llLLXxvii. THE GA'ALIIN AND DANAGLA GROUP 217 Nor were their relatives the Ga'alii'n of Shendi in any way exempt from their ravages : Before the arrival of the Mamelouks in Dongola Mek Nimr had been for many years in continual warfare with the Arabs Sheygya, who had killed several of his relatives in battle, and, by making inroads into his dominions with large parties of horsemen, had repeatedly laid waste the whole western bank of the river.

Even the 'Abdullab to the south suffered from their raids : Depuis le demembrement du royaume de Sennar, dont ils etaient jadis tributaires, ils s'adonnerent avec ardeur au metier des armes, et ne tarderent point a devenir redoutables aux provinces qui les avoisinaient. Dongolah, Barbar, Alfaye [el Halfaya], eurent souvent a gemir des entreprises de cette peuplade audacieuse....

And by 1 82 1 the population of el Halfaya had fallen in consequence from 8000 or 9000 to 3000 or 4000.

The first check they received was caused by the flight of a large body of Mamluks, who had survived the massacres of Muhammad 'Ali, from Egypt to Nubia in 181 1. These were a people of more virile type than the tribes over whom the Shaikia had so long tyrannized, and they began to apply to the riverain Shaikia the methods which the latter were wont to use with impunity against others. Beginning at Arko Island they spread themselves over the country and plundered the property of the Shaikia and seized the revenues, and finally established themselves in Dongola with their capital at Meragha and their southern border at Khandak.

The Shaikia were not incHned to accept their discomfiture with tameness, and for some years each side alternately sent expeditions against the other with varying success. A state of hostility still existed between the two parties at the time of the Turkish conquest of the Sudan*'. The most powerful ''meks" of the Shaikia' at the time of Isma'il Pasha's invasion were Sha'us of the 'Adlanab section, whose capital was Merowi, and Sibayr of the Hannakab, whose capital was Hannak. There were also two minor "meks" Medani at Kagebi and Hammad chief of the 'Amrab ; but on the approach of the Turks the whole tribe united under Sha'us and Sibayr.

In 181 1.

' Burckhardt, p. 278. ' Cailliaud, n, 68. * Ibid, u, 194.

Burckhardt, Nubia, p. 72. Cp. Cailliaud, i, 403.

® Waddington and Hanbury, p. 230. ' Nicholls, p. 30.

* Cailliaud mentions that in 1821 the Shaikfa chiefs lived in "grandes maisons fortifiees et crneldes, de forme pyramidale, en general bien construites en pierres de gres jointoyees avec un ciment terreux, et susceptibles de soutenir avec avantage les attaques des Arabes." The point is worth noting in connection with the theory of Shafki'a origins outlined above. (See Cailliaud, 11, 38 and 40.)