n. 2. XXIII. AND THE INVASION OF DONGOLA 167

treaties of 831 and 855-856 ever-increasing numbers of Arabs had

been settling among the Bega. Most of the Rabi'a and Guhayna,

instead of returning to Egypt, now took up their permanent abode in

the eastern deserts and on the Red Sea coast and married Bega women. The chief result to Egypt was a cessation of the raids on her

southern border, and to the Bega the acquisition of all tribal control by an Arab aristocracy ^

XXI We need not follow the victorious career of Ibn Tulun in

Syria nor the amazing dissipations of his successor in Egypt except

to note that golden palaces and lakes of quicksilver must have spelt

oppression to the taxpayer and proved an added incentive to emigra-

tion. It is enough to say that after Egypt had weltered in blood for

a further nine years an army sent by el Muktafi in 905 a.d. recovered

the province for the Khalifate for some thirty years and removed the

survivors of the house of Ibn Tulun to Baghdad^.

XXII In 914 the Fatimite sectarians from the west, chiefly Ketama

Berbers by race, began a series of attacks on Egypt. They were beaten

back to Barbary in 920. Then followed fifteen years of utter anarchy,

until in 935 Muhammad ibn Tughg was appointed by the Khalifa to

restore order in Egypt. This he did, and for eleven years there is no

record of any disturbance^.

XXIII It was during Ibn Tughg's reign that el Mas'udi visited

Egypt. Incidentally he gives us some valuable information as to the Arabs and the Sudan*. Nubia—he uses the word in a broad sense was divided into two main districts, that of Mukurra to the north and that of 'Aloa to the south. Dongola ("Donkola," ajlij^) was the

capital of the former and Soba^ of the latter. The most northernly

portion of Mukurra was known as Maris.

The hereditary king of Dongola was Kubra ibn Surur, and the southern district, 'Aloa, was also under his suzerainty. He was

responsible for the payment of the ancient tribute which was still in

force, namely 365 slaves, together with a present of forty for the Governor and twenty for his representative at Aswan and five for

the Grand Kadi at Aswan and one for each of the twelve notaries

assisting him.

^ Compare the following, written of Southern Arabia:—"The supreme head of a tribal confederation is the Sultan. He is never a tribesman himself, but comes of an alien aristocracy imported by the senior confederate chiefs..." (W. Bury, Land of Uz, p. 293).

- Lane-Poole, Hist. pp. 74-77.

^ Lane-Poole, Hist. pp. 81, 82. * Mas'udi, in, 31-34, 39-43.

* The emendation of "S6ba" (Ajj-j) for "Sarfah" {JSuj^) or "Souiah"

(5j^»j, see Quatremere) is an obvious one.