i84 THE PROGRESS THROUGH EGYPT ii. 2. xll The Beni Hilal and Beni Kanz have been sufficiently described already.

The army was divided into two portions, one of which followed the west bank of the river and the other the east. Shamamun made no attempt to withstand its advance, but wrote to Gurays, the " Lord of the Mountain," and "Governor of the isles of Mikhail and the province of Daw" [Derr(?)], ordering him to follow the policy of retreating gradually until he joined forces with him.

The Muhammadans overtook the Nubians at Dongola and defeated them with great slaughter. Shamamun fled and Gurays was captured.

Shamamun's nephew was then appointed by the victors to the throne of Dongola, and Gurays was reinstated as his vassal and ordered to pay tribute.

This done, the Arabs retired, but Shamamun at once reappeared and reconquered his kingdom and ejected his nephew and Gurays, XLII In 1289 a larger force, accompanied by the two deposed rulers, was sent from Egypt. During their advance Shamamun's nephew died at Aswan and was replaced by a nephew of the old king Daud.

The Arab advance was in the main the same as on the occasion of the previous expedition, but Gurays and the Awlad Kanz went ahead of the main army to try and effect by peaceful means what the troops would otherwise achieve by force of arms. Resistance was only met with when the territories of Gurays had been left behind, but when Dongola was reached it was found that Shamamun had fled to an island fifteen days to the south, and within three days' journey of Kabushia, The Arabs lost no time in pursuit, and Shamamun, deserted by his adherents, retired to the capital of Ador.

The country at once submitted peaceably, the necessary formalities were arranged at Dongola, and by 1290 the Muhammadans were back in Cairo with their booty. It is almost unnecessary to say that Shamamun immediately reappeared in Dongola, and without any From Abu Salih (p. 266, quoted above) we gather that the Lord of the Mountain lived at Ibrfm and that the people there belonged to the province of Marls. Speaking, however, of Mukurra (p. 263) Abu Salih mentions "A city called the city of Bausakd. This is a large and handsome city, full of people and of all commodities, and possessing many churches. Here dwelt the Lord of the Mountain, whose eyes were put out by George, son of Zacharias Israel. Here is the monastery of Saint Sinuthius...near the town there is a gold mine."

Presumably his sister's son; see p. 178.

Ibn Khaldun instead of "nephew of Daud" gives "Daud the son of Martashkfn's brother" {loc. cit.).