of captives to form the nucleus of the new
army. The forces destined for this service were led by Ismail, then the
youngest son of Mehemet Ali; they consisted of between 4000 and 5000
men, Turks and Arabs, and left Cairo in July 1820. Nubia at once
submitted, the Shagia Arabs immediately beyond the province of Dongola
were worsted, the remnant of the Mamelukes dispersed, and Sennar reduced
without a battle. Mahommed Bey, the defterdar, with another force of
about the same strength, was then sent by Mehemet Ali against Kordofan
with a like result, but not without a hard-fought engagement. In October
1822 Ismail was, with his retinue, burnt to death by Nimr, the _mek_
(king) of Shendi; and the defterdar, a man infamous for his cruelty,
assumed the command of those provinces, and exacted terrible retribution
from the innocent inhabitants. Khartum was founded at this time, and in
the following years the rule of the Egyptians was largely extended and
control obtained of the Red Sea ports of Suakin and Massawa (see SUDAN:
_History_).

In 1824 a native rebellion of a religious character broke out in Upper
Egypt headed by one Ahmad, an inhabitant of Es-Salimiya, a village
situated a few miles above Thebes. He proclaimed himself a prophet, and
was soon followed by between 20,000 and 30,000 insurgents, mostly
peasants, but some of them deserters from the "Nizam Gedid," for that
force was yet in a half-organized state, and in part declared for the
impostor. The insurrection was crushed by Mehemet Ali, and about
one-fourth of Ahmad's followers perished, but he himself escaped and was
never after heard of. Few of these unfortunates possessed any other
weapon than the long staff (_nebbut_) of the Egyptian peasant; still
they offered an obstinate resistance, and the combat in which they were
defeated resembled a massacre. This movement was the last internal
attempt to destroy the pasha's authority.

Sufferings of the fellahin.

The fellahin, a patient, long-suffering race save when stirred by
religious fanaticism, submitted to the kurbash, freely used by the
Turkish and Bashi Bazuk tax-gatherers employed by Mehemet Ali to enforce
his system of taxation, monopolies, corvee and conscription. Under this
regime the resources of the country were impoverished, while the
finances fell into complete and incomprehensible chaos.

A vivid picture of the condition to which Egypt was reduced is painted
in the report drawn up in 1838 by th