an important role in opposing the Malayan Union plan.
Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar Al-Masyhur ibni Abu Bakar was the 22nd Sultan of Johor, in Malaysia. He was known as one of the richest men in the world during his reign.
An Anglophile, Sultan Ibrahim continued the policy of friendly relations with the crown of the United Kingdom, often manipulating his friendship with the reigning kings of Britain to thwart the expansionist ambitions of the British Colonial Office.
He became highly unpopular later due to him being known as an Anglophile and opposed to Malayan independence. This led him to spend most of his time away from his state, travelling to Europe, particularly Britain.
Wan Ibrahim was born September 17, 1873 in Istana Bidadari, Singapore, and received his education at a boarding school in England during his formative years. He was appointed a Second Lieutenant of the Johor Military Forces during his teenage years and was formally installed as the first Tunku Mahkota of Johor on May 23, 1891 and was brought to Europe by his father where he was being introduced to the European royal families. During his term as the Tunku Mahkota, Tunku Ibrahim occasionally acted as the state's regent and was delegated a few state duties whenever the Sultan was travelling overseas. In his free time, Tunku Ibrahim spent most of his time in hunting and horseracing.
Tunku Ibrahim acted as one of the three signatories when Sultan Abu Bakar promogated the Johor state constitution in April 1895. The following month, Tunku Ibrahim accompanied Abu Bakar to London. Abu Bakar had the intent of seeking further negotiations with the Colonial Office on state affairs. Abu Bakar was by then a very sick man when he reached England, and Tunku Ibrahim spent much of his time by his father's bedside before Abu Bakar died the following month.
Tunku Ibrahim was proclaimed as the Sultan of Johor on the day of Abu Bakar's burial on September 7, 1895, while his one-year old son, Tunku Ismail was proclaimed as his heir-apparent. A formal coronation ceremony took place on November 2, 1895. He took over the state government the following year, and one of his first reports was the financial difficulties which the state was facing. Many of his employees complained of delays in receiving their salaries; which was often paid in installments. Sultan Ibrahim then took charge of closely supervising the state treasury, and personally witnessed the payment of the state's employees during payment day. In the same year, he also took on the task of appointing the committee members of the Johor Gambier and Pepper Society (also known as Kongkek in Malay). Sultan Ibrahim was inexperienced in public administration skills and heavily relied on his private secretary, Abdul Rahman bin Andak on advice and assistance in running the affairs of the state.
The Resident General of the Federated Malay States, Frank Swettenham proposed to Sultan Ibrahim in November 1899 for the construction of a railway line into Johor, in conjunction with his plan for the North-South Main Trunk Railway line in the Malay Peninsula. Sultan Ibrahim welcomed Swettenham but was weary of political British influence in Johor and insisted on financing the construction of the railway line himself. Swettenham was comfortable with Sultan Ibrahim's prospect of financing the railway line using the state's revenues, and submitted his proposals to the Colonial Office in England. The proposals drew skepticism from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, who was aware of Johor's financial difficulties and withheld decision. Sultan Ibrahim then sent his Abdul Rahman the following May to London to negotiate with the Colonial Office, and in April 1901, Sultan Ibrahim made a year-long trip to London to seek private English financiers to fund the construction of the railway line and negotiated with the Colonial Office for a railway loan. The Sultan did, however, manage to obtain a loan for the construction of the railway and the Johor Railway Convention was signed in July 1904 by his adviser, Abdul Rahman, that gave provisions for an extension of the Malayan railway line to be extended into Johor.
Sultan Ibrahim returned to Johor the following year, and expanded the state's military forces. He instituted the Johor Volunteer Forces (JVF), which consisted of young Malay boys and served as the state's reservist soldiers. In 1906, he granted land concessions to English capitalists and financiers for development purposes. This drew the concern of the Straits Governor, Sir John Anderson, who was not very favorable with Sultan Ibrahim's intents to detach Johor's economic dependence from Singapore. He successfully pressured Sultan Ibrahim to dispense with the services of Abdul Rahman as well as ceding the administrative powers of the railway line to the colonial government the following year after reports of the state's troubled finances were revealed.
Sultan Ibrahim was also facing political challenges from the British colonial government, who were ostensibly unhappy his negligence in his state affairs and were seeking to extend greater political influence into the state. The Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements, Victor Bruce, Lord Elgin had met Sultan Ibrahim in 1906 and advised him to administer the state in favor of British interests and to cut down on his overseas travels to Europe. Sultan Ibrahim was adamant against Elgin's advice, was indignant to accept British advice, and was later warned by Lord Elgin two years later on the British possibility of enacting constitutional changes in the state administration. In 1910, Sultan Ibrahim accepted a British adviser for Johor after immense pressure from the colonial government. The British were extremely unhappy with the condition of Johor's finances, which were depleted as a result of Sultan Ibrahim's extensive overseas travels. The British-Resident of Negeri Sembilan, Douglas Graham Campbell was appointed the first adviser of Johor.
Relations between Sultan Ibrahim and Campbell were excellent within Campbell's first year as an adviser, and Sultan Ibrahim gave him support to improve the state administrative system. However, a tenacious relationship was developed as Campbell proposed numerous administrative reforms which were disapproved by the Sultan. A political scandal erupted in 1912 after Campbell publicly revealed malpractices of the Johor Bahru Prison. Campbell was particularly unhappy with the way the prisoners were incarcerated and lobbied to the British authorities to take charge of the administrative affairs of the prison, thereby igniting protest from the Sultan. Grievances between the Sultan's administration and the colonial government over the administrative control of the state railway remained unabated during this period, and the Menteri Besar of Johor, Dato' Abdullah bin Jaafar was delegated to handle these matters.
Shortly after his fallout with Campbell, Sultan Ibrahim implemented a state executive council (Malay: Masyurat Kerja) to oversee the administration of state agricultural and mining activities. The Sultan distanced himself from Campbell and the state's legal adviser, Michael Henry Whitley, and took administrative matters into his own hands. This incited worry and unhappiness in Campbell and Whitley, and they submitted a memorandum to the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Arthur Henderson Young, to appeal for greater British administrative control over the state. Young gave provisions to Campbell with the power similar to a British Resident-General from other states, but kept the title of "General Adviser" to show protocol deference to the Sultan. Sultan Ibrahim was unhappy with the new proposals as the British adviser would have more direct control over the state affairs, but Young assured the Sultan that he would be available for consultation in the event opinion differences may arise between Campbell and Sultan Ibrahim. A treaty was signed on May 12, 1914, which formalized the powers of the state's General Adviser.
The state economy experienced a budget surplus as a result of an increase in rubber prices for the rest of the 1910s. Campbell served as the state's General Adviser until his death in June 1918, and between June 1918 until December 1920, five General Advisers were appointed in succession, each of whom only took office for a few months. As the colonial government lacked a decisiveness in the state administration, Sultan Ibrahim attempted to extend his influence in the state administration. Hayes Marriot was appointed as the state's new General Adviser in December 1920 and reorganized the state administration.
Sultan Ibrahim took on the role of a ceremonial monarch from the 1920s onwards, and his duties were largely limited to gracing various opening ceremonies around the state. He occasionally expressed his views on the state administration and economic developments whenever he had grievances, which the British colonial government often took into account as a result of
Sir Cecil Clementi, who served as the Governor of the Straits Settlements as well as the High Commissioner of the Malay States from 1930 to 1934, remarked in December 1932 that Sultan Ibrahim was too independent in state affairs and proposed to the Sultan that he should approach Clementi in the future under the capacity of the High Commissioner instead of the Straits Governor. Clementi's proposals apparently angered the Sultan, who boycotted the Durbar in February 1934.
Sultan Ibrahim was a close friend of Frank Buck and often assisted Buck in his animal collecting endeavors.
Early Malay nationalism took root in Johor during the 1920s as a Malay aristocrat, Onn Jaafar, whom the Sultan had treated as an adopted son, became a journalist and wrote articles on the welfare of the Malays. Some of Onn's articles were critical of Sultan Ibrahim's policies, which led to strained personal relations with the Sultan. In particular, Sultan Ibrahim expelled Onn from Johor after he published an article in the Sunday Mirror, a Singapore-based English tabloid and criticized the Sultan's poor treatment of the Johor Military Forces personnel and the welfare of the Orang Asli. Onn became very popular after he continued to cover issues on Malay grievances, and Sultan Ibrahim invited Onn to return to Johor in 1936.
Sultan Ibrahim became an active patron of the state's forestry department around 1930, and encouraged the state forestry department to designate some of the remaining virgin forests in the state as nature reserves, as Johor witnessed a reduction in timber supplies due to extensive logging in the past. Nature reserves covered about 15 per cent of the state's land area by 1934, mainly in the northern regions of the state.
Sultan Ibrahim's relations with Clementi's successor, Sir Shenton Thomas did not fare well as Thomas attempted to form a centralized Malayan Union by bringing Johore and other Unfederated Malay States under the direct charge of the Straits Governor. As the Second World War broke out in 1939, Thomas introduced the Pan-Malayan war tax scheme to fund Britain's war efforts. Sultan Ibrahim's rejected these proposals, but made a £250,000 cash gift to George VI of the United Kingdom on his 44th birthday in 1939 during his trip to Europe in 1939.
Sultan Ibrahim became a personal friend of Tokugawa Yoshichika during the 1920s. Tokugawa was a scion of the Tokugawa clan, and his ancestors were military leaders (Shogun in Japanese) which ruled Japan from the 16th to the 19th centuries. When the Japanese invaded Malaya, Tokugawa accompanied General Yamashita Tomoyuki's troops and was warmly received by Sultan Ibrahim when they reached Johor Bahru at the end of January 1942. Yamashita and his officers then stationed themselves at the Sultan's residence, Istana Bukit Serene and the state secretariat building, Sultan Ibrahim Building, to plan for the invasion of Singapore.
The Japanese established a military government in February, shortly after they settled down in Malaya. Tokugawa was appointed as the Japanese political adviser at the recommendation of Sultan Ibrahim. Relations between the military government and the monarchy were initially cordial throughout the Japanese occupation years, and Tokugawa briefly envisioned a plan for a united Malay Sultanate over the Malay Peninsula (including Pattani) with Sultan Ibrahim as its figurehead. However, as the Japanese began to experience economic difficulties and military defeats in the Pacific War from 1943 onwards, these plans were dropped and the military government channeled its efforts towards state agriculture. The Japanese continued the British policy of appointing a state adviser in Johor, and Sultan Ibrahim spent most of his time in his leisure activities.
Sultan Ibrahim on his part, became resentful of the Japanese military government during the later part of the occupation years. The Japanese gave orders to the Malay Sultans to contribute an annual stipend of $10,000 to support the Japanese war efforts, and public speeches which the rulers made were drafted by the propaganda department. In particular, Sultan Ibrahim was once publicly rebuked for leaning on his walking stick before Japanese officers thereby humiliating him in the process. Shortly before the Japanese surrendered in 1945, Sultan Ibrahim was expelled from his residence at Istana Bukit Serene and was forced to reside at Istana Pasir Pelangi, the crown prince's palace.
The British Military Administration set about the task of reviving pre-war plans for centralized control over the Malay states within days after British Allied forces landed in Singapore on September 5, 1945. A former Malayan Civil Service legal officer, H.C. Willan, was ordered to interview the Malay rulers and Willan approached Sultan Ibrahim on September 8. Sultan Ibrahim was living at Istana Pasir Pelangi with his Romanian wife, and reportedly warmed up to Willan when he first saw him. During the interview with Willan, Sultan Ibrahim spoke bitterly of his experiences during the Japanese occupation years, and offered to serve under the British Military Administration. The Sultan asked Willan's permission to fly the Union Jack on his car to attend the surrender ceremony on September 12, and the British military government granted his requests.
