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Siege of Alexandria (1167)

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Siege of Alexandria
Part of the Crusader invasions of Egypt
Date
Summer 1167
Location
Alexandria, Egypt
Result
Negotiated settlement
Belligerents
Kingdom of Jerusalem
Fatimid Caliphate (vizierate)
Zengids of Syria
Fatimid Caliphate(Caliphate)[1]
Commanders and leaders
Amalric I of Jerusalem
Shawar
Shirkuh
Saladin
Al-Adid

The siege of Alexandria took place in summer 1167, during the third Crusader invasion of Egypt, when the Crusaders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem besieged the port city of Alexandria, nominally part of the Fatimid Caliphate but held by Saladin on behalf of his uncle, Shirkuh. Despite the small number of troops he had with him and the dubious support of the Alexandrians, Saladin managed to sustain the siege for three months, until food started running out. At that point Shirkuh arranged for a negotiated settlement, which saw Alexandria handed over to the Fatimid vizier Shawar, and both the Crusaders and Shirkuh's Zengid troops departed Egypt after the payment of tribute from the Fatimid treasury.

References

  1. Back to citation First Encyclopedia of Islam, E. J. Brill, Leiden 1993, vol. 7 p.382

Bibliography

  • Lyons, Malcolm Cameron; Jackson, D. E. P. (1982). Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31739-8.
  • Omran, Mahmud Said (1985). "King Amalric and the Siege of Alexandria, 1167". In Peter W. Edbury (ed.). Crusade and Settlement. Papers read at the First Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East and presented to R. C. Smail. Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press. pp. 191–196. ISBN 0-906449-78-2.