1180
Cairo, Egypt

1238
Damascus, Syria

Sultan of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria

"In [1229] al-Kamil gave Jerusalem to the emperor [Frederick II].... The news of the handing over of Jerusalem to the Franks arrived and all hell broke loose in all the lands of Islam."

—Medieval Muslim chronicler Sibt bin al-Jawzi; quoted in The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives.

Al-Malik al-Kamil was sultan, or leader, of Egypt and later of Syria during both the Fifth (1218–21) and the Sixth (1228–29) Crusades. After successfully defending Cairo, the capital of his caliphate (kingdom) in Egypt from the Crusaders in 1221, he once again needed to deal with a Crusader army in 1228, under the leadership of the German emperor Frederick II (see entry). This...