Willan made further interviews with other Malay rulers over the next few days, and made assessments of the political situation in each state. His studies were forwarded to the military administration, and Sir Harold MacMichael, the former high commissioner of Palestine was empowered to sign official treaties with the Malay rulers over the Malayan Union proposal scheme. MacMichael made several visits to the Malay rulers, beginning with Sultan Ibrahim in October 1945. The Sultan quickly consented to MacMichael's proposal scheme, which was motivated by his strong desire to visit England at the end of the year. MacMichael paid further visits to other Malay rulers over the proposal, and sought their consent over the proposal scheme. Many Malay rulers expressed strong reluctance in signing the treaties with MacMichael, partly because they feared losing their royal status and the prospect of their states falling into Thai political influence.
The treaties provided that the United Kingdom had full administrative powers over the Malay states except in areas pertaining to Islamic customs. The Malays strongly protested against the treaties, as the treaties had the effect of circumscribing the spiritual and moral authority of the Malay rulers. Communal tensions between the Malays and Chinese were high, and the prospect of granting citizenship to non-Malays was deemed unacceptable to the Malays. In particular, politicians in Johor were extremely unhappy with the willingness of Sultan Ibrahim to sign the treaties with MacMichael, and voiced that Sultan Ibrahim had violated the terms in the Johor state constitution which explicitly forbade any foreign powers to assume legitimate control over the state. In early February 1946, seven political dissidents led by Awang bin Hassan organized a rally to protest against the Sultan's decision for signing the treaties, and Onn Jaafar, who was then serving as a district officer in Batu Pahat, was invited to attend the rally.
The rally was held on February 1, 1946 at the Sultan Abu Bakar State Mosque, and protesters shouted nationalistic slogans and called for the dethronement of Sultan Ibrahim. Malay nationalistic slogans were raised during the rally, many of whom were directed against the Sultan himself, whom they accused of committing treason against the Malay race by signing the treaties. News of the rally reached Sultan Ibrahim on 22 February, who was then residing at Grosvenor House in London. Sultan Ibrahim approached the colonial office and expressed his withdrawal of support for the proposal scheme, but this did not appease the political dissidents and Onn continued to organize more rallies in the other Malay states to muster further support for his calls against the Malayan Union, and formed United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in May.
Sultan Ibrahim returned to Johor in early September 1947 and attended UMNO's second general meeting at Istana Besar, which was led by its youth chief, Hussein Onn. Although many Johor politicians still held a critical opinion of Sultan Ibrahim over the treaties with MacMichael, the UMNO delegates gave him a rousing welcome when he arrived at the palace. Critical opinions against the Sultan waned after the Federation of Malaya was established the following January, which restored the rulers' powers. Shortly before Sultan Ibrahim left for England in May, he personally donated a lump sum of $5,000 to UMNO, hoping to improve relations with UMNO leaders and Onn himself, who was appointed the Menteri Besar of Johor in 1946.
The establishment of the Federation did not go down well with the Chinese, whereby favorable conditions for obtaining citizenship for the Chinese and other non-Malays were withdrawn. The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) was formed in 1949 under the leadership of a Straits Chinese businessman, Tan Cheng Lock who frequently raised grievances over the citizenship terms that were set when the Federation was established. As a result, communal tensions between the Malays and Chinese surfaced, and Onn kept his distance from Tan. Tan encountered initial difficulties with meeting the Sultan, who was not accustomed to working with Chinese businessmen. Sultan Ibrahim also became increasingly disappointed in Onn's work commitment, which he saw as neglecting state affairs as a result of his commitments towards UMNO. In early 1950, Sultan Ibrahim approached Onn, who was asked to choose between committing his efforts for UMNO and the state. Onn chose to the latter, and resigned as the Menteri Besar of Johor in May.
Sultan Ibrahim became increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of Johor as a state within the Federation of Malaya, particularly when the prospect of an independent Federation free from British interference became increasingly clearer under Tunku Abdul Rahman's leadership. In a letter which he wrote to The Straits Times in 1953, "Straits Settlement Forever", Sultan Ibrahim expressed a skeptical opinion of Johor's future as part of an independent Malaya, and voiced support for the continuation of British Adviser system in Johor. At his diamond jubilee celebrations in September 1955, Sultan Ibrahim publicly called for Johor's secession from the Federation. Sultan Ibrahim's calls for secession inspired the formation of Persatuan Kebangsaan Melayu Johor (PKMJ) the following month, a secessionist movement led by Ungku Abdullah bin Omar, a relative of Sultan Ibrahim who was serving as one of Johor's state executive councillors. The Sultan voiced public support for PKMJ during a public gathering in mid-December 1955, and PKMJ courted considerable support from the grassroots within the first half of 1956.
The Alliance party reacted strongly to the events which motivated the formation of the PKMJ, and called for the Alliance-dominated Johor state executive council to vet all future state-policy speeches that will be made by the Sultan or members of the royal family. In particular, the Alliance reacted with great hostility to the existence of the PKMJ, and actively attempted to suppress and discredit the party. PKMJ rapidly lost most of its members to UMNO, and by mid-1957 Ungku Abdullah only had ten members left within the party. Meanwhile, at the Conference of Rulers in March 1957, Tunku Abdul Rahman expressed his desire to elect Sultan Ibrahim as the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, but Sultan Ibrahim declined on grounds of his old age and desire to lead his final years in retirement.
Four months later in July 1957, Ungku Abdullah made one last call to urge Sultan Ibrahim not to sign the Malayan Federal Constitution. The Sultan, who was now residing in London, replied to Ungku Abdullah that he had empowered the Tunku Mahkota, Tunku Ismail (later Sultan Ismail) to decide on the matter. Ungku Abdullah then called upon Tunku Ismail not to sign the constitution, but his calls were ignored and Tunku Ismail proceeded to sign the constitution at the ruler's meeting. Following the ordeal, Ungku Abdullah formally disbanded the party a few days before Malaya's Independence day.
During his reign, the Sultan was known as one of the richest men in the world. He also had a reputation as a wild international playboy. His exploits ranged from changing the color of his racing horse to present it as an unknown – with better odds of course – to less savory behavior in the red-light area of Vienna. To be fair, he spread his wealth around, giving a magnificent pair of Malayan tigers to Edinburgh Zoo on the one hand and, on the other, sending a huge cash present to King George V on his Jubilee.
The Sultan was an Anglophile and spent much of his life away from Johor, preferring the more liberal delights of Europe. He sent his sons, by his Malay wives, to be educated in Britain.
The Sultan was reported to have given Sultanah Helen Ibrahim a spectacular jewel collection, reputedly giving her an emerald on her birthday and a diamond on their wedding anniversary, even after the divorce. It is little wonder that her jewellery collection was held to be the finest in the world.
Sultan Ibrahim spent the last two years of his life at his apartment at Grosvenor House in London. He spent most of his time watching television and visiting theaters and enjoyed the company of his sixth wife, Marcella Mendl and their beloved daughter, Tunku Meriam. The Sultan died on May 8, 1959 at his apartment, with his wife reportedly at his bedside during his last hours. Tunku Ismail was appointed as the Sultan of Johor in place of his father, and many Malay and British leaders who had worked with him publicly expressed their condolences to the late Sultan within the first two weeks of his death. The Sultan's body was shipped back to Johor Bahru and arrived the following month, whereby he was given a state funeral and his body laid in state between June 4-6 at Istana Besar.
At the time of his death, Sultan Ibrahim was probably the longest reigning Malay sultan in Malayan history after having ruled for 64 years.
Sultan Ibrahim was the only son of Che Wan Abu Bakar, Temenggung of Johor by Che Puan Besar Zubaidah (née Cecilia Catharina Lange, 1848-1939). Zubaidah was the daughter of Mads Johansen Lange; a Balinese-based Danish businessman and his Chinese wife, Nonna Sang Nio (born Ong Sang Nio). Nonna, who was born in Southern China, lived in East Java for a time prior to her marriage to Lange. He had one sister, Meriam (born 1871).
Sultan Ibrahim married at least four official wives who became sultanahs of Johor. They were:
* Ungku Maimunah binti Ungku Abdul Majid (d 1909); married 1892, they had one son, Sultan Ismail (1894-1981)
* Che Rogayah (d 1926); married in 1920, they had one son, Tunku Abu Bakar (1898-1956)
* Helen Bartholomew Wilson (1889-1977), former wife of William Brockie Wilson; married 15 October 1930, divorced 30 March 1938
* Marcella Mendl (1915-1982), daughter of Edgar Mendl and cousin of British diplomat Sir Charles Mendl. Upon converting to Islam, she took the name Fawzia binti ‘Abdu’llah and was known as Lady Marcella Ibrahim (1940-1955) and Her Highness Sultana Fawzia binti 'Abdu'llah (1955-1982). Married in 1940, they had one daughter, Tunku Miriam binti al-Marhum Sultan Sir Ibrahim (born September 18, 1950) (married 1978-1980, Barry Sapherson, aka Barry Ryan)
He also had a son by Hasnah bte Jaffar: Tunku Ahmad, 1898-1983.
Efforts were made by the sultan's heirs to rehabilitate his image and paint him as a benevolent ruler. However, Sultan Ibrahim is largely remembered as an anti-independence figure, a wastrel and a close (almost deferential) ally of the British. The posthumous title of "the Great" (in Malay, mil Masyhur) conferred on him by his grandson Sultan Iskandar, never caught on.
The honors bestowed upon Sultan Ibrahim include:
* Grand Commander of the Family Order of Johor (DK)-1891
* Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Crown of Johor (SPMJ)-1891
* Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Medal-1897
* Imperial Order of the Osmans (Nishan-i-Osmanieh), 1st Class-1898
* King Edward VII Coronation Medal-1902
* King George V Coronation Medal-1911
* Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG)-1916 (KCMG-1897)
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania-1920
* Grand Cordon of the Order of the White Elephant of Siam-1924
* Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia-1933
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Dragon of Annam-1933
* Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun-1934
* Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE)-1935 (KBE-1918)
* King George V Silver Jubilee Medal-1935
* King George VI Coronation Medal-1937
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy-1938
* Grand Cordon of the Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar
* Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal-1953
* Order of the Crown of State of Malaysia (DMN)-1958
Ibrahim Iskandar Al-Masyhur ibni Abu Bakar see Ibrahim
Ibrahim I (Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab) (756-812). Founder of the Ifriqiyan dynasty of the Aghlabids and first Emir (r.800-812) of the Aghlabids in Ifriqiya. In 801, he received the envoys of Charlemagne at Qasr al-Qadim (al-‘Abbasiyya near Qayrawan).
He was the son of al-Aghlab, who successfully quelled the revolt of the Kharijites in Ifriqiya at the end of the 8th century. In 800, Ibrahim became Emir of Ifriqiya and founded the Aghlabid dynasty, and was recognised as the hereditary ruler by the Caliph Harun ar-Rashid.
After the pacification of the country, he established a residence at al-Abbasiya to keep his distance from the restless jurists of Kairuan, who were always ready to incite the people into revolt. A guard of 5000 black African slaves was set up to avoid total dependence on Arab troops, the necessity of this measure was proven by the revolts of Arab soldiers in 802, 805 and 810. Ibrahim built up a strong administrative framework for the state which lay the foundations for the prosperity of Ifriqiya in the following century.
He was succeeded by his son Abdallah I (812-817).
Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab see Ibrahim I
Ibrahim II (Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibrahim II) (Abu Is`haq Ibrahim II) (850-October 23, 902). After Ibrahim I (Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab), Ibrahim II was the most outstanding personality of the Aghlabid dynasty. He ruled from 875 to 902. He is distinguished for his exceptional qualities but, affected by a mental illness, he ultimately built up a system of complete despotism and thus prepared the way for the triumph of the Fatimids. During his reign the conquest of Sicily was completed in 901. He abdicated in 902, became an ascetic and died in the same year..
