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The Frankish siege of Damietta (564 AH)

حصر الفرنج دمياط سنة ٥٦٤

c. October 1169 CE · Safar 564 AH

Damietta

Safar 564 (Oct–Dec 1169): Frankish Syria, reinforced by fleets answering appeals to Sicily and al-Andalus, besieged Damietta fifty days; Saladin fed it men and money down the Nile while Nur al-Din loosed his raiders deep into the emptied Frankish lands — the besiegers withdrew to find their own country wasted, in Ibn al-Athir's proverb the ostrich that went out seeking horns and came back without ears 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks
Region
Egypt & Nile
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

116011701180 c.
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era · The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks

Crusades

Overview

In Safar 564 AH the Franks landed at Damietta and besieged it for about fifty days. Ibn al-Athir reports that the Franks of Syria asked their brothers in Sicily and al-Andalus for help, and they sent them money, men and weapons. 2

Defence of the city

Salah al-Din sent reinforcements to the besieged across the Nile, with troops, money and supplies. He wrote to Nur al-Din complaining that he feared the Egyptians would betray him if he left. 2

The withdrawal

Nur al-Din sent his armies and went himself to the Frankish lands in Syria, and raided them. The Franks returned from Damietta and found their lands in ruins. The famous saying about the ostrich that went out seeking two horns and came back without ears was coined about them. 2

Ibn al-Athir relates from Salah al-Din that al-Adid sent him a million Egyptian dinars, apart from clothes, because of the Franks' stay at Damietta. 2

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub)· Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi
Occurred at
Damietta

People and things also explored

Ending the Ubaydid Khutba and Restoring the Abbasid Khutba in Egypt· the hidden estrangement between Nūr al-Dīn and Saladin· Shirkuh enters Egypt, Shawar is killed, and Shirkuh takes the vizierate· Asad al-Din Shirkuh's first expedition to Egypt· Ismat al-Din Khatun· The battle of the Ford of Sorrows (Jacob's Ford, 575 AH)· Battle of Hattin· The Franks take Acre and kill the captives

Sources

  1. al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir , p. 21-22
  2. al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir , p.21-22
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The Frankish siege of Damietta (564 AH)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/franks-siege-damietta-564/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Time

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Ending the Ubaydid Khutba and Restoring the Abbasid Khutba in Egypt

Al-Imad al-Katib: Salah al-Din opened the year 567 with Egypt's greatest obedience — the Abbasid khutba, first Jumu'a at Fustat's mosque, the second at Cairo; al-Adid died that Ashura, and the palace's treasures sold for ten years. Shihab al-Din ibn Abi Asrun bore the news to Baghdad, and al-Imad wrote a general proclamation read across the lands of Islam — 'no minbar remains in those lands but the khutba for our lord al-Mustadi' is upon it'. Ibn al-Athir adds: Nur al-Din ordered it, Salah al-Din feared an Egyptian rising, and the Ajami called al-Amir al-Alim mounted the minbar before the khatib and prayed for al-Mustadi' — 'not two goats butted over it'. The khutba spread to Yemen, Barqa, Tawzar and Egypt to Aswan; Ibn al-Jawzi wrote his book al-Nasr ala Misr.