182 Abdullah Consolidates his Claims.

1890. The victory of Toski had the effect of crushing for several years any important movement northwards on the part of the Dervishes, and the recapture of Tokar in February, 1891 (v. p. 192), caused the Khalifa still more to draw in his horns.

The Shilluks were meanwhile giving the Dervishes considerable trouble in the neighbourhood of Fashoda, 1891. and in 1891 Zeki Tumal was sent against them ; two steamers had stuck in the sudd in the winter of 1888, and had been taken by the Shilluks, and desperate efforts were made by the Dervishes to effect their recapture {v. p. 198).

In August, 1891, the Nuer were used as allies by the Dervishes, and succeeded in killing the Sultan of the Shilluks. Soon afterwards, however, the Nuer turned against their allies and expelled them from the country south of Fashoda, whilst the Shilluks inflicted a severe defeat on their enemy near Fashoda, in December, 1891, and again in January, 1893. The war was waged with indecisive results till 1894, when the Dervishes finally crushed the Shilluks and murdered their Queen. Since then the Dervishes have had a small tax-collecting outpost at Fashoda, and the riverain tribes have remained fairly quiet.

During 1891 the Khalifa, alarmed at a rumour of an Egyptian advance, expressed himself as desirous for peace, but in December of that year he showed his true hand. He had long been aiming at making the Khalifate a hereditary succession, and, finding an excuse for quarrelling with the Khalifa Sherif, he threw him into prison and loaded him with chains.* He would, no doubt, have liked to do the same with the remaining Khalifa, AH wad Helu, but the latter Sheikh had too powerful a following of Degheim and Kenana, and Abdullah desisted. At the same time, however, he effected a clean sweep of all disaffected Emirs, and, by executing some and exiling the majority, he succeeded • in consolidating his own dominion. His nearest relations are his brother, Yakub, and his son, Osman Sheikh ed • Din ; of these two he intends his son to succeed him.

* The Khalifa Sherif was not released till July, 1895.