Ibrahim Pasha (1789-1848) was an outstanding Turkish military and administrative leader in the eastern Mediterranean area of the Ottoman Empire.

Ibrahim Pasha was born in Kavalla in what is now Greek Macedonia but was then an important Ottoman provincial center. He joined his father, Mohammed Ali, in Egypt in 1805, the same year that the Ottoman sultan had reluctantly accepted Mohammed Ali as his governor and representative. Ibrahim became his father's right-hand man in military affairs, and Mohammed Ali's success in beginning the modernization of Egypt and in establishing an autonomous Egypt ruled by his own dynasty was due to the prowess and skill of both father and son.

In 1811 Mohammed Ali sent Ibrahim to Upper Egypt to defeat the remaining Mamluks, to control the Bedouin, and to assert the power of the new government. Ibrahim remained as local governor until 1816, when the Sultan rewarded him for his services...