This state of happiness was not, however, of long duration, for in the year 1821 Mehemed Ali sent his son-in-law, the notorious Defturdar, with a brigade of four thousand five hundred infantry and cavalry, attended by eight hundred Bedouins and eight pieces of artillery, to subject this country to his power. The people, apprized of his intention, prepared themselves to the utmost of their power for defence. The Melek Moosalem marched out with his troops to meet the Defturdar at Bara,—a march of twelve hours from Lobeid. His numerous but irregular army was well provided with every species of warlike weapons, excepting fire-arms, which were little or not at all known in the country. The cavalry, like the old Numidian equestrian troops, wore a shirt of mail, and pointed helmet without a vizor on their heads, and bore a double-edged sword thirty-six inches in length. The horses were caparisoned with plates of copper. The infantry were nearly naked; armed simply with a shield and spear, and but a small party of them with two-edged swords, (turbatsh,) and a species of tomahawk. The battle was fierce and bloody. The men of Kordofan rushed with fury upon the foe, and defended their freedom with a total disregard of death; even women participated in the fray. Hundreds of the combatants fell struck by the balls of the enemy; the wounded placed their fingers in their wounds, unable to understand how they could have been hurt, without having been touched by a weapon; so ignorant were they of the use of fire-arms. Infuriated they flung their spears at the cannons; and, having succeeded in capturing a gun for a short time, sought to revenge themselves on it for the destruction it had poured forth, by attacking it with their swords. The battle remained for a long time undecided. The Defturdar placed himself at the head of his cavalry, and, although ill, would not leave the field. Several attacks were valiantly repulsed. The Bedouins put the Turks to the blush by their bravery; where the battle raged hottest, these children of the desert were to be seen discomfiting the enemy most. Victory inclined sometimes to the side of the Turks, sometimes to the side of the men of Kordofan, but it yet remained doubtful. The Turks were sometimes sorely pushed; a Sheikh, however, of the Bedouins, from the race of Gemeat, was fortunate enough to lay Moosalem, the leader of the Kordofanese, prostrate with a pistol shot; his death decided the battle. The army of Kordofan, deprived of its leader, turned and took to flight; they were pursued by the Turkish cavalry, and many of them killed on this route. Amongst the dead on the field of battle three women were even found, who had taken an active part in the fight for their freedom. On the second day after this battle, the Defturdar entered Lobeid with his victorious army. The town was plundered, and nearly wholly sacked; the Defturdar found immeasurable treasure in this place, which this avaricious tyrant immediately appropriated to himself. The country surrendered without further resistance, excepting the mountain of “Dyre,” situated at twenty hours’ march from Lobeid, which has retained its freedom to the present day. The Turkish army suffered deprivations of all kinds; the greater part fell victims to the climate, and but few survived who could withstand its pernicious influence, and thus escaped with their lives.
Kordofan, excepting the free Nuba, is now divided into five districts; a Casheff, or captain, presiding over each; a colonel, resident in Lobeid, is governor of the province, and no pen can describe to what oppression the country is now subjected; all signs of wealth have entirely disappeared, and it is, as it were, drained by the Turks, who will not suffer any private person to attain the slightest degree of opulence. Many of the natives, tired of this oppression, have emigrated with all their possessions, and sought refuge either in Darfour, or in Takeli; and even as lately as the year 1838 the inhabitants of six villages have left the country. Nothing is now discernible but poverty and misery; inhabitants of even moderate means are not to be met with, if we, perhaps, except some few Djelabi.[5]
The various tribes inhabiting the country at present are the following: Hadejat, el Giomme, Bederie, Shiswaba, el Etoman, Ogendiab, Birget, Dombab, Almakaita, Elberiab, Hassenie, Hawara, Felata, Denagle or Dongolavi, Darhammer, Abusanun, Darhami, Serauy, Freseh, Basaue, el Maramera, Volet el Angon, Czahalin, Kubbabeesh (Sheikh Salé), Benecira, Hababin (Sheikh Abdel Mahmud), Elhauwasma (Sheikh Moosa), el Messerie (Sheikh Labaied), Koncieri or Darfurer, Pergu, and Nas-Gioffon;[6] but these people may be arranged collectively under three heads, namely: the Negroes; the Bakkari and Arabs or free people; and the Dongolavi. All these various tribes differ in their manners and customs, if not totally, at least to a certain extent, and speak thirteen dialects and languages among them.
