176 THE PROGRESS THROUGH EGYPT ii. 2. xxxi.
culminated in an attack upon Aswan. The first army was sent under command of Shaga'a el Din el Ba'albeki. The rebels fled at its
approach, were pursued by Shaga'a el Din and Kanz el Dowla, the
chief of the half-Nubianized Beni Kanz and amir of the Arabs of Aswan 1, and were heavily defeated.
The second expedition^ took place during the same year (i 172-3), and was led by Saladin's elder brother Turan Shah^. Ibrim* was
taken, the Christian church pillaged, many captives taken—according
to Abu Salih 700,000—the bishop tortured, and 700 pigs slaughtered^.
Turan Shah went no further than Ibrim. On his return journey^ he gave Aswan in fief to a certain Ibrahim the Kurd who turned it
into a robber fortress whence he plundered the Nubians. When Turan Shah reached Kus he was overtaken by a letter and presents from the king of Nubia. He treated the envoy well and gave him a
robe of honour and two arrows saying "Tell the King I have no other
reply than that." He also sent to enquire into the resources of Nubia an ambassador who went as far as Dongola and then returned and
reported the country as
" a poor one, where scarcely anything is grown except a little dura and some
small date-palms on the fruit of which the inhabitants live. The king came out of his palace naked and mounted a horse without saddle or
caparisons : he had wrapped round him a robe of silk, and he had not a hair on his head. I advanced towards him," said the ambassador, "and when
I would have saluted him he burst out laughing. He appeared to under- stand no word of what I said, and he ordered one of his men to mark on my hand the figure of a cross. He gave me about fifty rolls of corn. There were no buildings at Dongola excepting the palace of the king. The rest were all huts of straw."
^ Some account of this chief was given in the last chapter. The name Kanz
el Dowla was evidently a hereditary title: see p. 187. Ibn Batuta (Vol. iv, p. 396) speaks of " Ibn Kanz el Din," i.e. Kanz el Dowla, as becoming a Muhammadan
in the reign of el Nasir, though the Nubians were still Christians. He probably
failed to realize that Kanz el Dowla was not a pure Nubian himself.
- See note 5 on previous page.
^ I.e. El Melik el Mu'azzam Shams el Dowla Turan Shdh, surnamed Fakhr
el Dfn.
* Of Ibrfm at this time Abu Salih says (p. 266): "In the land of Nubia is the
city of Ibrfm, the residence of the Lord of the Mountain, all the inhabitants of which are of the province of Maris; it is enclosed within a wall. Here there is a
large and beautiful church, finely planned, and named after Our Lady, the Pure Virgin Mary. Above it there is a high dome, upon which rises a high cross." Ibrim, it will be remembered, was the ancient Primis. For the "Lord of the Mountain" see p. 169.
' Abu Salih (p. 267) also mentions the capture of a large quantity of cotton
at Ibrfm: it was taken to KQ? and sold there. According to Ibn Khaldun, Turdn Shah got practically nothing except slaves from the expedition, there being even
a shortage of com.
' Makrfzi, Kitdb el Seluk, pp. iii, 112.