Ibrahim II was the ninth Emir of the Aghlabids in Ifriqiya. He ruled from 875 to 902. He succeeded to the Emirate on the death of his brother Muhammad II (864-875). Although he inherited a kingdom depopulated by the plague of 874, his reign was economically prosperous. In 876 he built a new palace, Ar-Raqqada, near Kairuan and sought to develop agriculture by building up the irrigation system.
Nevertheless, the start of the decline of the dynasty can be dated to his reign. Although the conquest of Sicily was completed in 878, the Byzantines drove the Muslims out of Bari and Taranto in Apulia after a naval victory. Also, in 882 an attack by the Tulunids of Egypt had to be fought off and several Berber revolts against the tyrannical rule of Ibrahim had to be put down. From 893 there began the missionary work of the Ismaili under Abu 'Abdullah al-Shi'i amongst the Kutama Berbers in Algeria - this would eventually lead to the downfall of the Aghlabids and the rise of the Fatimids.
As unrest amongst the population against his tyrannical rule deepened, he was forced to abdicate by his son Abu'l-Abbas Abdallah. Ibrahim went to Sicily to carry on the campaign against the Byzantines, and died of dysentery during an invasion of Calabria.
Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibrahim II see Ibrahim II
Abu Is`haq Ibrahim II see Ibrahim II
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| Abdullah Ibrahim | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Ibrahim in 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Dollar Brand |
| Born | Adolph Johannes Brand 9 October 1934 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Died | 15 June 2026 (aged 91) Prien am Chiemsee, Bavaria, Germany |
| Genres | South African jazz, bebop, post-bop, folk |
| Occupations | Musician, composer, bandleader |
| Instruments | Piano, saxophone, cello |
| Years active | 1955–2026 |
| Website | Abdullahibrahim.co.za |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2; including Jean Grae |
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South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim dies aged 91
The accomplished musician, who recorded over 70 albums in his career, died peacefully in Germany after a short illness
The South African jazz composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim has died at the age of 91.
His family announced his death in a statement released on Monday.
“Abdullah passed away peacefully with South Africa and its people in his heart,” wrote his partner, Dr Marina Umari. “His love for his country never wavered, no matter where in the world he found himself.”
Ibrahim died in Germany after a short illness.
The musician, born in Cape Town as Adolph Johannes Brand, once said he started composing music at the age of seven but made his professional debut at 15 and, known as Dollar Brand, went on to become an esteemed figure within local jazz circles in the 1950s before he recorded an album with a group known as the Jazz Epistles in 1960. Jazz Epistle Verse One was the first full-length jazz LP by Black South African musicians.
Their music was not explicitly political, but they were still targeted by the government.
Ibrahim moved to Europe in the 1960s where he met Duke Ellington, who he went on to record with before he moved to New York in 1965. “I always say we never thought of Ellington as an African American – we thought of him as a wise old man in the village,” Ibrahim said in 2024. “You have any musical problem or inspiration, you go to Ellington. And he has been that bulwark for many, many, many musicians.”
In the US, he performed at the Newport jazz festival and embarked on a solo tour, also stepping in for Ellington on a number of occasions.
“We don’t really leave, you know,” he said in 1984 about moving away from South Africa. “It’s a tactical retreat. We regard ourselves as cultural freedom fighters. And when our cadres, our young people, go outside the country for training, we don’t say that they left – it’s a tactical retreat.”
He converted to Islam in 1968 and changed his name to Abdullah Ibrahim.
In his career, he would go on to record more than 70 albums, the most recent of which was released in 2024.
His most known piece, Mannenberg, was recorded in 1974 and became known as a major anti-apartheid anthem. The song reportedly inspired Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment.
“I realised at an early age that this system of apartheid was totally against the brain of everything because it was not just that they didn’t want you to record the music, it’s that they didn’t want you to think,” he said in 2017.
Ibrahim also worked on a number of soundtracks for films such as the Claire Denis dramas No Fear, No Die and Chocolat.
Throughout his career, he also won a number of awards including the German Jazz Trophy and a South African music lifetime achievement award.
The Guardian’s John Fordham wrote that Ibrahim has “written some of the most vividly beautiful themes to emerge from his culture’s special chemistry of African vocalised phrasing”.
One of his final solo performances was at the Cape Town international jazz festival in March.
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Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand; 9 October 1934 – 15 June 2026), previously known as Dollar Brand, was a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME Church and Ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the subgenre of Cape jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. He is known especially for "Mannenberg", a jazz piece that became a notable anti-apartheid anthem.[1]
During the apartheid era in the 1960s, Ibrahim moved to New York City and, apart from a brief return to South Africa in the 1970s, remained in exile until the early 1990s. Over the decades, he toured the world extensively, appearing at major venues either as a solo artist or playing with other renowned musicians, including Max Roach, Carlos Ward and Randy Weston, as well as collaborating with classical orchestras in Europe.[2]
With his wife, the jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, Ibrahim was father to two children, including the New York underground rapper Jean Grae.
Early life and national career
Ibrahim was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on 9 October 1934, and was baptized Adolph Johannes Brand. He attended Trafalgar High School in Cape Town's District Six, and began piano lessons at the age of seven, making his professional debut at 15.[2] He is of mixed-race heritage, making him a Coloured person according to the apartheid system.[3] His mother played piano in a church, the musical style of which would remain an influence on him; in addition, he learned to play several genres of music during his youth in Cape Town, including marabi, mbaqanga, and American jazz. He became well known in jazz circles in Cape Town and Johannesburg.[4]
In 1959 and 1960, Ibrahim played with the Jazz Epistles group in Sophiatown, alongside saxophonists Kippie Moeketsi and Mackay Davashe, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, trombonist Jonas Gwangwa (who were all in the orchestra of the musical King Kong that opened in Johannesburg in February 1959),[5][6][7] bassist Johnny Gertze and drummer Makaya Ntshoko; in January 1960, the six musicians went into the Gallo studio and recorded the first full-length jazz LP by Black South African musicians, Jazz Epistle Verse One,[2][8][9] with 500 copies being produced.[10] Although the group avoided explicitly political activity, the apartheid government was suspicious of it and other jazz groups, and targeted them heavily during the increase in state repression following the Sharpeville massacre in March 1960, and eventually, the Jazz Epistles broke up.[11]
Early international career
Ibrahim moved to Europe in 1962. In February 1963, his wife-to-be, Sathima Bea Benjamin (they married in 1965), convinced Duke Ellington, who was in Zürich, Switzerland, on a European tour, to come to hear Ibrahim perform as "The Dollar Brand Trio" in Zurich's "Africana Club".[2] After the show, Ellington helped set up a recording session with Reprise Records: Duke Ellington presents The Dollar Brand Trio.[8] Ibrahim subsequently played at many European festivals.[12]
Ibrahim and Benjamin moved to New York in 1965[13] and that year Ibrahim played at the Newport Jazz Festival, followed by a first tour through the US; in 1966, he substituted for Duke Ellington on five dates, leading the Duke Ellington Orchestra.[14] In 1967, a Rockefeller Foundation grant enabled Ibrahim to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.[2] While in the US, he interacted with many progressive musicians, among them Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp.[2] As the Black Power movement developed in the 1960s and 1970s, it influenced a number of Ibrahim's friends and collaborators, who began to see their music as a form of cultural nationalism. Ibrahim, in turn, began to incorporate African elements into his jazz.[15]
Return to South Africa
In 1968, Ibrahim briefly returned to Cape Town, where he converted to Islam that year (with the resultant change of name from Dollar Brand to Abdullah Ibrahim)[16] and in 1970 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca.[13]
He met Rashid Vally at the latter's Kohinoor record shop in Johannesburg in the early 1970s,[17] and Vally produced two of Ibrahim's albums in the following years. The pair produced a third album in 1974, titled Underground in Africa, in which Ibrahim abandoned his financially unsuccessful folk-infused jazz of the previous albums. Instead, the new album was a fusion of jazz, rock music, and South Africa popular music, and sold well.[18] While recording Underground, Ibrahim collaborated with Oswietie, a local band of which Robbie Jansen and Basil Coetzee were saxophonists, and who played a large role in creating the album's fusion style. After the success of Underground, Ibrahim asked Coetzee to bring together a supporting band for his next recording: the group Coetzee put together included Jansen, as well as others who had not worked on Underground.[19] The composition "Mannenberg" was recorded in June 1974 during one of Ibrahim's visits back to South Africa, in a studio in Cape Town, and was produced by Rashid Vally.[20] The track was recorded in one take during a period of collective improvisation.[21][22] The piece was inspired by the Cape Flats township where many of those forcibly removed from District Six were sent.[23]
The recordings made with Jansen and Coetzee, including "Mannenberg" (renamed "Capetown Fringe" in its US release), "Black Lightning"; "African Herbs"; and "Soweto Is Where It Is At" – sounds that mirrored and spoke of the defiance in the streets and townships of South Africa – gave impetus to the genre of music known as "Cape Jazz."[23][24] "Mannenberg" came to be considered "the unofficial national anthem" of South Africa, and the theme tune of the anti-apartheid movement.[25][26][27] Saxophonist and flautist Carlos Ward was Ibrahim's sideman in duets during the early 1980s. A few years after the release of "Mannenberg" (released on Brand's Mannenberg ~ 'Is Where It's Happening' album in 1974), South African police fired upon protesting children during the Soweto Uprising that began on 16 June 1976; this event led Ibrahim and Benjamin to publicly express support for the African National Congress, which was still banned at the time.[28]
Soon returning to the US and settling in New York, Ibrahim and Sathima founded the record company Ekapa (meaning "Cape Town" in Xhosa) in 1981.[29]
Starting in 1983, Ibrahim led a group called Ekaya (which translates as "home"), as well as various trios, occasional big bands and other special projects.[30]
Film and television work
Ibrahim wrote the soundtracks for a number of films, including Chocolat (1988), and No Fear, No Die (1990).[8]
On 25 November 1989, he made an extended appearance in the British Channel 4 television discussion series After Dark alongside Zoë Wicomb, Donald Woods, Shula Marks and others. Ibrahim also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, where he and others recalled the days of apartheid; the film's subtitle derives from observations made by Ibrahim.[31]
Ibrahim is the subject of the documentaries A Brother with Perfect Timing (1987)[32] and A Struggle for Love (2005, directed by Ciro Cappellari).[33]
Post-apartheid
Ibrahim worked as a solo performer, typically in unbroken concerts that echo the unstoppable impetus of the old marabi performers, classical impressionists and snatches of his musical idols – Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Fats Waller. Ibrahim also performed frequently with trios and quartets and larger orchestral units. Returning to South Africa in the early 1990s, he was feted with symphony orchestra performances, one of which was in honour of Nelson Mandela's 1994 inauguration as president.[23] Mandela reportedly referred to him as "our Mozart".[34]
In 1997, Ibrahim collaborated on a tour with drummer Max Roach, and the following year undertook a world tour with the Munich Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.[35]
In 1999, Ibrahim founded the M7 academy for South African musicians in Cape Town[23] and was the initiator of the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra, an 18-piece big band launched in September 2006.[13][36][37]
Ibrahim continued to perform internationally, mainly in Europe, and with occasional shows in North America.[38] Reviewing his 2008 concert at London's Barbican Centre – a "monumental" show with the BBC Big Band, featuring vocalists Ian Shaw and Cleveland Watkiss – John Fordham of The Guardian referred to "[Ibrahim's] elder-statesman status as the African Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk combined (and his role as an educator and political campaigner)".[39]
In 2016, at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela performed together for the first time in 60 years, reuniting the Jazz Epistles in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the historic 16 June 1976 Soweto youth demonstrations.[40][41][42]
Reviewing Ibrahim's July 2023 appearance with bassist Noah Jackson and flautist Cleave Guyton at the Barbican Centre in London, Kevin Le Gendre wrote: "Ibrahim's enduring love of the founding fathers of modern jazz is made clear from the outset as the trio starts with rhapsodic versions of two timeless anthems, Ellington's 'In A Sentimental Mood' and Coltrane's 'Giant Steps', while later on we are treated to a spirited take on Monk's 'Skippy'. But in the interim it is Ibrahim’s originals that take pride of place, showing how, since the '60s, he has been creating standards of his own that vividly capture the poised dignity of African culture and customs."[43]
Awards
In 2007, Ibrahim was presented with the South African Music Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the Recording Industry of South Africa, in a ceremony at the Sun City Superbowl.[44][45]
In 2009, for his solo piano album Senzo he received the "Best Male Artist" award at the 15th Annual MTN South African Music Awards.[46][47]
In 2009, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, conferred on Ibrahim an Honorary Doctorate of Music.[48] Also in 2009, he was awarded South Africa's national honour the Order of Ikhamanga (Silver), "For his excellent contribution to the arts, putting South Africa on the international map and his fight against racism and apartheid."[49]
In July 2017, Ibrahim was honoured with the German Jazz Trophy.[50][51]
In July 2018, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced Abdullah Ibrahim as one of four recipients of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships, to be celebrated in a concert on 15 April 2019 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Awarded in recognition of lifetime achievement, the honour is bestowed on individuals who have made significant contributions to the art form, the other 2019 recipients being Bob Dorough, Maria Schneider, and Stanley Crouch.[52][53]
Personal life and death
With his wife, the jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, Ibrahim was father to New York underground rapper Jean Grae (Tsidi),[54] and a son, Tsakwe,[55] an artist.[56] [57]
Ibrahim died on 15 June 2026 in Prien am Chiemsee, Bavaria, Germany at the age of 91.[58][59][60][61]
Discography
An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.
