Kamāl al-Dīn

He was a member of a prominent business family al-Kharrubis that appeared during the Mamluk era of Egypt. Al-Karrubis served as an example of an ascendant wealthy merchant family which rise could be traced from the 13th til 15th century. "Kharrub" in Arabic means "carob bean". The oldest known family ancestor, Salah al-Din al-Misri al-Kharrubi thus might have been a carob retailer.

They were part of Karimi merchant guild comprised of the Muslim merchants who traded spices, perfumes, sugar, pottery, textiles and other goods between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Allegedly, the family originated from Kharrub square in al-Fustat, where carob was commonly sold.

Some Kharrūbī family merchants sought even higher positions or titles from the government. In 1379, Kamāl al-Dīn, a grandson of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Kharrūbī, was arrested and whipped by Amir Barqūq (later reigned 784–791/1382–89, 792–801/1390–99) for attempting to obtain the rank of vizier with a bribe of 100,000 dinars. Following that incident, Kamāl al-Dīn was exiled to Qūṣ in Upper Egypt, where he was ordered to reside until his death.

Fifteen years later, in 796/1394 when Timur attempted to invade Syria, three influential Kārimī merchants – Burhān al-Dīn al-Maḥallī, Shihāb al-Dīn Ibn Musallam, and Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn al-Kharrūbī – supplied Sultan Barqūq with 1,000,000 dirhams for the war against Timur. The three Kārimī merchant’s share thus amounted to ten percent of the 10,000,000 dirhams spent on Barqūq’s royal mamlūks just prior to the war. The exiled Kamāl al-Dīn, of course, had no chance to join in contributing money to the sultan.