to beware of Shawar, the governor of Upper Egypt, for he was the most dangerous and unscrupulous rival to the wazir. As-Salih was succeeded in office by his son Abu Shuja al-ʿAdil Ruzzik, but within a year he was deposed and executed by Shawar, whose ambition had been rightly gauged by as-Salih. But Shawar, who was an Arab by birth, was distinctly unpopular, and within a few months he was driven out by Dirgham, who was the favourite of the soldiery and commanded the Barqiya brigade. Expelled from Egypt Shawar went to Damascus and opened negotiations with Nur ad-Din: he represented to him that Egypt was inadequately defended, that it would be an easy conquest, and that the union of the Muslim world would be the best means of effectually getting rid of the Franks, all the arguments already urged by as-Salih with the added attractive detail of conquest instead of alliance. But Nur ad-Din was ever extremely cautious, and moreover he distrusted what he saw of Shawar, who was very evidently a wily and treacherous man, but the ideas suggested seem to have sunk into his mind. Meanwhile circumstances began to force the Egyptian question on Nur ad-Din’s attention by making it more or less inevitable that Egypt must fall into the hands either of the Nur ad-Din, or else into those of the Frankish king of Jerusalem. It seems that a subsidy had been paid by the Fatimids to the Franks, though when this began is not recorded. Lane-Poole says that it “must have been recently instituted, for Ibn-Ruzzik, who died in 1161, assuredly would have paid no such subsidy to the ‘infidels.’ Probably Shawar began the payment in 1162, but the fact cannot be proved” (_Egypt in the Mid. Ages_, p. 177, note). At any rate Dirgham, seeking for increased popularity and confident in the military resources of his country and in the decadence of the Franks, stopped this payment to Amalric, who was at this time king of Jerusalem. As a result Amalric invaded Egypt in the following year (560). Dirgham went out to meet the invaders and was severely defeated at Bilbays. But it was then the time of the Nile inundation, and Dirgham had the dykes cut so that the whole country was very soon under water. This made the Franks ready to listen to some sort of compromise, and they accepted such payment as Dirgham offered and withdrew to Palestine. Shortly after their retirement Dirgham was informed of Shawar’s intrigues at Damascus, and he at once perceived that his wisest plan was to conclude an alliance with Amalric so that he could count on Frankish help against a Turkish invasion. No doubt this project was known to Nur ad-Din, although Amalric’s recent attempt was enough to force his hand, and he decided to take Shawar’s advice and send an expedition into Egypt. At the head of the army despatched by Nur ad-Din was the Turkish general Shirkuh, with his nephew Salah ad-Din (Saladin), as his lieutenant, and with him was Shawar as guide and adviser.