As leader/co-leader
| Year recorded | Title | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Jazz Epistle Verse 1 | Continental | As The Jazz Epistles; sextet, with Kippie Moeketsi (alto sax), Jonas Gwangwa (trombone), Hugh Masekela (trumpet), Johnny Gertze (bass), Makaya Ntshoko (drums) |
| 1960 | Dollar Brand Plays Sphere Jazz | Continental | Trio, with Johnny Gertze (bass), Makaya Ntshoko (drums) |
| 1963 | Duke Ellington Presents the Dollar Brand Trio | Reprise | Trio, with Johnny Gertze (bass), Makaya Ntshoko (drums) |
| 1965 | Reflections | Black Lion | Solo piano; also released as This Is Dollar Brand |
| 1965 | Round Midnight at the Montmartre | Black Lion | Most tracks trio, with Johnny Gertze (bass), Makaya Ntshoko (drums); two tracks solo piano |
| 1965 | The Dream | Freedom | Trio |
| 1965 | Anatomy of a South African Village | Black Lion | Trio, with Johnny Gertze (bass), Makaya Ntshoko (drums) |
| 1968 | The Dream | Jazz Music Yesterday | Trio, with Johnny Gertze (bass), Makaya Ntshoko (drums) |
| 1968 | Hamba Khale! | Togetherness | With Gato Barbieri; reissued as Confluence |
| 1969 | African Sketchbook | Enja | Most tracks solo piano; one track solo flute |
| 1969 | African Piano[note 1] | JAPO | Solo piano; in concert; released 1973 |
| 1970 | African Sun | Spectator | |
| 1971 | Peace | ||
| 1971 | Dollar Brand Trio with Kippie Moketsi | ||
| 1972 | Ancient Africa | JAPO | Mostly solo piano; one part solo flute; in concert; released 1974 |
| 1973 | African Portraits | Sackville | Solo piano |
| 1973 | Sangoma | Sackville | Solo piano |
| 1973 | Memories | Philips | Solo piano |
| 1973 | African Space Program | Enja | With Hamiet Bluiett (baritone sax), Roland Alexander (tenor sax, harmonica), John Stubblefield (tenor sax), Sonny Fortune and Carlos Ward (alto sax, flute), Cecil Bridgewater, Enrico Rava and Charles Sullivan (trumpet), Kiani Zawadi (trombone), Cecil McBee (bass), Roy Brooks (percussion) |
| 1973 | Ode to Duke Ellington | West Wind | Solo piano |
| 1973 | Good News from Africa | Enja | Duo, with Johnny Dyani (bass, bells) |
| 1973 | Boswell Concert 1973 | Colomba | With Bea Benjamin |
| 1974 | African Breeze | East Wind | Solo piano |
| 1974 | Underground in Africa | ||
| 1974 | Mannenberg – "Is Where It's Happening" | The Sun | Quintet with Basil Coetzee (tenor sax), Robbie Jansen (alto sax and flute), Paul Michaels (bass), Monty Weber (drums) - Reissued as Capetown Fringe by Chiaroscuro |
| 1975 | African Herbs | The Sun | one track trio, other two septet - Reissued as Soweto By Chiaroscuro |
| 1976 | Banyana – Children of Africa | Enja | Trio with Cecil McBee (bass) & Roy Brooks (drums); Ibrahim plays soprano sax and sings on one track |
| 1976 | Black Lightning | Chiaroscuro | With Basil Mannenberg Coetzee (tenor sax), others |
| 1977 | The Journey | Chiaroscuro | With Don Cherry (trumpet), Carlos Ward (alto sax), Talib Rhynie (alto sax, oboe), Hamiet Blueitt (baritone sax, clarinet), Johnny Dyani (bass), Ed Blackwell and Roy Brooks (drums), John Betsch and Claude Jones (percussion) |
| 1977 | Streams of Consciousness | Baystate | Duo, with Max Roach (drums) |
| 1977 | African Rhythm | ||
| 1978 | Anthem for the New Nations | Denon | Solo piano |
| 1978 | Duet | Denon | Duo, with Archie Shepp (tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax) |
| 1978 | Autobiography | Plainisphare | Solo piano; in concert |
| 1978 | Nisa | African Violets | |
| 1979 | Echoes from Africa | Enja | Duo, with Johnny Dyani (bass) |
| 1979 | African Marketplace | Elektra | With 12-piece band |
| 1979 | Africa – Tears and Laughter | Enja | Quartet, with Talib Qadr (alto sax, soprano sax), Greg Brown (bass), John Betsch (drums); Ibrahim is also on vocals and soprano sax |
| 1980 | Dollar Brand at Montreux | Enja | Quintet, with Carlos Ward (alto sax, flute), Craig Harris (trombone), Alonzo Gardener (electric bass), André Strobert (drums); in concert |
| 1980 | Matsidiso | Pläne | Solo piano; in concert |
| 1980 | South Africa Sunshine | Pläne | Solo piano; Ibrahim adds vocals on some tracks; in concert |
| 1981 | Duke's Memories | Black & Blue | Quartet, with Carlos Ward (alto sax, flute), Rachim Ausur Sahu (bass), Andre Strobert (drums) |
| 1982 | African Dawn | Enja | Solo piano |
| 1982 | Jazzbühne Berlin '82 | Repertoire | Solo piano; in concert |
| 1983 | Ekaya | Ekapa | Septet, with Charles Davis (baritone sax), Ricky Ford (tenor sax), Carlos Ward (alto sax), Dick Griffin (trombone), Cecil McBee (bass), Ben Riley (drums) |
| 1983 | Zimbabwe | Enja | Quartet, with Carlos Ward (alto sax, flute), Essiet Okun Essiet (bass), Don Mumford (drums); Ibrahim also plays soprano sax |
| 1985 | Water from an Ancient Well | Tiptoe | Septet, with Carlos Ward (alto sax, flute), Dick Griffin (trombone), Ricky Ford (tenor sax), Charles Davis (baritone sax), David Williams (bass), Ben Riley (drums) |
| 1986 | South Africa | With Carlos Ward (alto sax), Essiet Okun Essiet (bass), Don Mumford (drums), Johnny Classens (vocals); in concert | |
| 1988 | Mindif | Enja | Recorded for the soundtrack to the film Chocolat |
| 1989 | African River | Enja | With John Stubblefield (tenor sax, flute), Horace Alexander Young (alto sax, soprano sax, piccolo), Howard Johnson (tuba, baritone sax, trumpet), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Buster Williams (bass), Brian Abrahams (drums) |
| 1990 | No Fear, No Die | Enja | Film soundtrack |
| 1991 | Mantra Mode | Enja | Septet, with Robbie Jansen (alto sax, baritone sax, flute), Basil Coetzee (tenor sax), Johnny Mekoa (trumpet), Errol Dyers (guitar), Spencer Mbadu (bass), Monty Webber (drums) |
| 1991 | Desert Flowers | Solo piano | |
| 1993 | Knysna Blue | Tiptoe | Solo piano and other instruments |
| 1995 | Yarona | Tiptoe | Trio, with Marcus McLaurine (bass), George Johnson (drums) |
| 1997 | Cape Town Flowers | Tiptoe | Trio, with Marcus McLaurine (bass), George Gray (drums) |
| 1997 | Cape Town Revisited | Tiptoe/Enja | Quartet, with Feya Faku (trumpet), Marcus McLaurine (bass), George Gray (drums) |
| 1997 | African Suite | With Belden Bullock (bass), George Gray (drums), strings | |
| 1998 | African Symphony | Enja | With orchestra |
| 1998 | Township One More Time | Septet | |
| 1998 | Voice of Africa | ||
| 2000 | Ekapa Lodumo | Tiptoe | With the NDR Big Band; in concert |
| 2001 | African Magic | Enja | Trio, with Belden Bullock (bass), Sipho Kunene (drums); in concert |
| 2008 | Senzo | Sunnyside | Solo piano |
| 2008 | Bombella | Sunnyside | With the WDR Big Band; in concert |
| 2010 | Sotho Blue | Sunnyside | With Jason Marshall (baritone sax), Keith Loftis (tenor sax), Cleave Guyton (alto sax, flute), Andrae Murchison (trombone), Belden Bullock (bass), George Gray (drums) |
| 2012–13 | Mukashi: Once Upon a Time | Sunnyside | Quartet, with Cleave Guyton (saxophone, flute, clarinet), Eugen Bazijan and Scott Roller (cello); Ibrahim is also on vocals and flute |
| 2014 | The Song Is My Story | Intuition/Sunnyside | Most tracks solo piano; two tracks saxophone |
| 2019 | The Balance | Gearbox | With Ekaya (Noah Jackson, Alec Dankworth, Will Terrill, Adam Glasser, Cleave Guyton Jr., Lance Bryant, Andrae Murchison, Marshall McDonald) |
| 2019 | Dream Time | Enja | Solo piano; in concert |
| 2020 | Solotude | Gearbox | Solo piano |
| 2023 | 3 | Gearbox | Trio; volume 2 in concert |
Compilations
| Year recorded | Title | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | African Piano | Sackville | Solo piano; two tracks from Sangoma; one from African Portraits; this is a different album from the 1969 recording of the same name |
| 1973 | Fats, Duke and the Monk | Sackville | Solo piano; one track from Sangoma; one track from African Portraits; one track previously unissued |
| 1983–85 | The Mountain | Septets; complies tracks from Ekaya and Water from an Ancient Well | |
| 1988* | Blues for a Hip King | ||
| 1973–97 | A Celebration | Enja | Released 2005 |
| Re:Brahim: Abdullah Ibrahim Remixed | Enja | Remixes of Ibrahim performances; released 2005 |
As sideman
| Year recorded | Leader | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Elvin Jones | Midnight Walk | Atlantic |
| 1976 | Sathima Bea Benjamin | African Songbird | |
| 1977 | Buddy Tate | Buddy Tate Meets Dollar Brand | Chiaroscuro |
Notes
References
- Schumann, Anne (2008). "The Beat that Beat Apartheid: The Role of Music in the Resistance against Apartheid in South Africa" (PDF). Wiener Zeitschrift für kritische Afrikastudien. 14 (8): 26–30. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- "Biography", Abdullah Ibrahim official website. Archived 10 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- Mason 2007, pp. 26–30.
- Mason 2007, pp. 26–28.
