11. 2. XVIII. AND THE INVASION OF DONGOLA 165 ing a large order upon the treasury of Egypt payable as soon as the tribute was handed over. Arrangements were also made for the tribute in future to be paid every three years, but the amount of the gifts usually presented by the Muhammadans to the Nubians on the occasion was cut down, and various demands made by Zakaria were refused.

With this George had to be content—as well he might be—and the tribute was duly paid.

His father, it is said, founded a church in honour of his safe return.

XVII Still more serious trouble broke out in 854 during the rule of 'Anbasa, the last and best of the Arab governors of Egypt, for the Bega refused to pay tribute and raided the riverain towns of Edfu and Esna. A large army of Arabs was eventually mobilized on the Nile and marched inland from Kus, while a smaller force was sent with supplies by way of the Red Sea. In the result the Bega were completely routed and their chief, 'Ali Baba, surrendered to the Arab general. He was well treated and in 855-856 actually induced to visit the Khalifa at Baghdad. Peace was then concluded and the matter of the tribute arranged. One of the chief clauses of the treaty laid stress on the facilities that were to be given to the Arabs to work the mines in the Bega countries. This done, 'Ali Baba returned in safety to his own country 2.

XVIII A new class now begins to appear in Egypt.

From the time when the Arabs came in contact with the Turks on the Oxus and brought them under their rule, Turkish slaves had been highly prized in Muslim households. Their physical strength and beauty, their courage, and their fidelity had won the trust of the great emirs, and especially of the caliphs who believed they could rely more safely upon the devotion of these purchased foreigners than upon their own jealous Arabs or the Persians among whom they dwelt and who had hitherto had a large share in the administration of the Empire. The young Turkish slave who Abu Salih, loc. cit.

- See Makrizi, Khetdt, ii, 568, and Lane-Poole, pp. 41, 42. Lane-Poole, who quotes Ibn Miskavvayh on this subject, somewhat confuses the Bega with the riverain Nubians. E.g. he speaks of 'Ali Baba as king of the Sudan and of his men as "blacks." It is, however, quite clear from the description of incidents that the trouble was with the Hamitic camel-owning nomads of the Eastern desert. According to el Makrizi (Joe. cit.) the war ended in 856.

The Mamluk period proper does not commence yet. In a sense it may be said to begin with Saladin in 1 175 : " Saladin the creator of the Egyptian Sultanate was also responsible for the introduction of the Mamluks" (Lane-Poole, Quart. Rev. April 1915); but "the real founder of the Mamluk Empire" was Baybars, who came to the throne in 1260.

* Lane-Poole, Hist. p. 59. The quotation included by Lane-Poole is from E. T. Rogers, Coim of the Tuluni dynasty (Numism. Orient, iv), p. 2.