Born at Alexandria 10 October 1880, the eldest child of Ibrahim Ata, farmer and landowner at Moutoubis near Rosetta, and his wife Mabrouka Khafegi. He was educated at Ras-el-Tin School, Alexandria 1888-92, at Khedivieh School; Cairo 1892-96, and at the Cairo School of Medicine 1896-1901. Immediately after qualification he acquitted himself with great credit in the plague epidemic of 1901 and the cholera epidemic of 1902. He was appointed director of hospitals at Beni Suef 1903, and at Aswan 1904, when he attracted approbation by his successful suppression of an epidemic of anthrax at Tukh. The same year he was moved to the hospital at Asiut; he then took a further course in anatomy at the Government School of Medicine, Cairo, with a view to undertaking more special surgery. In 1910 he was made assistant surgeon at the Kasr-el-Aini, Cairo. He was nominated the following year, 1911, chief of the Egyptian Red Crescent mission to Turkey, of which Egypt was still a quasi-dependency, during the Balkan war; and he further widened this experience by visiting European clinics. Returning to Cairo he established his fame as. surgeon to the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital, and was appointed director of the Hospital and dean of the Medical Faculty in 1929. He had been professor of surgery since 1924, and was an excellent teacher. Ibrahim steadily promoted the active connexion of his school with foreign medical bodies and particularly with the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was a patriot of broad mind, who believed that the interests of Egyptian educational and scientific progress could best be served by attracting the best men of whatever nationality. He was also an administrator of vision and ability, who inspired the reconstruction of Kasr-el-Aini and the creation of the great Fouad I Hospital at Cairo. Towards the end of his life he planned and successfully started a new full-scale medical school at Alexandria. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1928. He became rector of the Fouad I University in 1941, having been vice-rector since 1936. He was president of various professional bodies such as the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, the Egyptian Medical Association which he founded and the semi-official "Medical Order" whose creation he had promoted. He was appointed Minister of Health in 1940, but finding political life uncongenial he soon resumed his academic work. Ibrahim was a man of artistic taste, an amateur of music, and a collector of Persian carpets. He was president of the Egyptian Institute in 1941, and president of the executive council of the Cairo Arab Museum. He married in May 1913 Hafiza Wahbi Ragheb, who survived him with two sons and a daughter. One son, Dr Hassan Ibrahim, was admitted FRCS by examination on 12 December 1946. Ibrahim died at 2 Khalil Agha Street, Garden City, Cairo, on 28 January 1947, aged 66. There is a good photograph of him in the College library collection. His most valuable original studies were made on amoebic abscess of the liver, on bilharzia of the ureter, on funiculitis and hydrocele; and he perfected the operation of splenectomy. Select bibliography:- Bilharziasis of the ureter. *Lancet*, 1923, 2, 1184. Relation of funiculitis to hydrocele in Egypt. *Lancet*, 1927, 2, 272. Splenomegaly. *Internat Congress of Tropical Medicine, Cairo *1928, *Comptes rendus*, 3. Stones of the ureter. *Brit J Urol* 1929, 1, 396. Stones of the gall-bladder. * J Egypt med Ass* 1934, 17, 661. Relation of hydrocele to endemic funiculitis. *J Egypt med Ass* 1935, 18, 661. Conditions chirurgicales de la Bilharziose. *Société internat de Chirurgie, Congrès* 10, Cairo 1935. Sarcoma of the glans penis. *J Egypt med Ass* 1937, 20, 602. Amoebic liver abscess. *J Egypt med Ass* 1938, 21, 177.