and also Latakia and a number of other towns, on condition that they return Damietta to him. They refused, and on top of that demanded three hundred thousand dinars with which to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, as well as the fortress of Karak.

Then it so happened that a party of Muslims opened a breach from the Nile toward the enemy’s encampment. The river, in full flood, surrounded them; unfamiliar with the Nile, they suddenly found it cutting them off from Damietta. Their supplies were severed, hunger and humiliation gripped them, and they sued for safe-conduct in exchange for surrendering Damietta and concluding a truce. Their request was granted, and they handed over Damietta after occupying it for three full years—praise be to Allah.

When news reached al-Kāmil of the death of his brother al-Muʿaẓẓam, he marched on Damascus, took it from al-Nāṣir, and installed al-Ashraf there. When al-Ashraf died, al-Kāmil hastened again to Damascus, which his brother Ismāʿīl had meanwhile seized; he wrenched it from him and settled in the Citadel, but he had scarcely caught his breath when—two months later—he himself died, complaining of a cough and dysentery, and he also suffered from gout. People were stunned when they heard of his death. His justice had been mixed with severity: he once hanged a number of soldiers in the Marsh of Shaʿīr (1).

During his siege of Damascus, the ruler of Ḥimṣ sent fifty men to reinforce the city; al-Kāmil captured them and had every one of them hanged.

Al-Sharīf al-ʿImād al-Baṣrawī relates: A servant told me, “Al-Kāmil asked me for a basin to vomit into, so I brought it. Al-Nāṣir Dāwūd then arrived and stood at the door to visit him. I said, ‘Dāwūd is at the door.’ He replied, ‘Is he waiting for my death?!’ He grew agitated, and I withdrew. Dāwūd went down to the Dār Sāmah. When I re-entered to attend the Sultan, I found that he had died, his face pressed into the pillow.”