abis
(q.v.). After a successful advance, this force met with a serious
repulse at the pass of Jedeida, near Safra, and retreated to Yembo'
(Yambu). In the following year Tusun, having received reinforcements,
again assumed the offensive, and captured Medina after a prolonged
siege. He next took Jidda and Mecca, defeating the Wahhabis 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 of 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 fortunes;
but on the whole his forces proved superior to those of the enemy. He
deposed and exiled the sharif of Mecca, and after the death of the
Wahhabi leader Saud II. he concluded in 1815 a treaty with Saud's son
and successor, Abdullah. Hearing of the escape of Napoleon from
Elba--and fearing danger to Egypt from the plans of France or Great
Britain--Mehemet Ali returned to Cairo by way of Kosseir and Kena. He
reached the capital on the day of the battle of Waterloo. His return was
hastened by reports that the Turks, whose cause he was upholding in
Arabia, were treacherously planning an invasion of Egypt.

During Mehemet Ali's absence in Arabia his representative at Cairo had
completed the confiscation, begun in 1808, of almost all the lands
belonging to private individuals, who were forced to accept instead
inadequate pensions. By this revolutionary method of land
"nationalization" Mehemet Ali became proprietor of nearly all the soil
of Egypt, an iniquitous measure against which the Egyptians had no
remedy. The attempt which in this year (1815) the pasha made to
reorganize his troops on European lines led, however, to a formidable
mutiny in Cairo. Mehemet Ali'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 ordered that the sufferers by the
disturbances should receive compensation from the treasury. The project
of the _Nizam Gedid_ (New System), as the European system was called,
was, in consequence of this mutiny, abandoned for a time.

Tusun returned to Egypt on hearing of the military revolt at Cairo, but
died in 1816 at the early age of twenty. Mehemet Ali, dissatisfied with