The Frankish siege of Damietta (564 AH)

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

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

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