1I.2.XLVII. AND THE INVASION OF DONGOLA 187

The Sultan sent Abraam to Nubia with the promise of the suc-

cession if he could oust Kanz el Dowla. The latter submitted quietly, but Abraam only lived a short time and Kanz el Dowla was then

reappointed by the Nubians.

In 1323^ the Sultan again sent an army against Kanz el Dowla,

this time with Kerenbes attached to it as prospective king. Kanz

el Dowla fled and Kerenbes entered on his second reign. As invari-

ably happened, however, the retreat of the Arab or Mamluk troops was the signal for the reappearance of the pretender, and Kanz el Dowla was soon installed again.

XLVI But the kingdom of Nubia had now to all intents and pur-

poses ceased to exist and such "kings" as reigned in name were puppets of the Arab tribes. The tribute had been abolished when

the paramount king was no longer a Christian and great hordes of

Arabs, mainly Guhayna, were pouring into the Sudan and rapidly overrunning it as far as Abyssinia and Darfur.

It is from this period, the early years of the fourteenth century,

that the immigration of most of the camel-owning nomads of the

Sudan dates. Generally speaking, it seems, the Guhayna and their

allies, most of whom we may be sure were Fezara, loosed their hordes southwards and westwards, leaving the Beni Kanz and 'Ikrima in northern Nubia and Upper Egypt. From the Arabic historians v/e

hear no more of these southern migrants of the Guhayna congeries,

for they passed beyond their ken, but the native manuscripts of the

Sudan, as will be seen, take up their tale.

XLVII Of aff"airs in Nubia, too, we hear no more till 1366. In that

year the country round Aswan, from 'Aidhab on the east to the oases on the west, was ravaged by the Beni Kanz and the 'Ikrima^, the former of whom in particular were now extremely powerful, and envoys were sent to the Sultan at Cairo to report that the King of Nubia had been murdered by his nephew and some Beni Ga'ad, a

section of the 'Ikrima. The loyalists had elected the late king's brother

to succeed him and were holding the fortified post of Daw [Derr ( ?)]. The rebels had taken Dongola but had then quarrelled among them-

selves with the result that the pretender had succeeded in treacherously murdering most of the Beni Ga'ad. He had then collected a force

of other Arabs and started to attack Daw [Derr(.^)]. The Sultan granted the embassy's request for aid, and dispatched an expedition

to Nubia, partly, it seems, to reinstate the legitimate king and partly

to repress the Beni Kanz and 'Ikrima.

The result was on the whole satisfactory, but the fact that the

^ Makrizi (JLoc. cit.) is still the authority. ^ Makdzi, loc. cit.