Ibrahim Mukhtar (1909 - 1969) was the first
Grand Mufti of
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
as appointed by the Italian colonial administration. Ibrahim's first language was
Saho. He graduated from
al-Azhar University
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in 1937.
The Grand Mufti resisted
Ethiopian oppression of Eritrea. He however, maintained a pragmatic and delicate balance between outright defiance and his official role as a Muslim community leader under Ethiopian rule. In 1960 he published an article describing the Ethiopian regime in Eritrea as "colonial."
After Sheikh Ibrahim's death, the office of the Grand Mufti of Eritrea was discontinued until August 1992, following the liberation of Eritrea.
Ibrahim Mukhtar was a prolific author, with several dozen unpublished texts about a wide array of religious, historical, linguistic and literary subjects.
References
1909 births
1969 deaths
Eritrean Muslims
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