Ahly started with their star figures in Marwan Mohsen, Ali Maaloul and Ramy Rabia amongst others with qualification to the knockout stages at stake.
The first scare five minutes from kick-off saw Karim Aribi finding space around the six-yard area to get a shot away, but goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shenawy denied the latter.
Ahly remained on the back foot, with El-Shennawy pulling off a one-on-one save from a free-flowing attacking move 19 minutes gone.
El-Shahat came up with Ahly's first chance of the game on the half-hour mark when he dragged Mohsen's decent pass wide of the bottom corner.
However, Ahly drew the first blood on 32 minutes when Junior Ajayi turned home a well-worked delivery after the Tunisian heavyweights went to sleep at the back.
The Egyptian giants made a change ten minutes in the second half, with Ahmed El Sheikh making way for Kahraba.
Ahly strongly pushed to double their advantage with more offensive power in Walid Soliman, but Etoile refused to play ball and defended strongly.
The record-breaking African champions, who lost the reverse fixture 1-0, failed to add to their tally but had done enough to secure victory and are a step away from the knockout stages.