About Misri

Ibrahim Bey El Misri (in the portrait) was born in Old Cairo in the late 1800s in the House of Misri. His brother, Khattab Bey, was a “nazer” ناظر, a khedival dignitary title equivalent to minister/lord/secretary today.

The House of Misri was an aristocratic family inhabiting Cairo prior to its rapid expansion in the 20th century. Its residence in Old Cairo was within the old city’s walls and stood near one of Cairo’s now-demolished gates, on the banks of a pharaonic canal at the northern end of Cairo. The House of Misri itself remained until it was unfortunately demolished in the early 1980s.

Both brothers were educated at the Ecole St Joseph de Khoronfish, the first Catholic and French school in Cairo founded in the 1850s by Les Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes, also known as Les Frères de La Salle (or Lasalliens). They would have been classmates and contemporaries of prominent Egyptian figures such as prime ministers Ismail Pasha Sedky, Adly Pasha Yakan, and Mustafa Pasha Fahmi, as well as revolutionaries Saad Pasha Zaghloul (centre figure in the picture) and Mustafa Pasha Kamel. As well as enabling them to operate in the aforementioned high state functions, their fluency in at least three languages -Arabic, French, and English- helped make Cairo a centre of trade between Europe, Asia, and Africa after the opening of the Suez Canal, just as it had been under the Mamelukes when it had linked Venice with India and the Far East.

Misri in Arabic means Egyptian, but also means Cairene. At Misri, we take the meaning of our name seriously and we not only make jewelry to be worn. We make jewelry that represents our origins and ancestors and tells the history of Old Cairo and a 5000 year old country, Egypt.

Cairo's -and Egypt's- legacy of bringing together distant places and people with their multiple ethnicities, languages, and religions continues to inspire Ibrahim Bey’s great grandson, whose basic command of more than half a dozen languages and strong links with the biggest mining centres allow Misri to specialise in coloured gemstones sourced from the furthest corners of the world.