Battle of Mansura, 647

In Dhu al-Qaʿda 647 AH the Franks attacked Mansura and reached the sultan's tent. Sultan al-Malik al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub had died on the night of mid-Shaʿban, and his death was concealed for days while his mamluk Aqtay rode by post to the fortress of Kayfa to summon his son Turanshah ¹.

The commander of the army, Fakhr al-Din ibn Shaykh al-Shuyukh, who had led the conquest of Ascalon and Tiberias three years earlier, mounted and fought. He was struck twice in the face and fell dead. The Muslims were routed, then turned back against the Franks, victory came, and a great slaughter of Franks followed ¹.

The sultan had imprisoned Fakhr al-Din in the year forty (the source gives only the year, without the century) and he endured three years of confinement. The sultan then released him and put him in command of the army. His career ended as a martyr in the battle that broke the back of the campaign, and days afterwards the king of the Franks was captured ².