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wing, deserted with his men at the first charge. The Turkish army employed artillery, muskets and other long-range weapons which the Egyptian army, comprising bedouin and Syrian contingents, was unfamiliar with or disdained to use, clinging to the antiquated theory that personal valour is the decisive factor in combat. In the thick of battle Qansawh was stricken with apoplexy and fell from his horse. Selim's victory was complete. In the citadel of Aleppo he found Mamluk treasures estimated in millions of dinars. In mid-October he moved on to Damascus. Syria passed quietly into Ottoman hands, there to remain for four full centuries. Its people, as on many a previous occasion, welcomed the new masters as deliverers from the old. Egypt was subdued in January 1517 and Hejaz, with its two holy cities, automatically became a part of Selim's empire. A new era began for the Arab world: the era of domination by the Ottoman Turks.