expedition consisting of
10,000 men under Tusun Pasha, the pasha's son, a youth of sixteen,
landed in Hejaz without opposition. Saud with his main forces had
started northwards to attack Bagdad, but returning at once he met and
defeated Tusun with great loss and compelled him to retire. Medina and
subsequently Mecca were eventually taken by the Egyptians, but in spite
of continual reinforcements they could do little more than hold their
own in Hejaz. In 1813 Mehemet Ali was compelled to take the field
himself with fresh troops, but was unable to achieve any decisive
success, and in 1814 Tusun was again defeated beyond Taif. In May 1814
Saud died, and his son, Abdallah, attempted to negotiate, but Mehemet
Ali refused all overtures, and in January 1815 advanced into Nejd,
defeated the Wahhabi army and occupied Ras, then the chief town in
Kasim. Terms of peace were made, but on the retirement of the Egyptians
Abdallah refused to carry out the conditions agreed on, which included
the return of the jewels plundered by his father, and another campaign
had to be fought before his submission was obtained. Ibrahim Pasha
replaced Tusun in command, and on reaching Arabia in September 1816 his
first aim was to gain over the great Bedouin tribes holding the roads
between Hejaz and his objective in Nejd; having thus secured his line of
advance he pushed on boldly and defeated Abdallah at Wiya, where he put
to death all prisoners taken; thence rapidly advancing, with contingents
of the friendly Harb and Muter tribes in support of his regular troops,
he laid siege to Ras; this place, however, held out and after a four
months' siege he was compelled to give up the attack. Leaving it on one
side he pushed on eastwards, took Aneza after six days' bombardment and
occupied Bureda. Here he waited two months for reinforcements, and with
his Bedouin contingent, strengthened by the adhesion of the Ateba and
Bani Khalid tribes, advanced on Shakra in Wushm, which fell in January
1818 after a regular siege. After destroying Huremala and massacring its
inhabitants, he arrived before Deraiya on the 14th of April 1818. For
six months the siege went on with varying fortune, but at last the
courage and determination of Ibrahim triumphed, and on the 9th of
September, after a heroic resistance, Abdallah, with a remnant of four
hundred men, was compelled to surrender. The Wahhabi leader was soon
after sent to Constantinople, where, in spite of Mehemet Ali's