All Shamil's support of the assassins, and Abdurrezzak's confession, failed
to move the Sultan. It was not until his Ministers convinced him of the dangers to his authority of condoning the crime that he resolved to take action, ordered the surrender of the Kurds, and banished Abdurrezzak, Ali Shama, and all the prominent members of the Bedr Khans. The murderers were tried, and evidence having been procured that the Bedr Khans had plotted to establish a Kurdish supremacy at Yildiz, All Shamil and Abdurrezzak were condemned to death, and eleven others of their clan sentenced to severe punishment. These are only the bare outlines of the story, the extraordinary details of which are fully set forth in the narrative of the Times correspondent. The crowning touch of savagery is supplied by the fact that Ali Shamil, when being tried at Tripoli, sprang at his prosecutor and killed him by biting him in the throat. "Yet," as the Times observes, "Ali Shamil held high rank in the Turkish capital, while Abdurrezzak and Redvan appeared in society as polished and cultivated gentlemen." It is to restore Egypt to a regime in which such men rise to the highest office that the fanatical enemies of British control are now intriguing.
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