- Merz, Christopher Linn (2016). "Tracing the Development of the South African Alto Saxophone Style". The World of Music. 5 (2): 31–46. ISSN 0043-8774. JSTOR 44651147.
- "King Kong, the first All African Jazz Opera", Soul Safari, 10 August 2009. Archived 28 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- In the memoir King Kong - Our Knot of Time and Music: A personal memoir of South Africa's legendary musical, by lyricist Pat Williams (London: Portobello Books, 2017), Ibrahim is quoted as saying about the show: "In spite of what everyone says, I had nothing to do with it."
- Carr, Ian, Digby Fairweather and Brian Priestley (3rd edn, 2004). The Rough Guide to Jazz, London: Rough Guides Ltd, pp. 385–87. ISBN 1-84353-256-5.
- Odidi, Billie, "The South African with a brilliant jazz touch", Africa Review, 22 November 2011. Archived 7 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- Mitter, Siddhartha, "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Jazz Epistles", The Village Voice, 26 April 2017. [1].
- Mason 2007, pp. 27–29.
- Martin Johnson (15 June 2026), Abdullah Ibrahim, quiet giant of the jazz piano, has died at 91, Jazz 91.9 WCLK
- "Ibrahim returns to Joburg", Johannesburg official website, 13 January 2012. Archived 14 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
- "Ibrahim, Abdullah (Dollar Brand) (South Africa)", music.org.za. Archived 15 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
- Mason 2007, pp. 29–30.
- Ouellette, Dan (9 September 2019). "Abdullah Ibrahim: A Focus on Spirituality". DownBeat.
- Mason 2007, p. 33.
- Mason 2007, pp. 32–35.
- Mason 2007, pp. 34–35.
- "Farewell to a musical legend". Sunday Tribune. 15 March 1998.
- Mason 2007, p. 35.
- "UBUNTU: Mannenberg". Carnegie Hall Blog. 20 September 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
- Jaggi, Maya, "The sound of freedom", The Guardian, 8 December 2001. Retrieved 13 August 2014. Archived 27 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
- Mason 2007, p. 25.
- "Musical Interlude: Abdullah Ibrahim's Mannenberg (Is Where It's Happening)", Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. Archived 2 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
- Schiendorfer, Andreas, "Abdullah Ibrahim – Musician with Political Impact", Credit Suisse, 23 February 2010. Archived 14 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
- Hewett, Ivam, "Abdullah Ibrahim interview: 'I don't like the word jazz'", The Telegraph, 14 November 2017.
- Muller 2004, p. 107.
- "Abdullah Ibrahim Biography". Abdullah Ibrahim. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- "Abdullah Ibrahim", 100 Jazz profiles, BBC Radio 3. [2].
- Scott, A. O., "FILM REVIEW; The Sounds and Rhythms That Helped Bring Down Apartheid", The New York Times, 19 February 2003. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- Rawls, John. Southern Africa Political & Economic Monthly, Volume 9. Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES) Publications Project, 1995, pp. 11–12.
- Peter Margasak (13 January 2006), Abdullah Ibrahim—A Struggle for Love, Chicago Reader
- Scheinin, Richard, "Abdullah Ibrahim: A Life in Song", On the Corner, SF Jazz, 1 April 2016. Archived 6 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Reposted 20 October 2023.
- Harris, Craig, "Abdullah Ibrahim", AllMusic. Archived 19 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
- "Launch of the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra", Department of Arts and Culture, Republic of South Africa, 23 August 2006. Archived 15 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
- Belcher-Van der Berg, Renée, "Kaapstadse Jazzorkes skop belowend af", Die Burger, 18 September 2006. Archived 14 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
- Lucia, Christine, "Abdullah Ibrahim: South Africa’s master pianist is going on a world tour at 90", The Conversation, 13 March 2024.
- Fordham, John, "Abdullah Ibrahim", The Guardian, 19 May 2008. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- Podbrey, Gwen, "Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim to perform on one stage", Destinyman.com, 4 May 2016. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- "Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya and Hugh Masekela: A Tribute to Jazz Epistles", News, Abdullah Ibrahim website, 13 May 2016. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- "Hugh Masekela & Abdullah Ibrahim perform a tribute to the Jazz Epistles in JHB", Black Major, 15 June 2016. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- Le Gendre, Kevin (20 July 2023). "Abdullah Ibrahim brings his spell-binding Trio to Barbican". Jazzwise. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
- Molele, Charles, "Afro-jazz singer wins big with four awards", Sunday Times, 15 April 2007. Via Press Reader. Archived 12 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- Valentyn, Christo, "2007 South African Music Awards Winners", Mambaonline, 16 April 2007. Archived 12 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- "And the winners are...", The South African, 11 May 2009. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- Coetzer, Diane, "Lira Wins Big At South African Music Awards", Billboard, 5 May 2009. Archived 16 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
- "Wits honours Abdullah Ibrahim", Artslink.co.za, 6 May 2009. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- "National Orders Recipients 2009", South African History Online. Archived 17 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
- "German Jazz Trophy", News, Abdullah Ibrahim website, 17 May 2017. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- "Be Jazz Be open", Outletcity Meets Jazzopen, July 2017. Archived 21 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- "National Endowment for the Arts Announces Newest Recipients of Nation's Highest Honor in Jazz", National Endowment for the Arts, News, 11 July 2018. Archived 23 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine.
- Chinen, Nate, "Meet The NEA's 2019 Jazz Masters: Dorough, Ibrahim, Schneider And Crouch", NPR Music, 11 July 2018.
- "Jean Grae, Songs, Albums, Discography & Reviews". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
- "Nobody broke my heart, you know why? It's already broken. – Sathima Bea Benjamin (1936 – 2013)". Bushradio 89.5 FM. 21 August 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
- "A voice that is incessantly in exile". Africa Is a Country. 19 October 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
- Abdullah Ibrahim, South African pianist and anti-apartheid champion, dies at 91, The Star, 16 June 2026
- REPORTER, IOL (15 June 2026). "International jazz icon Abdullah Ibrahim dies aged 91". IOL. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
- "Abdullah Ibrahim: South Africa jazz legend dies at 91". www.bbc.com. 15 June 2026. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
- Lee, Benjamin (15 June 2026). "South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim dies aged 91". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
- Russonello, Giovanni (15 June 2026). "Abdullah Ibrahim, Eminent South African Jazz Pianist, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
- Yanow, Scott. "Abdullah Ibrahim – Ancient Africa". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
Sources
- Mason, John Edwin (Fall 2007). "'Mannenberg': Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem" (PDF). African Studies Quarterly. 9 (4). Retrieved 17 February 2017.
- Muller, Carol (2004). South African Music : A Century of Traditions in Transformation. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-276-9.
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Abdullah Ibrahim, a jazz pianist and composer whose elegant, meditative style mingled the sounds of his native Cape Town with musical traditions from around the world, making him an admired ambassador of the anti-apartheid movement, died on Monday in Prien am Chiemsee, a town south of Munich. He was 91.
His death, at hospital, was confirmed by Jonas Herbsman, his lawyer. He lived in nearby Aschau im Chiemgau.
Mr. Ibrahim — who was known as Dollar Brand before converting to Islam in the late 1960s — folded the music of his South African hometown into an ongoing conversation with the latest evolutions in American and European jazz. For years, he was embraced by the standard-bearers of the avant-garde music scene, including the saxophonist Ornette Coleman.
For all its disparate components, Mr. Ibrahim’s music never sounded like a crude synthesis — perhaps by dint of the unhurried grace of his playing and the deep spirituality of his approach. In his frequent solo concerts, he often performed lengthy, unbroken sets, fluidly folding together different themes and compositions as inspiration dictated.
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Their brief union was called the Jazz Epistles, and it resulted in a series of now-legendary performances in both cities, as well as the first bebop recording in South African history, “Jazz Epistle Verse 1” (1960).
Mr. Ibrahim heard in bebop — especially the quasi-cubist pianism of Thelonious Monk — an African taproot. “For us, what Monk did was so natural,” he told The Guardian. “The rhythmic approach people found weird was totally in the African tradition. When I met him, I said thank you for all the inspiration. He was so surprised; he said, you’re the first piano player to tell me that.”
‘Mannenberg’
He had hoped to become a doctor but was barred from medical school because of apartheid. Instead, he read books and practiced piano for much of the day.
In 1962, he and his girlfriend, the singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, left South Africa amid the escalating violence of apartheid and a crackdown on the District Six jazz scene. That same year, Mr. Mandela was imprisoned and the African National Congress was banned.
His former bandmates from Cape Town, Mr. Gertze and Mr. Ntshoko, followed him to Zurich, where they continued performing together, including on the album he recorded under Mr. Ellington’s supervision.
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Mr. Ibrahim and Ms. Benjamin married in London in 1965 and that year he released “Anatomy of a South African Village,” the first of a series of well-received recordings for the British label Black Lion.
That July, he made his U.S. debut at the Newport Jazz Festival, followed by performances at Carnegie Hall and the Village Vanguard in New York City. The next year, he performed five concerts with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and soon after that, he spent six months in the band of Elvin Jones, the drummer, who had recently left John Coltrane’s quartet.
A multi-instrumentalist, Mr. Ibrahim also sometimes played wood flute, saxophone and cello. In New York, he began collaborating with musicians on the cutting edge of jazz’s “new thing,” including Mr. Coleman, Don Cherry and Archie Shepp. Suffering from ill health, he gave up drinking and smoking, took up martial arts and, after a return to Cape Town in 1968, converted to Islam, taking the name Abdullah Ibrahim. Two years later, he made the hajj to Mecca.
He lived for a time in Swaziland, then returned to live in Cape Town in 1973. That emotional homecoming gave way to his best-known composition, “Mannenberg,” named for the Cape Flats township where many Capetonians displaced from District Six had moved.
Guided by a cantering, wistful piano pattern and a gentle undercurrent of goema rhythm, the nearly 14-minute “Mannenberg” recording became a foundational work in the history of so-called Cape jazz.
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“We’re on a break, and I look: There in the corner was a little upright piano,” he told the N.E.A. He started fiddling with a riff that the musicians quickly picked up on. “‘OK, let’s play it!’ And we played it for about 15 minutes,” he recalled. “But the engineer kept rolling. He didn’t even tell us that he was recording. We thought we were practicing the song. Then we realized that we had captured the mood of the people and the mood of the country.”
The tune quickly became the unofficial anthem of the country’s freedom struggle. “We had created something which was tradition, but it was affirmation of a new dawn coming,” Mr. Ibrahim told NPR in 2007.
After the Soweto uprising in 1976, Mr. Ibrahim fled the country, publicly declared his support for the African National Congress and began participating in benefit concerts, vowing not to return until democratic rule was established. The apartheid government revoked his South African citizenship. He settled again in New York with Ms. Benjamin and their two children, living for many years at the Chelsea Hotel.
Even many U.S. record companies shied away from him, he later said, in part because of his outspoken politics. Instead, he recorded most often for Enja, a German label, which remained his most consistent conduit well into the 21st century.
Starting in 1981, he briefly ran his own label, Ekapa (the Xhosa term for Cape Town). Two years later, he formed Ekaya, a midsize group of New York-based musicians that would remain his flagship ensemble for decades. He composed and performed the soundtracks for the films “Chocolat” (1988) and “No Fear, No Die” (1990), both by the French director Claire Denis, and for “Tilaï” (“The Law,” 1990), by the Burkina Faso director Idrissa Ouédraogo.
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In 1990, he met the newly freed Mr. Mandela, who encouraged him to move back to Cape Town, which he eventually did.
His marriage to Ms. Benjamin ended in divorce. Mr. Ibrahim is survived by his partner, Marina Umari; his son, Tsakwe, a pianist and guitarist; and his daughter, Tsidi, a rapper who goes by Jean Grae.
In 1999, Mr. Ibrahim opened an education center in Cape Town called M7. He said he believed that music should be understood as a means of accessing ancient wisdom.
