Raids in Darfur.In September Ali Dinar sent a strong force under Tirab Suleiman against the Maalia and Rizeigat Arabs in the south, whom he wished to bring under his sway. Tirab raided them heavily, and on their taking refuge in Kordofan threatened to pursue them thither. The consequent consternation in Kordofan was only allayed by the Mudir mobilising a force of camel corps, etc., near the frontier at Foga and Nahud. Matters quieted down, and Ali Dinar expressed his apologies.

Wadai.[211]To turn to affairs in Wadai:—

At the end of 1898 Sultan Yusef died and nominated his second son Ibrahim to succeed him, whilst Abdel Aziz his eldest son, who was a violent and war-like character, was blinded to preclude the possibility of disturbance. As Dud Murra the youngest of the three brothers got on well with Ibrahim he was left unmolested, and the late Sultan Yusef’s body was duly interred at Wara, the recognised burial place of Wadai Sultans. Ibrahim, on his accession, though his father Yusef was a strong Senussiist, refused to give up merissa drinking and declared himself an anti-Senussiist. It was at Sultan Yusef’s request that Senussi had sent Mohammed El Sunni as his representative at the Court of Abesher at the end of 1897.

Owing to widespread animosity against Ibrahim, caused partly by this friction with the Senussiists and partly by his execution of several of the Agids[212] he determined to leave Abesher on the pretext of going on pilgrimage to Wara, but in reality to seek refuge in the mountains of Abu Sinun. Sheraf El Din now took charge of affairs with the tacit consent of Jerma Othman the chief Agid, and sent an expedition to bring back the fugitive Ibrahim alive or dead. He was eventually betrayed by the ex-dervish Emir Zogal[213] and brought to Abesher, where after being, it is reported, blinded, he died of his wounds and was buried (1900). “Better,” he said, “to die as a Sultan in my Palace than to flee shamefully before slaves.” (The party sent to capture Ibrahim was under the command of the slave Gorani Gelma.) In 1902 his remains were transferred to Wara.

Thereupon Ahmed Abu Ghazali (so-called on account of his long neck), the son of the former Sultan Ali, was proclaimed Sultan through the influence of Sheraf El Din, who continued to have the chief hand in the government. This direction of affairs by a eunuch was, however, extremely unpopular and, as a protest, in September, 1901, Sultan Bekhit of Dar Sula refused to comply with orders from Abesher. Jerma, too, endeavoured to install Asil as Sultan in place of Ahmed Ghazali, but as the latter threatened to have Asil’s eyes put out, he fled to Fitri and surrendered near there to Lieut.-Colonel Destenave, in the French sphere. Ahmed now became annoyed with Jerma, as he considered him responsible for the flight of Asil, whilst the people, on the other hand, by whom Jerma was much liked, demanded the head of Ghazali’s chief adviser, Sheraf El Din. The Senussi agent, however, Mohammed El Sunni, now stepped in and effected a reconciliation between Jerma and Sheraf El Din, but the Sultan deeply incensed at the conduct of Jerma determined to kill him. Mohammed Sunni, hereupon, again intervened at the critical moment and obtained his reprieve.

By kind permission of][Capt. Amery.

SONS OF THE MAHDI AND KHALIFA.

(Now being educated in Egypt.)

With Jerma free again the Sultan and Sheraf El Din considered they were no longer safe at Abesher and both resolved to seek refuge in Dar Salamat. On the flight of the Sultan, Jerma at once assumed the direction of affairs at the capital and unsuccessfully attacked the fugitive Sultan’s rearguard soon after it had quitted Abesher. The pursuit was continued and a severe engagement took place about 40 miles further south. Another action was subsequently fought in Dar Salamat in November, 1901, and Ghazali continued his flight to El Batha.