Shortly after Hamilton arrived in Cairo the Viceroy sent another expedition of 200 men to bring back a number of Siwan notables to answer for their conduct. The army reached the oasis and camped at Ain Megahiz. The Siwans retired into their fortress town. A certain Arab sheikh, who knew Siwa and was with the Turkish expedition, went down to the town and persuaded forty of the leading men to come out to the camp and see the Commandant. He successfully tricked them with a promise of a favourable treaty, and they believed him. On arrival at the camp they were arrested and thrown into chains; the army entered the town without opposition, as the people, having lost their leaders, had no heart to fight. As before, the Turks spoiled the people, the soldiers robbed the inhabitants, seized the women, and shot down anyone who opposed them. Then at last Sheikh Yousif Ali was appointed Omda of Siwa by the Government of Egypt.
Some years later, in 1854, Abbas, son of Mohammed Ali, died, and was succeeded by his son, Said Pasha. The latter, on his accession, granted an amnesty under which the Siwan notables, who had been condemned to hard labour and were working as prisoners, were released. They hurried back to their oasis, eager to be revenged on Yousif Ali. On arrival they were joined by their slaves and retainers, but met with considerable opposition from the westerners. For three days there was sporadic fighting, then they surrounded the omda’s house. But Yousif Ali had fled to the house of one of his supporters in the suburb, called Manshiah, and garrisoned it with his few remaining slaves. His friends among the western sheikhs deserted him, seeing that popular opinion was entirely against him. From the house in Manshiah, which is a miniature fortress, he sent his two young daughters to bribe the mamur to help him. The mamur was the same Arab who had betrayed the forty sheikhs, and was busy enough looking after himself. The two girls were caught by the eastern sheikhs. One of them was persuaded to go back to her father’s house, and at a given signal to let in the enemy. They surrounded Manshiah and forced an entry to the house. The slaves stopped fighting and surrendered. Yousif Ali was caught on the roof, trying to escape; he was dragged down through the house, out into the street and strangled.
The news of this outrage reached Egypt, and in 1857 a new mamur arrived with a detachment of soldiers. The system of two omdas ruling at once, one eastern and one western, was tried, but found to be a failure. The force under the mamur was quite inadequate to collect the taxes or to keep order. The post was an unpopular one, and was considered, as it is now, a form of exile by the Egyptian mamurs who detest a place that has not the liveliness and amusements of Cairo, or a provincial town. All the mamurs at Siwa used constantly to say to me, “Saire—Siwa ees what you call exile!”
There followed in quick succession a series of somewhat incompetent Turkish mamurs who were in most cases quite powerless to keep under this turbulent town and population. To add to their difficulties the power of the Senussi sect was beginning to make itself firmly felt, and this complicated still more the political situation in the oasis. The Senussi brethren at Jerabub were regarded by the Siwans as the ultimate arbitrators in any disputes which arose among the people, thus ignoring the jurisdiction of the Turkish Government officials. One mamur married, on the day of his arrival, a girl of the eastern quarter, and oppressed the westerners to such a degree that they obtained his recall from Egypt. He was sent back to Egypt, and as he entered the Governor’s house in Alexandria one of his men stepped forward and shot him. Another mamur infuriated the people by wishing to demolish the tomb of Sidi Suliman, in order to build a house on the site. He made all preparations for the work, but on the night before the building began he died mysteriously, possibly from poison. Another mamur imitated the Siwans in every way—eating, dressing and speaking as one. He kept his position for fourteen years, becoming very popular on account of the interest he took in the well-being of the people. But few of the mamurs were liked; they generally sided definitely with one faction or the other, which resulted in intrigue against them by the opposite faction, who tried to procure their dismissal.