The total population of Kordofan may be computed at 400,000 souls, excluding the nomadic Bakkari. The Defturdar did all in his power to degrade this country, and his name is, even at the present day, a word of terror to the natives. Terribly, indeed, the tyrant abused his authority in this unhappy country; no pen can describe the cruelties which he perpetrated in the province. Human nature revolts at hearing the inventions of this ruffian, practised upon his unfortunate victims for the mere gratification of his passion of cruelty. I should not have believed every rumour, or have regarded the accounts I heard of the atrocities of this man, for the most part, in the light of fiction, if I had not received corroborating evidence in all the districts of Kordofan, Sennaar and Egypt, through which I travelled; tales the more worthy of credit, inasmuch as many persons are yet living who were not only eye-witnesses of all these deeds of horror, but even themselves sufferers by his cruelty.
I may, perhaps, be permitted to illustrate a few traits in the character of this ruthless tyrant by narrating some of his feats; it will then become evident, that this flourishing country could but sink in a very short time, as the natural consequence of his oppressive tyranny; and that a considerable period must elapse before it will be able to recover itself but slightly.
A soldier who had stolen a sheep from a peasant was caught in the very act. He not only refused to return the stolen goods, but even maltreated the peasant. Confiding in the equity of his cause, the latter thought he should more probably have justice done him by the governor than by any one else, and entered a complaint against the soldier. The Defturdar listened very patiently to the story; but, when the peasant had finished, the tyrant accosted him in an angry voice, with the words: “And with these trifles you trouble me?” Then turning to his attendants he ordered the peasant to be brought before the kadi; they understood immediately that he meant by the kadi, a cannon, carried the poor wretch immediately off, and bound him to the mouth of a gun which was instantly fired.
His very servants, consisting not only of slaves, but of free Arabs and Turks, although they might be regarded as his executioners, stood in great awe of him, for he punished the slightest offence of which they might be guilty with every imaginable species of cruelty. Thus it happened that one of these servants was tempted to dip his finger into a dish to taste it. The Defturdar, unfortunately, observed the act. He demanded of the unhappy man, in an ironical tone, whether the dish were sweet or sour? The servant was naturally mute with fear. The Defturdar now ordered him to be nailed by the tongue to the door and his face to be smeared with honey, in order, as he expressed himself, to stimulate his gustatory faculties. In this position the unfortunate man had to pass two full hours. It took a long time before he recovered, and a variety of remedies were required to heal his tongue.
A seyss or groom, whose office is, according to custom in Egypt, to run before the rider, was incapable of keeping up with the Defturdar from absolute fatigue, in a long and quick trot. The tyrant struck him with his whip to quicken his pace. The unfortunate man, who was, however, quite exhausted, as may be supposed, did not become more active after this remedy had been applied. For this crime the unnatural barbarian had his feet bound to the tail of a horse, and ordered the animal to be driven through the streets of Lobeid by two other seyss. The unhappy groom would, no doubt, have met with his death in this manner, were not the streets paved merely with fine sand; thus he received many wounds, but none which proved mortal. The horse, unaccustomed to such usage, turned suddenly round, and struck at the unfortunate seyss, who, in desperation, seized the animal with all his remaining strength by the head; and to save himself bit into its upper lip. No attention was at first paid to this slight wound, but in a short time the head of the horse began to swell, and it eventually died. The seyss who was covered with wounds, however, survived the torture.
A man gave his neighbour, in a quarrel, a box on the ears; the latter brought a complaint against him before the Defturdar. “With which hand didst thou strike thy neighbour?” asked the tyrant. “With the right,” answered the peasant. “Well,” replied the Defturdar, “that thou mayst not forget it, I shall have the flesh removed from the palm of that hand.” This order was immediately executed. “Now return to thy work,” said the Defturdar to the sufferer, who, writhing with pain, replied: “In this state I cannot work.”—“What!” exclaimed the tyrant in a rage; “thou darest to contradict me! cut his tongue out, it is rather too long!” and this operation was also immediately performed, without consideration of the tortures to which he had been previously subjected.
The Defturdar one day observed, that some one had taken a pinch of snuff out of his box during his absence; his suspicion lighted upon his valet; he, therefore, on a subsequent occasion, confined a fly in his box and leaving it in his divan went into another room, and ordered his servant to fetch something from the chamber in which he had put down the box. The servant fell into the snare, was really tempted to take a pinch, and the fly escaped without being observed. In a short time the Defturdar returned to the room, found that the fly had escaped from its confinement, and immediately asked the servant “Who had opened the box?”—“I, sir,” he confidently replied; “I took a pinch.” This liberty he paid with his life: the ruffian had him flogged to death.