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 emigration. 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.