“The concept is not that the sound belongs to an individual,” he told NPR. “There is only one sound, and all the rest is echo.”
Ash Wu contributed reporting.
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Ibrahim al-Mawsili (Ibrahim al-Mausili) (742-804). One of the greatest musicians and composers of the early ‘Abbasid period. Having learned the Persian style of singing at Rayy, he reached the summit of his career under the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. With his colleagues Ibn Jami‘ and Fulayh ibn Abi‘l-‘Awra‘ he made a selection of 100 songs which form the framework of the Book of Songs of Abu‘l-Faraj al-Isfahani.
Ibrahim al-Mausili was born of Persian parents who settled in Kufa. In his early years, his parents died and he was trained by an uncle. Singing, not study, attracted him, and at the age of twenty-three he fled to Mosul, where he joined a band of wild youths.
After a year he went to Rai (Rei, Rhagae), where he met an ambassador of the caliph Al-Mansur, who enabled him to come to Basra and take singing lessons. His fame as a singer spread, and the caliph Mahdi brought him to the court. There he remained a favorite under Hadi, while Harun al-Rashid kept him always with him until his death, when he ordered his son Al-Ma'mun to say the prayer over his corpse.
Ibrahim, as might be expected, was not a strict Muslim. Two or three times he was imprisoned for excess in wine-drinking, but was always taken into favor again. His powers of song were far beyond anything else known at the time. Two of his pupils, his sons Isiaq and Muariq, attained celebrity after him.
Mawsili, Ibrahim al- see Ibrahim al-Mawsili
Ibrahim al-Mausili see Ibrahim al-Mawsili
Mausili, Ibrahim al- see Ibrahim al-Mawsili
Ibrahima Musa (Karamoko Alfa) (d. c. 1770). Originator of the Fula Islamic revolution in Futa Jalon. He belonged to a group of Muslim Fula who settled among the non-Muslim Fula and Jalonke (Yalunka) in the 17th century. Clashes between the two groups over land and religion were frequent. In 1727-1728, Ibrahima Musa united the Muslim Fula and declared a jihad. Ibrahima Musa was a religious leader, and did not direct the military campaigns himself. Around 1776, Ibrahima went insane, and was replaced by a cousin, Ibrahima Sori, who successfully concluded the jihad in 1778.
Karamoko Alfa see Ibrahima Musa
Alfa, Karamoko see Ibrahima Musa
Musa, Ibrahima see Ibrahima Musa
Ibrahim, Anwar
Ibrahim, Anwar (Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim) (b. August 10, 1947). Malaysian Muslim activist, thinker, and politician. Anwar was born at Cerok Tok Kun, Bukit Mertajam, Penang; both his parents were active in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). He received a secular education and also, like most Malay children of the time, studied religion in the afternoon. While at the prestigious Malay College in Kuala Kangsar, Perak (1960-1966), Anwar became noted as an interscholastic debater and a school captain. He was also active in religious functions and read widely on Islam and society.
As a student of Malay studies at the University of Malaya (1967-1970), he presided over the two major student organizations, the Persatuan Kebangsaan Pelajar-pelajar Islam Malaysia (PKPIM, National Union of Malaysian Students) and Persatuan Bahasa Melayu Universiti Malaya (PBMUM, Malay Language Society of the University of Malaya). Following the communal
The establishment of Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) in 1971 made Anwar the most influential young leader of Malaysia. While earnestly calling for the islamization of Malaysian life and an integrated form of development, he also argued for justice, including safeguards for the rights of the non-Muslim population. Through ABIM Anwar had extensive contacts with most Malaysian leaders, Muslim intellectuals, and activists at home and abroad. However, neither UMNO nor its Malay Muslim opponent PAS (Partai Islam Se-Malaysia) was able to enlist Anwar, even though he shared some of the Islamic ideals of the PAS leadership. Meanwhile, Anwar concentrated on his school, Yayasan Anda, and on youth activities. His career was interrupted when he was detained for two years (1974-1976) without trial under the Internal Security Act following the Baling demonstrations. Nonetheless, on his release his popularity increased tremendously at home and abroad, so that the government could not simply ignore his stand on Islam and other issues. Hence joint programs on da‘wah (missionary activity) and related issues were held with the cooperation of various government religious agencies. In 1980, Anwar married Dr. Wan Azizah, a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin.
As a thinker, Anwar has consistently stressed justice, an integrated form of development, and excellence in education and economic production. He is influenced by such intellectuals as Syed Naguib al-Attas, Isma‘il al-Faruqi, Yusuf al-Qardhawi, Hasan al-Turabi, Malik Bennabi, and Mohammad Natsir. He also shows familiarity with such varied writers as Ibn Khaldun, al-Ghazali, R. G. Collingwood, Malcolm X, Edward Said, and Francis Fukiyama.
Among his many activities, he served as the leader of Malaysian Youth Council (1972), as a member of United Nations Advisory Group on Youth (1973-1974), as a representative of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) for Southeast Asia (1976-1982), and as a co-founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Washington, D. C. He was chancellor of the International Islamic University (IIU) at Kuala Lumpur. His 1982 entry into UMNO on Mahathir’s invitation caused displeasure, especially among those who aspired to the party’s top posts. Nevertheless, with charisma and determination, he rose to lead UMNO’s youth wing and later to serve as one of its three vice presidents. Within the government, he rose rapidly to positions including deputy minister in the prime minister’s department; minister of youth, culture, and sports; agricultural minister; and education minister. In 1993, he was minister of finance. His efforts led to the establishment of such institutions as the Islamic Bank, IIU, the Curriculum for Islamic Civilization, and other Islamically oriented programs.
Anwar served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998. Early in his career, he became a protégé of the Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's administration.
In 1999, he was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption, and in 2000, to another nine years for sodomy. In 2004, the Federal Court reversed the second conviction and he was released. In July 2008, he was arrested over allegations he sodomized a male aide, and faced new sodomy charges in the Malaysian courts.
On August 26, 2008, Anwar won the Permatang Pauh by-election with a majority of 15,671, returning to Parliament as leader of the Malaysian opposition. He has stated the need for liberalization, including an independent judiciary and free media, to combat the endemic corruption that he considers pushed Malaysia close to failed state status.
Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim see Ibrahim, Anwar
Ibrahima Sori (Ibrahima Yoro Pate) (d. c. 1792). Leader of the Fula Islamic revolution in Futa Jalon. He became leader of the jihad against the Jalonke (Yalunka) and non-Muslim Fula in 1776 after the movement’s founder Ibrahima Musa went insane. His final military victory came in 1778 when he defeated the combined forces of the Jalonke and Konde Birama, a powerful military leader from Sankaran who had previously scored a number of costly victories against the jihadists. Ibrahima established his capital at Timbo, and divided Futa into nine provinces. He was succeeded in 1791/92 by his son, Sadou, who was murdered by five years later by relatives of Ibrahima Musa. In the 19th century, the descendants of Ibrahima Sori and those of Ibrahima Musa devised a plan of alternating rule at two year intervals.
Sori, Ibrahima see Ibrahima Sori
Ibrahima Yoro Pate see Ibrahima Sori
Pate, Ibrahima Yoro see Ibrahima Sori
Ibrahim Bey al-Kabir (d. 1816). With Murad Bey, Ibrahim Bey occupied the beylicate of Egypt in a duumvirate between 1768 and 1798.
Kabir, Ibrahim Bey al- see Ibrahim Bey al-Kabir
Ibrahim Edhem Pasha (1818/1819-1893). Ottoman Grand Vizier. He is held responsible for the disastrous Turco-Russian war of 1877, but he also contributed to the modernization of Turkey.
İbrahim Edhem Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who held the office of Grand Vizier in the beginning of Abdulhamid II's reign between February 5, 1877 and January 11, 1878. He was born of Greek ancestry. As a young boy of 4 years old in 1822 he was orphaned following a revolt during the massacre of the Greek population of Chios. He was sold into slavery, brought to Constantinople and adopted by the (later) grand vizier Koca Mehmed Hüsrev Pasha. Hüsrev Pasha was well-known for his love of children and had adopted up to ten children as such, many of them ascending to important positions in society.
The child, now named İbrahim Edhem, quickly distinguished himself with his intelligence and after having attended schools in Turkey, he was dispatched along with a number of his peers, and under the supervision of his father, then grand vizier, and of the sultan Mahmud II himself, to Paris to pursue his studies under state scholarship. There, he was a classmate and a friend of Louis Pasteur. He became Turkey's first mining engineer in the modern sense, and he started his career in this field.
İbrahim Edhem Pasha was the father of Osman Hamdi Bey, a well-known archaeologist and painter, as well the founder of the İstanbul Archaeology Museum and of the İstanbul Academy of Fine Arts. Another son, Halil Edhem Eldem took up the archaeology museum after Osman Hamdi Bey's death and was a deputy for ten years under the newly founded Turkish Republic. Yet another son, İsmail Galib Bey, is considered as the founder of numismatics as a scientific discipline in Turkey.
Edhem, Ibrahim see Ibrahim Edhem Pasha
Ibrahim Haqqi Pasha (Ibrahim Hakki Pasha) (1862-1918). Ottoman statesman, diplomat and Grand Vizier. He was a moderate influence in the conflict between the Committee of Union and Progress and the opposition.
Haqqi, Ibrahim see Ibrahim Haqqi Pasha
Ibrahim Hakki Pasha see Ibrahim Haqqi Pasha
Hakki, Ibrahim see Ibrahim Haqqi Pasha
Ibrahimi, al-. Algerian reformist scholar and writer. He propagated the separation of the Muslim religion from the state, the independence of the Muslim judicial system, and the official recognition of the Arabic language.
Ibrahim ibn ‘Abd Allah (716-763). Rebel against the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur. He was a full brother of Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Nafs al-Zakiyya.
Ibrahim ibn Adham
Ibrahim ibn Adham (Abu Ben Adhem) (Abou Ben Adhem) (730-777). Sufi of Balkh in Khurasan. Legends about his life spread to Persia, India and Indonesia.
Ibrahim ibn Adham, also known as Abu Ben Adhem or Abou Ben Adhem, was an Arab Muslim saint and Sufi mystic. His full name was Sultan Ibrahim ibn Adham, Bin Mansur al-Balkhi al-Ijli, Abu Ishaq.
Mewlana Rumi has extensively described the legend of Sultan Ibrahim ibn Adham in his famous Masnavi. Ibrahim ibn Adham was born in Balkh on the east of Khurasan. His family was from Kufa, the Capital of the Caliphate of Imam 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and a major Shi'a center to this day. While some writers traced his lineage back to Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Caliph, the family tree of his most prominent Sufi descendant according to a more reliable source, Nasab o-Nisbat Farid traces the lineage of Abu Ishaq Ibrahim bin Adham bin Mansur back to 'Abdullah, the brother of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, and son of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, the grandson of Imam Abu Abd Allah Husayn ibn Ali. From a historical point of view, it is understandable that the descendents of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib would conceal their identity, as they were regarded as rebels and heretics by the Ummayyad rulers and later even the Abbasid rulers, who not only murdered each of the Twelve Imams, except for the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi the son of Imam Hasan al-Askari, but also murdered countless Sayyids for the sake of their throne and securing the Caliphate (succession) of Prophet Muhammad to themselves. As such, in his book 'Mashaikh e-Chisht', while writing about Sultan Ibrahim ibn Adham ibn Mansur al-Balkhi; the famous Indian Hadith scholar Shaykh al-Hadith Muhammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi wrote,
"His ancestry through the medium of five predecessors, links up with Hadhrat Umar (radhiyallahu anhu). Some people claim that he was a Sayyid of the line of Hadhrat Husain (radhiyallahu anhu). He was born in the city of Balkh. His nickname was Abu Ishaq. Khwajah Fudhail Bin Iyadh (radhiyallahu anhu) had conferred the mantle of Khilaafate to him. Besides being the Khalifah of Hadhrat Fudhail, he was also the Khalifah of Khwajah Imran Ibn Musa, Khwajah Imam Baqir, Khwajah Shaikh Mansur Salmi and Khwajah Uwais Qarni (rahmatullah alayhim)".
