The Birth oj Modern Egypt 51
control of Cairo, and arranged for his assassination,
Mehemet Ali rushed back and restored his authority by
the usual means, leaving Ibrahim to command in Arabia.
The great Ibn Saud having died, Ibrahim crushed the
Wahabites with appalling cruelty and sent their leader,
Abdulla Ibn Saud, to Constantinople for execution
(1816).
Having thus cleared his eastern frontier, Mehemet
Ali turned his attention to the south. The mysterious
regions of Central Africa, from which there flowed along
the Nile waterway into Egypt a steady stream of slaves,
ivory, and gold, now attracted his adventurous ambition.
The lucrative stream had of late been blocked by Mame-
luke refugees, who had established themselves in the
Sudan. And to set it flowing again and tap its legendary
sources, a small Egyptian force under Ismail was pushed
up the Nile. But the phantom golden cities fled before
it until the noisome swamps and swarming savages of
Equatoria compelled a return (1812). While Ismail was
establishing Egyptian administration in the Eastern
Sudan, another force annexed the Western Sudan after
hard fighting near Kordofan. There followed, however,
one revolt after another, in one of which Ismail was burnt
alive with his staff at Shindi. Thereafter the Sudan was
ravaged as ruthlessly as Arabia had been, and the
Egyptians established themselves there permanently,
New capitals were founded at Khartum and Kassala,
and trade routes opened with Suakim and Massowa on
the Red Sea, Under British influence the slave trade
was eventually declared illegal on the occasion of a visit
by Mehemet Ali to Khartum (1838), but, nevertheless,
remained the principal industry of the province* By
1842 Egyptian expeditions had reached Gondokoro, and
Egypt had extended its frontiers to include territories