n.i.xv. IN THE MIDDLE AGES 151
the rest of the fourteenth century continued in intermittent possession
of Aswan, flouting the authority of the Sultan of Egypt.
Though they lost Aswan in 1412 a.d. to the Howara Berbers^, who destroyed it and laid waste its confines, they remained the most
powerful tribe on the Sudan-Egyptian border until the Turks under
Seli'm I conquered the country in 15 17".
APPENDIX
On the penetration of the Sudan by Berber Tribes.
We have seen that innumerable Arabs pushed westwards and coalesced with the Berber tribes, of whom the best known were the Sanhaga, the Ketama, the LuATA, the Masmuda, the Howara, the Lamta, the Zenata, the MuGHiLA, the Nafza and the Ghomara^. But it will also have been noted that, though the main body of the Berber race remained in occupation of the country lying between Egypt and the Atlantic, founding a series of powerful dynasties*, and sending offshoots southwards towards the Niger^, many of them continued to settle as their ancestors had done in Egyptian
territory, or to raid it, as seemed most convenient^. It will be noted in
particular that the so-called Fatimite conquest of Egypt in 969 a.d. was
effected almost entirely by Berber, Ketama for the most part, and un- doubtedly marked the beginning of a period of increased Berber immi-
gration'.
^ Makn'zi, Khetdt, ii, 575, and Burckhardt, Nubia, p. 517. In 1394 the Howara had been in league with the Awlad Kanz in one of the latter's periodical attacks on Aswan and had joined them in pillaging it.
- For their distribution in the Sudan at the present day see Appendix to ABC in Part IV.
^ See Ibn Khaldun, ed. ar. Vol. 6, pp. 93 ff., Bk. ni ; or Mas'udi, Vol. ni, Ch. XLVi.
* The "Almohades" (El Muwahhidin) were chiefly Masmuda and Lamtuna, the " Almoravides " (El Merabitin) Sanhaga.
* By el Bekri's day (1067 a.d.) Audaghost on the southern border of the Great Desert, on the boundary of Ghana, was peopled chiefly by Zenata (Cooley, pp. 1-29), and the "Almoravides" converted Ghana to Islam in 1076 (Cooley, pp. 42-86). Barth agrees with Sultan Bello and Makrizi as to the close connection between the Berber and Bomu (Barth, 11, 269-272), and we have had occasion in dealing with the tribes of Darfur to note some Berber survivals in that country.
* After they had ruined and burnt fifty flourishing Christian monasteries near Giza, Abu Salih (c. 120S) speaks of them with feeling (ed. Evetts, p. 192) as a people "who do not know the truth or obey the law or distinguish between right and wrong."
' Makrizi, Khetdt, i, 269.