Fighting for Egypt

In 1163, the young Fatimid caliph of Egypt was al-Adid, who was only 12 and a puppet of several strong nobles and viziers. His current vizier, Shawar, was overthrown by the military commander Dirgham. Shortly after, Amalric I, King of Jerusalem, attacked on the pretense that Egypt was not keeping up tributes promised to Baldwin III, Amalric's brother and predecessor.

Amalric failed, but it motivated Nur ad-Din, Emir of Aleppo, to attack Crusader forces in Syria to keep their attention away from Egypt. While Nur ad-Din was attacking Tripoli, Shawar visited him asking for help to be restored to power in Egypt.

Nur ad-Din did not want to divide his forces, but gave a Kurdish mercenary general employed by the Zengid Dynasty permission to invade Egypt. General Shirkuh was happy to do so, but his approach made Dirgham forge an alliance with Amalric to fight Shirkuh. Unfortunately, Amalric assembled his forces but did not arrive in time to help Dirgham was killed, and Shawar was restored to power over the kingdom and the young caliph.

But Shawar and Shirkuh fell out and Shawar called Amalric for help. Amalric attacked Shirkuh's forces, but they came to a stalemate and each agreed to live Egypt. In 1166, however, Shirkuh came back. Shawar called on Amalric, who arrived in January 1167. Another stalemate was reached, and gain the two agreed to retreat and leave Egypt to Shawar (although Amalric left a garrison in Cairo. Amalric also demanded more tribute from Egypt.

Amalric came back in the winter of 1168, at which point Shawar re-allied himself with Shirkuh. They could not drive Amalric out of Cairo, and Amalric progressed until he was camped at Frustat (now called Old Cairo). Shawar decided to destroy the city rather than let it fall into Christian hands. An Egyptian historian, writing at least two centuries later, says:

Shawar ordered that Fustat be evacuated. He forced [the citizens] to leave their money and property behind and flee for their lives with their children. In the panic and chaos of the exodus, the fleeing crowd looked like a massive army of ghosts.... Shawar sent 20,000 naphtha pots and 10,000 lighting bombs and distributed them throughout the city. Flames and smoke engulfed the city and rose to the sky in a terrifying scene. The blaze raged for 54 days.

Shirkuh did not give up, however. e fought until Amalric was forced out of Egypt, conquered Cairo himself, executed Shawar, and ruled Egypt for a mere two months. He was succeeded by his nephew, a name better known to us: Saladin.

Amalric would continue to invade Egypt. Tomorrow we'll return to see how his reign was going.