crusade

May 24, 1218, saw from the battered yet still crusader-held port of Acre a group of European knights, clergy, and soldiers set out on a daring and untried mission—not to Jerusalem, but to Egypt. It was the start of the Fifth Crusade's most reckless phase: the siege of Damietta. They followed an extreme strategy: in contrast to the previous crusades that made a direct attack on the Holy City, the crusaders of the Fifth Crusade, with papal backing, thought that the capture of Egypt would weaken Muslim power and prompt the fall of Jerusalem without actually attacking it, explains Jonathan Riley Smith in his seminal work, The Crusades: A History. All Eyes on Damietta: The Initial Exchanges Egypt was the