"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٠‎٨‎٢] (١٧٨٢/١٢٣٧)

1082
Defeat of
the Egypti
ans in
Zahran, Sep
tember 1814.
Egyptian re
inforcements
and additions
to trans
port.
Great defeat
of the Wah-
habis at Bisal,
13th Janu
ary 1815.
were required for forwarding' supplies to the coast by the Qanah-Qusair
and Cairo-Suez lines. The Harb, from whom local camels were obtained,
refused to let their animals g-o beyond Taif ; and even at Taif there
was often not more than ten days^ supplies for the garrison. Scarcity
prevailed at Kulakh also, and at advanced posts which had been thrown
out in the direction of Zahran.
The fortune of the field also continued adverse to the Egyptians. In
September their best troops, under one of their best commanders, were
surprised and defeated in Zahran by Bakhruj, a chief of the southern
Wahhabis; they lost in this action about 8u cavalry and 800 infantry,
and were obliged to fall back upon Taif; but they brought in with
them about 60 heads of Wahhabis. Meanwhile the Wahhabis and the
tribes favourable to the Egyptians continued to raid each other mutually,
the advantage generally resting with the former.
boon after this disaster, however, the aspect of affairs began to im
prove for the Egyptians. Kight hundred Bedouin horsemen, drawn from
the tribes of the Libyan desert, arrived in Hijaz where half were posted
to Madinah and half to iaif; and they at once proceeded to make forays
on the W ahhabis in the Bedouin manner. In November the Hajj
arrived; the caravan from Syria brought with it 4,000 camels for the
troops, of which ],000 were stopped at Madinah; while from Egypt
there came along with the Mahmal, accompanied on this occasion by
soldiers and officials only, 2,500 additional camels and a reinforce
ment of 1,000 Turkish horsemen. Twelve thousand camels belonging
to the Syrian Hajj were temporarily requisitioned to carry stores from
Jiddah to Makkah.
At length a forward movement began. On the loth of December
1814 the bulk of the infantry, then at Makkah, left for Kulakh; and
on Saturday, the 7 th of January, after a short delay caused by a Wahhabi
excursion towards Qunfidah, Muhammad 'Ali followed with about
1 ,200 cavalry and other troops. He had not gone far when he received
news of the occupation by a Wahhabi army of Bisal, a place between
Taif and Kulakh, where on Thursday, the 12th of January, assisted
by a Bedouin levy under the Sharif Rajah and by a part of the
'Ataibah, he brought them to action. The result of the first day's
fighting was indecisive; but on the second day the Egyptians, having
succeeded by means of a pretended flight in drawing the Wahhabis from
the hillsides on which they were , stationed into the open plain,
achieved a success of which the completeness left nothing to be desired.