ZOBEIR RAHAMA (1830-1913), Egyptian Pasha and Sudanese governor whose name is mentioned in connection with the campaign for the restoration of Mahārājā Duleep Siṅgh to the throne of the Punjab, was a member of a family which claimed descent from the Quraish tribe through 'Abbās, uncle of Muhammad. He was a leading ivory and slave trader on the White Nile. Nominally a subject of Egypt, he raised an army of several thousand well-armed blacks and became a dangerous rival to the Egyptian authorities. He participated on the side of the Turks in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877. Because of the influence he commanded in international affairs, Mahārājā Duleep Siṅgh on his return to Europe from Aden in 1886 sought to enlist his support. His agent, Abdul Rasūl Kashmīrī, met Zobeir in Cairo. Zobeir attracted the notice of the Government of India who in 1888 sent two of its agents ---Munshī 'Azīz ud-Dīn and Jasvant Siṅgh called "father of the turban" by Zobeir on account of his unwieldy turban to Cairo posing as friends of the Mahārājā. That was the time of the decline of Zobeir. All his property had been confiscated and he was living in a house near the railway station in Cairo. Though allowed personal freedom he was carefully watched and his movements restricted. The only names from among Duleep Siṅgh's friends in India he remembered were those of Bābā Khem Siṅgh Bedī and some chiefs near Fīrozpur (presumably the Rājā of Farīdkoṭ).