Ibrahim Mukhtar (1909 - 1969) was the first Grand Mufti of Eritrea as appointed by the Italian colonial administration. Ibrahim's first language was Saho. He graduated from al-Azhar University 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."