Ibrahim was the King of Balkh but abandoned the throne to become a "zahid" (ascetic worshiper). According to Arabic and Persian sources like al-Bukhari and others, Ibrahim ibn Adham received a warning from God, through al-Khidr who appeared to him twice, and as such, Ibrahim abdicated his throne to take up the ascetic life in Syria. Again, since Ibrahim abandoned the throne, it is understandable that he would be forced to conceal his true identity, and accordingly his true genealogy. It is also clear then, that since Ibrahim ibn Adham migrated to Syria, the capital of the Ummayyads, which was under turmoil, as the Abbasids were
His legend enlarged gradually from al-Bukhari to Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani and after its full formation around the eleventh century, expanded to central Asia under the Mongols, Anatolia under Ottoman rule, North India in the age of the Tughluqids, and Malaysia during the seventeenth century as revealed in the works by R. Jones.
James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) made him famous in the Western world with the poem Abou Ben Adhem, which was published for a general audience in 1838. Hunt had written it out, and perhaps had composed it expressly, for Mrs Samuel Carter Hall's drawing-room album; it was first published by her husband in a gift book, The Amulet, in 1834.[2] Leigh Hunt had read in Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville's Bibliothèque Orientale (1781) of the Islamic belief that on the night of Shab-i-Barat, "The Night of Records’ in the month of "Sha'ban" Allah takes the golden book of mankind and crosses off the names of those whom he is calling to him in the coming year, those whom he loves." The poem is by far the most famous that Hunt wrote.
As an interesting side note, he was quoted during the opening of the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1901 as follows: "Abou Ben Adhem awakened from a dream, found an angel, writing in a book of gold the name of those whom love of God has blessed. "And is mine there?" he asked. But the angel answered, "Nay." "I pray thee, then," he said, "write me as one who loves his fellow men." The angel wrote and vanished. The next night it came again, with a great awakening light, and showed the names whom love of God had blessed. And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." "[3]
[edit] See also
Abu Ben Adhem see Ibrahim ibn Adham
Abou Ben Adhem see Ibrahim ibn Adham
Ibrahim ibn ‘Ali ibn Hasan al-Saqqa‘ (1797-1881). Teacher and preacher from Cairo. He gave an oration at the ceremony of the opening of the Suez Canal.
Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi (779-839). ‘Abbasid prince. He was a son of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi and was proclaimed caliph in 817 against the reigning al-Ma‘mun, but had to resign in 819. Afterwards he led the life of a poet-musician.
Ibrahim ibn al-Walid I ibn ‘Abd al-Malik. Umayyad Caliph in 744. After the death of his brother Caliph Yazid II, who reigned for a couple of months in 744, Ibrahim was recognized as a caliph in the southern part of Syria but he soon submitted to the new Caliph Marwan II and became a member of the latter’s coterie of advisers.
Ibrahim ibn Al-Walid (Arabic: ابراهيم ابن الوليد بن عبد الملك) was an Umayyad caliph. He only ruled for a short time in 744 before he abdicated, and went into hiding out of fear of his political opponents. The shortness of this time and his incomplete acceptance led Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari to state that he did not succeed in becoming caliph (v. 26, p. 247). However, at Tabari (p. 13) does record that Ibrahim as caliph did confirm the appointment of Abdallah ibn Umar as governor of Iraq. (v. 27, p. 13)
Ibrahim was named heir apparent by his brother Yazid III. Marwan II decided to oppose Yazid III, and even though he later gave allegiance to Yazid, on the early death of that caliph, Marwan continued his own ambitions. Ibrahim requested and was granted Marwan's assurance of personal safety. He travelled with Marwan to former Caliph Hisham's residence at Rusafah in Syria.
[edit] Bibliography
Ibrahim ibn Muhammad (Ibrahim al-Imam) (701-749). Leader of the ‘Abbasid propaganda against the Umayyads.
Ibrahim ibn Muhammad (Arabic script إبرهيم بن محمد) was the male child of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and Maria al-Qibtiyya. He was born in the last month of the year 8 AH. The child was named after Abraham, the common ancestor of both Muslims and Jews. The child was placed in the care of a wet nurse called Umm Sayf, wife of Abu Sayf, the blacksmith, in the tradition of the Arabs of the time, to whom Muhammad gave some goats to complement her milk supply.
Ibrahim fell seriously ill sometime after the Battle of Tabuk at which time he was reported as being either sixteen or eighteen months old. He was moved to a date orchard near the residence of his mother, under her care and her sister Sirin. When it was clear that he would not likely survive Muhammad was informed.
His reaction to the news is reported as:
“He was so shocked at the news that he felt his knees could no more carry him, and asked `Abd al Rahman ibn `Awf to give him his hand to lean upon. He proceeded immediately to the orchard and arrived in time to bid farewell to an infant dying in his mother's lap. Muhammad took the child and laid him in his own lap with shaking hand. His heart was torn apart by the new tragedy, and his face mirrored his inner pain. Choking with sorrow, he said to his son, "O Ibrahim, against the judgement of God, we cannot avail you a thing," and then fell silent. Tears flowed from his eyes. The child lapsed gradually, and his mother and aunt watched and cried loudly and incessantly, but the Prophet never ordered them to stop. As Ibrahim surrendered to death, Muhammad's hope which had consoled him for a brief while completely crumbled. With tears in his eyes he talked once more to the dead child: "O Ibrahim, were the truth not certain that the last of us will join the first, we would have mourned you even more than we do now." A moment later he said: "The eyes send their tears and the heart is saddened, but we do not say anything except that which pleases our Lord. Indeed, O Ibrahim, we are bereaved by your departure from us.”
Muhammad is also reported as having informed Mariyah and Sirin that Ibrahim would have his own nurse in Paradise. Different accounts relate that the ghusl for Ibrahim was performed by either Umm Burdah, or al-Fadl ibn `Abbas, in preparation for burial. Thereafter, he was carried to the cemetery upon a little bed among others by the Prophet, his uncle al-`Abbas. Here, after a funeral prayer led by the Prophet, he was interred. Muhammad then filled the grave with sand, sprinkled some water upon it, and placed a landmark on it, whereupon he is reported as saying that "Tombstones do neither good nor ill, but they help appease the living. Anything that man does, God wishes him to do well."
Abbas, the uncle of Muhammad has reported the following narration which is recorded by Ibn Maja.
The occasion of the death of Ibrahim also coincided with an eclipse of the sun (probably the annular eclipse which occurred in the early morning of 27 January 632, equivalent with the last or the penultimate day of Shawwal, 10 AH), a phenomenon the Muslims began to circulate by rumor as a miracle. The word went out saying that the sun was eclipsed in sadness over the death of Ibrahim. Upon hearing this Muhammad is reported as saying "The sun and the moon are signs of God. They are eclipsed neither for the death nor birth of any man. On beholding an eclipse, therefore, remember God and turn to Him in prayer."
Ibrahim al-Imam see Ibrahim ibn Muhammad
Imam, Ibrahim al- see Ibrahim ibn Muhammad
Ibrahim ibn Shirkuh. Ayyubid prince of Aleppo and Damascus and cousin of Saladin (r.1240-1246). He several times defeated the Khwarazmians.
Ibrahim Lodi (d. April 21, 1526). Last of the Lodi Sultans of Delhi. He indulged in acts of capricious tyranny. The Punjab rose in rebellion under Dawlat Khan Lodi, who invited the Chagatay Turk Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty, to attack India. The battle of Panipat of 1526, in which Ibrahim was killed, marked the beginning of Mughal rule in India.
Ibrahim Lodi was the last ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. He was an Afghan (specifically of the Ghilzai tribe of Pashtuns) who ruled over much of India from 1517-1526, when he was defeated by the Mughals, who established a new dynasty that would last some three centuries.
Lodi attained the throne upon the death of his father, Sikandar Lodi, but was not blessed with the same ruling capability. He faced a number of rebellions. The Mewar ruler Rana Sanga extended his empire right up to western Uttar Pradesh and threatened to attack Agra. There was rebellion in the East also. Lodi also displeased the nobility when he replaced old and senior commanders with younger ones who were loyal to him. He was feared and loathed by his subjects. His Afghan nobility eventually invited Babur of Kabul to invade India.
Ibrahim died in the Battle of Panipat, where Babur's superior fighters and the desertion of many of Lodi's soldiers led to his downfall, despite superior troop numbers.
Lodi, Ibrahim see Ibrahim Lodi
Ibrahim Muteferriqa (1670/1674-1745). Ottoman statesman, diplomat, and founder of the first Turkish printing press. He wrote a passionate condemnation of Catholicism and of the temporal power of the Papacy. The work seems to have been written to prove the link between the author’s early Unitarianism and his passage to Islam. His printing press began operation in 1727 to promote Islamic learning.
Ibrahim Müteferrika was a Transylvanian-born Ottoman polymath: a publisher, printer, courtier, diplomat, man of letters, astronomer, historian, historiographer, Islamic scholar and theologian, sociologist, and the first Muslim to run a printing press with movable Arabic type. His volumes, printed in Istanbul and using custom-made fonts, are occasionally referred to as "Turkish incunabula". Muteferrika, whose last name is derived from his employment as a müteferrika, head of the household, under Sultan Ahmed III and during the Tulip Era, was also a geographer, astronomer, and philosopher.
Born in Kolozsvár (present-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania), he was an ethnic Hungarian Unitarian who converted to Islam. His original Hungarian language name is unknown.
Following a 1726 report on the efficiency of the new system, which he drafted and presented simultaneously to Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha, the Grand Mufti, and the clergy, and a later request submitted to Sultan Ahmed, he received permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from some calligraphers and religious leaders). Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729, and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes (each having between 500 and 1,000 copies).
Among the works published by Müteferrika were historical and generically scientific works, as well as Katip Çelebi's world atlas Cihannüma (loosely translated as The Mirror of the World or the World Seer). In the appendices that he added to his printing, Müteferrika discussed the Copernican view of astronomy in detail, with references to relatively up-to-date scientific arguments for and against it. In this regard, he is considered one of the first people to properly introduce heliocentrism to Ottoman readers.
A statue of Müteferrika can be found just outside the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
Muteferriqa, Ibrahim see Ibrahim Muteferriqa
Ibrahim Pasha (1789, Kavalla, Rumelia [now Kaval, Greece] – November 10, 1848, Cairo, Egypt). Conqueror and governor of Syria (1832-1840). Ibrahim was the son of Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt.
Ibrahim Pasha was a 19th century general of Egypt. He is better known as the son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt. Ibrahim served as Regent for his father from July to November 10, 1848.
A son, or adopted son, of the famous vali Muḥammad ʿAlī, in 1805 Ibrahim joined his father in Egypt, where he was made governor of Cairo. During 1816–18, he successfully commanded an army against the Wahhabite rebels in Arabia. Muḥammad ʿAlī sent him on a mission to the Sudan in 1821–22, and on his return he helped train the new Egyptian army along European lines. When the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II asked for Egyptian assistance to crush the Greek revolt, an expedition commanded by Ibrahim landed in Greece in 1824 and subdued the Morea (Peloponnese), but a combined British, French, and Russian squadron eventually compelled the Egyptian force to withdraw.
It was in Syria that Ibrahim and his French chief of staff, O.J.A. Sève (Suleiman Pasha al-Faransawi), won military fame. In 1831–32, after a disagreement between Muḥammad ʿAlī and the Ottoman sultan, Ibrahim led an Egyptian army through Palestine and defeated an Ottoman army at Homs. He then forced the Bailan Pass and crossed the Taurus, gaining a final victory at Konya on December 21, 1832. By the Convention of Kütahya, signed on May 4, 1833, Syria and Adana were ceded to Egypt, and Ibrahim became governor-general of the two provinces.