In 1896 Mustapha Mahr, Governor of the Behera Province, was dispatched to Siwa, with fifty soldiers, to inquire into certain disorders. He arrived to find Siwa in an uproar, the administration of justice at a standstill, and three years’ taxes unpaid. A powerful western sheikh, Hassuna Mansur, had retired to his stronghold, Kasr Hassuna, a fortress on an isolated rock south of the town, with a large number of slaves and adherents. He refused to pay taxes and defied the Egyptian Government. This individual became the nucleus of opposition. He was besieged; but friends among the besiegers supplied him with water, and even helped him when he sallied out from his fortress and carried away corn, sheep and cattle from the neighbourhood. The Turkish official was helpless. Mustapha Mahr and his fifty men were unable to cope with the rebel. On the advice of the sheikhs he appealed to the Senussi brethren at Jerabub, and very soon Sheikh Ahmed Ibn Idris, a relation by marriage to Sheikh El Senussi, appeared on the scene. The Turkish Commandant asked his assistance. Sheikh Ahmed ordered Hassuna to surrender, which he did at once, and after much discussion an agreement was made, signed by the Senussi sheikh, by which the Siwans promised to pay taxes, but on the condition that they should not be retrospective. The Senussi sheikh then returned triumphantly to Jerabub. This illustrates conclusively the power of the Senussi at this period. A few months later another dispute arose, about some goats, which ended in a battle between east and west, in which Hassuna Mansur was slain, and with him over 100 Siwans.
In 1898, five years after the death of this firebrand of the desert, another affair began which is known as the “Widow’s War.” The Omda of Siwa died leaving a son, Mohammed Said, and a wealthy young widow of great personal attractions. An eastern Siwan, named Ahmed Hamza, wished to marry her. It was considered a suitable match, and all her relations approved, except her stepson, Mohammed Said, who was supported by the Medinia sect of Siwans, who had another prospective husband. One night she disappeared. It was found that she had fled to the house of Osman Habun, a very powerful western sheikh, the most influential man in Siwa, who was the representative of the Senussi. The son demanded his mother from the Habun family, who refused to surrender her. The war drums were beaten, and a fight between east and west was imminent. But at the last moment Habun surrendered the woman, who returned to her own house. On the next day she ran away again; this time she went to the house of a western Siwan, called Abdulla Mansur, whom she wished to marry, although she herself should have held no views on the subject. The whole town was disturbed by the widow’s unseemly behaviour. Finally her stepson forced her to marry the man whom he had chosen, and the widow retired from the scene.
But Ahmed Hamza resented losing her, and in revenge, some of his friends attacked some relations of Mohammed Said’s, on the road to Aghourmi, and killed two of them. Then Mohammed Said, with the easterners, raided the western gardens, and the westerners retaliated by carrying off sheep and cattle. The war drums were beaten, which signal meant that every man must be ready and armed within twenty-four hours; flags were displayed on the western hill and on the highest fort of the eastern quarter, and the doors leading into the street that divides the town were barred with palm logs. At the end of the twenty-four hours the eastern force assembled on Shali—the high town—and the western forces stationed themselves on their rock. The easterners opened fire and shot, by mistake, a small Arab boy. A truce was called while both parties discussed the compensation. But during the truce an eastern man, going out to his garden, was killed by a party of westerners, so the fight began again, both sides firing across the street with long, Arab guns and old-fashioned blunderbusses. The Turkish mamur and his little force retired to the Markaz, well out of harm’s way.
GATE INTO THE WESTERN QUARTER
The westerners had only one good spring within convenient reach of the town. They posted a guard round it, and the easterners, not expecting to meet with resistance, made a sortie, intending to capture the spring. The attacking party was beaten off and driven away from the town towards the gardens. The rest of the easterners, seeing their comrades in flight, came down from the town and followed after them. Then the entire western force, led by their chief, Osman Habun, on his great white war-horse, the only one in Siwa, surged out of the town, through the narrow gates, firing and shrieking, waving swords and spears, followed by their women throwing stones. Every able-bodied man and woman joined in the battle beneath the walls, and only a few old men and children remained on the battlements watching the fight.