Volta
Conflict1217 – August 1221

Fifth Crusade

Striking at Egypt first, the crusaders took Damietta, but on the march to Cairo they were trapped by the Nile flood and gave Damietta back.

Pope Innocent III launched this crusade at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). The crusaders aimed to strike Egypt, heart of the Ayyubid realm, and trade it for Jerusalem; besieging Damietta from 1218, they took it in November 1219. Sultan al-Kamil offered Jerusalem, but the papal legate Pelagius refused.

Marching on Cairo in the summer of 1221, the crusaders were trapped by the rising Nile and dykes cut by the Egyptians, and withdrew after returning Damietta. Francis of Assisi is said to have visited al-Kamil during the campaign.

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The map in 1217

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States at the time
Ayyubid dynasty · victor
Kingdom of Jerusalem · belligerent
Kingdom of Hungary · intervened
Places
Damietta

People

  • al-Kamil1177 – 1238

    commander · Ayyubid sultan of Egypt (r. 1218–1238) who defeated the Fifth Crusade and ceded Jerusalem to Frederick II by treaty in 1229

Before and after

Earlier
AD 909 The Fatimid Caliphate and the Founding of Cairo
Later
1248 Seventh Crusade

Themes that include this event

  • The Crusades1095 – 1291

    From the Council of Clermont to the fall of Acre — two centuries of war between Latin Europe and the Islamic world over the Holy Land