II. 2. XLi. AND THE INVASION OF DONGOLA • 183

XL Baybars died in 1277, and two years later el Melik el Mansur Sayf el Din Kalaun, a Turk of the Burg Oghlu tribe of Kipchak^, who had been one of the most competent of the generals of Baybars, usurped the throne. Shekenda meanwhile was murdered 2, and a

certain Berek elected in his place. The Mamluk governor^ put the

latter to death and Shamamun succeeded*.

XLI In 1286 A.D. ambassadors arrived in Egypt from Ador, the "mek" of the district round Kabushia^, to complain against the king of Dongola for detaining and ill-using an envoy sent from Egypt to Ador. Ambassadors came also from Dongola. Kalaun in

return sent one amir to visit the courts of Ador and the meks

of the 'Anag and of Basa Kassala Kadaru and other districts^, and another to interview Shamamun. The southern princelets apparently made out the better case, for in the following year'^ Kalaun dispatched an army against Dongola and sent orders to the Governor of Kus to reinforce it from the Arabs of his province. These were mainly Beni Abu Bukr, Beni 'Omar, Beni Sherif, Bent Shayban, Beni Kanz^, Beni Rais and Beni Hilal. The first three were probably Kuraysh claiming descent from the first and second

Khalifas of Islam and from the Prophet respectively, the Beni Shayban were a branch of Rabi'a^, and the Beni Rais were a branch

of Beli.

^ Lane-Poole, loc. cit. p. 278.

^ See Quatremere, II, III, quoting Hzs^ Kalaun. "Meschkedet" =" Shekenda" (see p. 1 80).

^ Of Aswan and the cataract district presumably.

* Ibn Khaldun (ed. ar. loc. cit. p. 401), "Baytmamun," but later (p. 429) "Semamun."

^ He is called "King of the Gates," i.e. of el Abwab: the district of Kabushfa was so called until quite lately: cp. MS. D 3, and see Crowfoot, Some Lacunae...,

p. 6.

® The passage in the History of Kalaun, as translated by Quatremere, runs as follows: " Le Sultan envoya I'emir Alem-ed-din-Sandjar-al-Moaddamy, en qualite

d'ambassadeur, aupres du roi de Nubie, Ador, roi des Portes, et des princes de Barah (Bazah), Al-Takeh, Kedrou, Denfou, Ary, Befal, Anedj et Kersah" (Quatre- mere, II, loi). Crowfoot wrongly gives "Densou" and "Besal." The name Basa for a district east of Kabushfa still survives, and "Kedrou" is probably Kaderu, a site eleven miles north of Khartoum : the village of the same name near Sennar may however be intended. "Taka" was the name of the district round Gebel Kassala until lately (see D 7, passim). Crowfoot {loc. cit.), presumably identifying "Kersah" with the name of the tribe mentioned by Ibn Selim as living in the Gezira (see para, xxvi above), says that Kersah "lay between the White and Blue Niles." Denfou, Befal and Ary are not identified. The centre of the 'Anag country may have been at el Haraza (see p. 185). One is surprised to see no mention of Soba or 'Aloa; but possibly the name Barah (Bazah), i.e. Ojj (.'), may be a cor- ruption of Soba (a^3»»>).

' So el Nuwayry and Makrfzi, ap. Quatremere (11, 102), and Ibn Khaldun

(loc. cit.).

8 Ibn Khaldun, "Awlad Kanz el Dowla." * Wustenfeld, A and B.