The Battle of Mansurah (1250)

In 1249 King Louis IX of France landed in Egypt with a Crusader army and took Damietta. The Ayyubid sultan al-Salih Ayyub was gravely ill and soon died. The core of his army was the Bahri Mamluk regiment, made up of Kipchak Turks.

In February 1250 the Crusader vanguard under the king's brother, Robert of Artois, burst into the town of Mansurah. The Mamluk commander Baybars left the gates open; the knights poured into the narrow streets and were trapped there. Robert and most of his knights were killed, and the attacks that followed were held off.

Wracked by disease and hunger, the Crusader army had to retreat, and in April King Louis IX was captured near Fariskur and released for a huge ransom. The victory raised the Mamluks' standing: that May they ended Ayyubid rule and took the sultanate for themselves.