# Fifth Crusade and the Siege of Damietta

The Fifth Crusade (615-618 AH / 1217-1221 CE) was a major Western European military expedition that targeted Egypt rather than the Holy Land, reasoning that control of Egypt's wealth and resources was the key to permanent control of Palestine. The Crusaders succeeded in capturing the port city of Damietta but ultimately suffered a catastrophic defeat, forced to surrender all their gains and withdraw without achieving any of their objectives.

Background

Following Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi's recapture of Jerusalem in 583 AH (1187 CE) and the partial successes of the Third Crusade (which restored coastal Palestine to Crusader control but not Jerusalem), the Crusader states in the Levant faced a Muslim Ayyubid empire that held Egypt, Syria, and the Jazira under a single ruling dynasty. Pope Innocent III, who had spent his pontificate trying to organize a new Crusade, succeeded in launching what became the Fifth Crusade before his death in 1216 CE.

The Campaign

A large Crusader force assembled in Cyprus and landed at Damietta, the major port city on the eastern arm of the Nile Delta, in Rajab 615 AH (May 1218 CE). Damietta controlled access to the Nile and with it to the rest of Egypt.

The Sultan of Egypt, al-Adil I (a brother of Salah ad-Din), died during the early stages of the siege, and his son al-Kamil Muhammad took command of the Egyptian defense. Al-Kamil was an able ruler who initially struggled to organize the defense but ultimately proved a skilled diplomat as well as a military leader.

The Fall of Damietta

The Crusaders mounted a sustained siege lasting over a year. A key moment came with the capture of the Chain Tower that protected Damietta's harbor. In Sha'ban 616 AH (November 1219 CE), the Crusaders captured Damietta after its defenders, ravaged by disease and starvation, were too weakened to maintain the walls.

Negotiations and Francis of Assisi

During the siege, Sultan al-Kamil made extraordinary concessions in negotiations with the Crusaders, offering to return Jerusalem and most of the other territories of the former Crusader Kingdom (excluding Transjordan and its fortresses) in exchange for the Crusaders leaving Egypt. The Crusader leaders, dominated by the papal legate Cardinal Pelagius, rejected these terms, believing they were on the verge of total victory.

In the autumn of 615 AH (1219 CE), Francis of Assisi — founder of the Franciscan Order — made his famous journey to the Sultan's camp, where he met with al-Kamil seeking to convert him. Contemporary accounts describe al-Kamil receiving him courteously and engaging in theological conversation before safely returning him to the Crusader lines. This meeting is remembered as one of the most remarkable encounters between the two civilizations during the Crusader period.

The March to Cairo and Defeat

After holding Damietta for nearly two years, the Crusader forces — under Cardinal Pelagius rather than the more capable King John of Brienne of Jerusalem — marched south toward Cairo in Muharram 618 AH (July 1221 CE). Al-Kamil withdrew his forces systematically, drawing the Crusaders deeper into the Delta.

In the late summer, the Nile flood began. Al-Kamil opened the dikes and sluices, flooding the surrounding countryside and cutting off the Crusader army's retreat. The Crusaders found themselves trapped between rising waters, the Nile, and the Egyptian army, without sufficient supplies to sustain a prolonged stand.

Al-Kamil once more offered generous terms: the Crusaders could leave Egypt freely in exchange for surrendering Damietta and agreeing to an eight-year truce. With no alternative, Cardinal Pelagius accepted. In Rajab 618 AH (September 1221 CE), the Crusaders surrendered Damietta and departed Egypt.

Assessment

The Fifth Crusade's failure was largely a failure of leadership. Sultan al-Kamil had twice offered terms that would have given the Crusaders more than any military campaign could achieve — the return of Jerusalem. Cardinal Pelagius's refusal of these offers, based on overconfidence and a messianic belief in total victory, cost the Crusade everything it had gained.

The episode illustrated the fundamental difficulty of the Crusading enterprise: even when it achieved military success, the fractured command structure and competing interests of the various Crusading contingents prevented effective strategic decision-making.

Legacy

The Fifth Crusade failed, but Egypt remained the target of subsequent Crusading expeditions. The Seventh Crusade (648-649 AH / 1250 CE) under King Louis IX of France also attacked Damietta, captured it briefly, and then suffered an even more catastrophic defeat, with Louis himself captured by the Mamluks. The pattern of the Fifth Crusade — initial success at Damietta, overconfidence, Nile flood, total defeat — was essentially repeated.

Al-Kamil's willingness to offer Jerusalem in negotiations raised questions that engaged Muslim scholars: was it permissible to cede Muslim holy sites in peace treaties? Later, in 627 AH (1229 CE), al-Kamil did cede Jerusalem to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in a ten-year treaty, to the outrage of many Muslims and the Pope alike — a controversial act that continued to be debated.

Sources

Ibn Wasil, Mufarrij al-Kurub fi Akhbar Bani Ayyub (contemporary Ayyubid chronicle)
Abu Shama, al-Rawdatayn fi Akhbar al-Dawlatayn
Oliver of Paderborn, Historia Damiatina (Crusader primary source)
James Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221