Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/788

764 EGYPT [HISTORY. Cairo, but tranquillity was not secured ; several times they met the pasha s forces in battle, and once gained a signal victory. Early in the year 1811, the preparations for an expedition against the Wahhabees in Arabia being complete, all the Memlook beys then in Cairo were invited to the ceremony of investing Mehemet Ali s favourite son, Toosoon, with a pelisse and the command of the army. As on the former occasion, the unfortunate Memlooks fell into the snare. On the 1st of March, Shaheen Bey and the other chiefs (one only excepted) repaired with their retinues to the citadel, and were courteously received by the pasha. Having taken coffee, they formed in proces sion, and, preceded and followed by the pasha s troops, slowly descended the steep and narrow road leading to the great gate of the citadel; but as soon as the Memlooks arrived at the gate it was suddenly closed before them. The last of those who made their exit before the gate was shut were Albanians under Salih Koosh. To these troops their chief now made known the pasha s orders to massacre all the Memlooks within the citadel ; therefore, having returned by another way, they gained the summits of the walls and houses that hem in the road in which the Memlooks were incarcerated, and some stationed themselves ipon the eminences of the rock through which that road is partly cut. Thus securely placed, they commenced a heavy fire on their defenceless victims ; and immediately the troops who closed the procession, and who had the advantage of higher ground, followed their example. Of the betrayed chiefs, many were laid low in a few moments ; some, dismounting, and throwing off their outer robes, vainly sought, sword in hand, to return, and escape by some other gate. The few who regained the summit of the citadel experienced the same cruel fate as the rest (for those whom the Albanian soldiers made prisoners met with no mercy from their chiefs or from Mehemet Ali), but it soon became impossible for any to retrace their steps even so far ; the road was obstructed by the bleeding bodies of the slain Memlooks, and their richly caparisoned horses, and their grooms. 470 Memlooks entered the citadel ; and of these very few, if any, escaped. One of these is said to have been a bey. According to some, he leapt his horsa from the ramparts, and alighted uninjured, though the horse was killed by the fall ; others say that he was prevented from joining his comrades, and discovered the treachery while waiting without the gate. He fled and made his way to Syria. This massacre was the signal for an indiscriminate slaughter of the Memlooks throughout Egypt, orders to this effect being transmitted to every governor ; and in Cairo itself, the houses of the beys were given over to the soldiery, who slaughtered all their adherents, treated their women in the most shameless manner, and sacked their dwellings. During the two following days, the pasha and his son Toosoon rode about the streets, and endeavoured to stop these atrocious pro ceedings ; but order was not restored until 500 houses had been completely pillaged. In extenuation of this dark blot on Mehemet Ali s character, it has been urged that he had received the order fur the destruction of the Memlooks from Constantinople, whither the heads of the beys were sent. It may be answered to this plea, that on other occa sions he scrupled not to defy the Porte. A remnant of the Memk>oks fled to Nubia, and a tran quillity was restored to Egypt to which it had long been unaccustomed, and which has rarely been interrupted since. In the year following the massacre, the unfortunate exiles were attacked by Ibrahim Pasha, the eldest son of Mehemet Ali, in the fortified town of Ibreeui, in Nubia. Here the want of provisions forced them to evacuate the place ; a few who surrendered were beheaded, and the rest went further south and built the town of New Dongola (correctly Dunkulah), where the venerable Ibraham Bey died in 1816, at the age of eighty. As their numbers thinned, they endeavoured to maintain their little power by training some hundreds of blacks ; but again, on the approach of Ismail, another son of the pasha of Egypt, sent with an army to subdue Nubia and Sennar, some re turned to Egypt and settled in Cairo, while the rest, amounting to about 100 persons, fled in dispersed parties to the countries adjacent to Sennar. Mehemet Ali, being undisputed master of Egypt, at the reiterated commands of the Porte despatched in 1811 an army of 8000 men, including 2000 horse, under the com mand of Toosoon Pasha, against the Wahhabees. After a successful advance, this force met with a serious repulse at the pass of Safra and Judeiyideh, and retreated to Yembo . In the following year Toosoon, having received reinforcements, again assumed the offensive, and captured Medinah after a prolonged siege. He next took Jiddeh and Mecca, defeating the Wahhabees beyond the latter place and capturing their general. But some mishaps followed, and Mehemet Ali, who had determined to conduct the war in person, left Egypt for that purpose in the summer in 1813. In Arabia he encountered serious obstacles from the nature of the country and the harassing mode of warfare adopted by his adversaries. His arms met with various fortune ; but on the whole his forces proved superior to those of the enemy. He led a successful expe dition in the Hijaz, and, after concluding a treaty with the Wahhabee chief, Abd-Allah, in 1815, he returned to Egypt on hearing of the escape of Napoleon from Elba. He now confiscated the lands belonging to private individuals, merely allowing them a pension for life, and attempted to introduce the European system of military tactics. A formidable mutiny, however, broke out in the metropolis, the pasha s life was endangered, and he sought refuge by night in the citadel, while the soldiery committed many acts of plunder. The revolt was reduced by presents to the chiefs of the insurgents, and Mehemet Ali very honourably ordered that the sufferers by the late disturb ances should receive compensation from the treasury. The project of the " Nizam Gedeed," as the European system is called in Egypt, was, in consequence of this commotion, abandoned for a time, Soon after Toosoon returned to Egypt, but Mehemet Ali, dissatisfied with the treaty which had been concluded with the Wahhabees, and with the non-fulfilment of certain of its clauses, determined to send another army to Arabia, and to include in it the soldiers who had recently proved unruly. This expedition, under Ibrahim Pasha, left in the autumn of 1816. After several unimportant advantages, Ibrahim sat down before the town of Er-Ilass ; but three months exertions proving unavailing, he raised the siege, with the loss of nearly half his army. Notwithstanding, he advanced on the capital, Ed-Dir eeyeh, by slow but sure steps. The last place before reaching that city offered a brave resist ance, and Ibrahim, in revenge, caused all its inhabitants to be put to the sword, except a number of women and children, the former cf whom were spared not from motives of pity. Ed-Dir eeyeh fell after a five months siege, in the course of which an explosion destroyed the whole of the besiegers powder ; and had the Wahhabees been aware of the extent of the disaster, few, we may believe, would have escaped to tell the tale. Abd-Allah, their chief, was taken, and with his treasurer and secretary was sent to Constanti nople, where, in spite of Ibrahim s promise of safety, and of Mehemet Ali s intercession in their favour, they were paraded and put to death. At the close of the year 1819, Ibrahim returned to Cairo, having conquered all present opposition in Arabia, but without having broken the spirit

of the Wahhabees.