Ibrahim’s administration was relatively enlightened. At Damascus, he created a consultative council of notables and suppressed the feudal regime. But his measures were harshly applied and roused sectarian opposition. Sultan Mahmud resented the Egyptian occupation, and in 1839 an Ottoman army invaded Syria. At Nizip on June 24 Ibrahim won his last and greatest victory; the Ottoman fleet deserted to Egypt. Fearing the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the European powers negotiated the Treaty of London in July 1840, by which Muḥammad ʿAlī forfeited Syria and Adana in return for the hereditary rule of Egypt. British naval forces threatened the Egyptians, who evacuated the occupied territories in the winter of 1840–41. By 1848 Muḥammad ʿAlī had become senile, and Ibrahim was appointed viceroy but ruled for only 40 days before his death on November 10, 1848.
Ibrahim Pasha (Pargalı İbrahim Pasha) (Frenk İbrahim Pasha) (Maqbul – “the favorite”; Maqtul – “the executed”) (1493-1536) was the Ottoman Grand Vizier. Having been appointed Grand Vizier and beylerbey of Rumeli by Sultan Sulayman II at the very early age of thirty, he reached the zenith of his power after having occupied Tabriz and Baghdad in 1534. In 1536, he quite unexpectedly was strangled.
Pargalı İbrahim Pasha, also called Frenk İbrahim Pasha, was an Albanian and was the first Grand Vizier appointed by Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520 to 1566). In 1523, he replaced Piri Mehmed Pasha, who had been appointed in 1518 by Süleyman I's father, the preceding sultan Selim I, and remained in office for 13 years. He attained a level of authority and influence rivalled by only a handful of other Grand Viziers of the Empire, but in 1536 he was executed by the Sultan and his property was confiscated by the State.
Albanian by birth, born in the town of Parga, he was sold as a slave at the age of six to the Ottoman palace for future sultans situated in Manisa in Western Anatolia. There he was befriended by Suleiman who was of the same age, and later, upon Suleiman's accession, was awarded various posts, the first being falconer to the Sultan. He was so rapidly promoted that at one point he begged Suleiman to not promote him too rapidly for fear of arousing jealousy. Pleased with this display of modesty, Suleiman purportedly swore that he would never be put to death during his reign. Later, after being appointed Grand Vizier, he continued to receive many gifts from the sultan, and his power in the Ottoman Empire was absolute, just as his master's.
Although he married Süleyman's sister and was as such a bridegroom to the Ottoman dynasty (Damat), this title is not frequently used in association with him, possibly in order not to confuse him with other grand viziers who were namesakes (Damat İbrahim Pasha (a Bosniak) and Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha (Turkish). He is usually referred to as "Pargalı İbrahim Pasha" or "Frenk (the European) İbrahim Pasha" due to his tastes and manners. Yet another name given by his contemporaries was "Makbul Maktul (loved and killed) İbrahim Pasha".
His magnificent palace still standing in İstanbul is called Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. Built according to a design which is unmistakably defensive in concept (he had fearsome rivals), his palace is the only residence built by someone outside the Ottoman dynasty that is deemed worthy enough to be designated as a palace.
On the diplomatic front, İbrahim's work with Western Christendom was a complete success. Portraying himself as "the real power behind the Ottoman Empire", İbrahim used a variety of tactics to negotiate favorable deals with the leaders of the Catholic powers. The Venetian diplomats even referred to him as "İbrahim the Magnificent", a play on Suleiman's usual sobriquet. In 1533, he convinced Charles V to turn Hungary into an Ottoman vassal state. In 1535, he completed a monumental agreement with Francis I that gave France favorable trade rights within the Ottoman empire in exchange for joint action against the Habsburgs. This agreement would set the stage for joint Franco-Ottoman naval maneuvers, including the basing of the entire Ottoman fleet in southern France (in Nice) during the winter of 1543.
A skilled commander of Suleiman's army, he eventually fell from grace after an imprudence committed during a campaign against the Persian Safavid empire, when he awarded himself a title including the word Sultan. This incident launched a series of events which culminated in his execution in 1536, thirteen years after having been promoted as Grand Vizier. It has also been suggested by a number of sources that Ibrahim Pasha had been a victim of Hürrem Sultan's (Roxelana, the sultan's wife) rising influence on the sovereign, especially in view of his past support for the cause of Sehzade Mustafa, Suleiman I's first son and heir to the throne, who was later strangled to death by his father on October 6, 1553, through a series of plots put in motion by Roxelana.
Since Suleiman had sworn not to take Ibrahim's life during his reign, he acquired a fetva, which permitted him to take back the oath by building a mosque in İstanbul. He announced the fetva one week before İbrahim's execution and dined alone with him seven times before the final move, so to give his life-long friend a chance to flee the country or to take the sultan's own life. It was later discovered in İbrahim's letters that he was perfectly aware of the situation but nevertheless decided to stay true to Suleiman.
Suleiman later greatly regretted İbrahim's execution and his character changed dramatically, to the point where he became completely secluded from the daily work of governing. His regrets are reflected in his poems, in which even after twenty years he continually stresses topics of friendship and of love and trust between friends and often hints on character traits similar to Ibrahim's.
Maqbul see Ibrahim Pasha
The Favorite see Ibrahim Pasha
Maqtul see Ibrahim Pasha
The Executed see Ibrahim Pasha
Pargalı İbrahim Pasha see Ibrahim Pasha
Frenk İbrahim Pasha see Ibrahim Pasha
Ibrahim Pasha, Damad (Damad Ibrahim) (Damat Ibrahim Pasha) (1550-1601). Ottoman vizier under Ahmed II. Of Bosnian origin, he took command of the Ottoman armies engaged in the Hungarian war.
Damat İbrahim Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who held the office of Grand Vizier three times (the first time from April 4 to October 27, 1596; the second time from December 5, 1596 to November 3, 1597; and for the third and last time, from January 6, 1599 to July 10, 1601. He is known as the conqueror of Kanije.
Ibrahim is also called with the title "Damat", because he was a bridegroom to the ruling Ottoman monarch. He is not to be confused with either Pargalı İbrahim Pasha, illustrious grand vizier of Süleyman the Magnificent with Greek origins, also a "Damat", or with Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha, who held office in early 18th century during the Tulip Era in the Ottoman Empire.
Damat İbrahim Pasha was of Serbian extraction. He rose in the ranks during the period when virtual authority and influence was held by Mehmed-paša Sokolović. In 1581, shortly after Mehmet Pasha's death, İbrahim Pasha married Ayşe Sultan, daughter of the reigning Murad III and became the Governor of Egypt. But due to his absence from the capital and with Sokollu Mehmet Pasha dead, his influence waned for the rest of the reign of Murad III.
He made a comeback under the reign of Mehmed III, becoming grand vizier in 1596 for the first time. His recall was particularly due to the loss of territories in the border regions between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy in Hungary. Rather than dashing toward immediate action, he distinguished himself as an orderly, methodical and prudent statesman who preferred to start by conducting a review of the entire Ottoman administrative system based on the focal point of the prepared campaign against Austria. The campaign as such proved a success and İbrahim Pasha acquired the title of "the conqueror of Eger" (north-east of Budapest) for his sultan, although he was the one who held the effective command. Since he favored solidifying the state structure and the gains acquired rather than pursuing Austrians, for which he had been dismissed from the post of grand vizier, at first for a short interval of forty-five days at the end of 1596, and then for a second time at the end of the following year.
Damat Ibrahim Pasha was called back to the post in 1599 on the condition that he was to launch a campaign against Austria. He started his campaign by feigning to menace Vienna directly by heading toward Esztergom (conquered by Süleyman the Magnificent in 1543 and lost back in 1595) but finally spent the winter in Belgrade. Then he began to put pressure on Austria through a more southern route by besieging the castle of Kanije. The Turkish slaves in the castle exploded the powder magazines and very badly damaged the walls. But the castle still did not surrender and an army of 20,000 soldiers commanded by Philippe Emanuel arrived to the assistance of the besieged. However, the Ottoman Army finally defeated both of the armies and the castle surrendered. Tiryaki Hasan Pasha was appointed as the governor of the newly conquered city.
Kanije was transformed into the center of new Ottoman attacks in Central Europe. In September 1601, an attempt by a huge Austrian army to take back the castle was thwarted by the governor Tiryaki Hasan Pasha. Damat İbrahim Pasha died the same year. Esztergom was retaken by the Ottoman Empire in 1605.
Damad Ibrahim Pasha see Ibrahim Pasha, Damad
Damad Ibrahim see Ibrahim Pasha, Damad
Damat Ibrahim Pasha see Ibrahim Pasha, Damad
"The Conqueror of Eger" see Ibrahim Pasha, Damad
Ibrahim Pasha, Nevshehirli (Nevshehirli Ibrahim Pasha) (Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha) (d. October 16, 1730) Ottoman Grand Vizier. His vizierate began in 1718 and is known as “The Tulip Period.”
Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha was married to the daughter of the sultan, Princess Hatice, who was reported to have a certain degree on influence on both him and her father; some sources even called her the real ruler of the Tulip Era.
The abilities of Sultan Ahmed’s Grand Vizier Ibrahim, who directed the government from 1718 to 1730, preserved an unusual internal peace in the empire, though the frontier provinces were often the scenes of disorder and revolt. This was repeatedly the case in Egypt and Arabia, and still more frequently in the districts northward and eastward of the Black Sea, especially among the fierce Noghai tribes of the Kuban. The state of the countries between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea was rendered still more unsettled by the rival claims of Russia and the Porte; it was difficult to define a boundary between the two empires in pursuance of the partition treaty of 1723.
Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha was executed in 1730 during the Patrona Halil rebellion.
The epithet "Nevşehirli" (meaning "from Nevşehir") is used to distinguish this Grand Vizier from another, Damat İbrahim Pasha (died 1601).
Nevshehirli Ibrahim Pasha see Ibrahim Pasha, Nevshehirli
Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha see Ibrahim Pasha, Nevshehirli
Ibrahim Shah Sharqi. Ruler of the dynasty of the Sharqi Sultans of Jawnpur (r.1402-1440). He was a patron of art and letters and graced his capital with many fine buildings.
Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi was the Sultan of the Sharqi dynasty in South Asia.
Sultan Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, the most noted ruler of this dynasty was a patron of Islamic learning and established a number of colleges for this purpose. A large number of scholarly works on Islamic theology and law was produced during his reign. He constructed a number of monuments in a new regional style of architecture known as the Sharqi. During his reign, Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah II Tughluq took refuge in Jaunpur in order to get rid of the control of Mallu Iqbal Khan over him. However, Sultan Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi did not treat Sultan Mahmud Shah well. As a result, his relations with the Sultan became bitter and Mahmud Shah occupied Kanauj. In 1407, Sultan Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi tried to recover Kanauj but failed. Sultan Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi attempts to conquer Bengal also failed. Sultan Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi was succeeded by his son Sultan Saifuddin Mahmud Shah Sharqi after his death.
The Jaunpur sultanate was ruled by the Sharqi dynasty. The Khwajah-i-Jahan Malik Sarwar, the first ruler of the dynasty was a Wazir (minister) under Sultan Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah III Tughluq (1390 – 1394 CE). In 1394 CE, he established himself as an independent ruler of Jaunpur and extended his authority over Awadh and a large part of Ganga-Yamuna doab. The dynasty founded by him was named so because of his title Malik-us-Sharq (the ruler of the east). The most acclaimed ruler of this dynasty was Ibrahim Shah. The last ruler Hussain Shah was overthrown by Bahlul Lodi, and Jaunpur sultanate was permanently annexed to Delhi sultanate by Sikandar Lodi.
Sharqi, Ibrahim Shah see Ibrahim Shah Sharqi.
Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah Sharqi see Ibrahim Shah Sharqi.
Sharqi, Shamsuddin Ibrahim Shah see Ibrahim Shah Sharqi.
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