Seventh Crusade
An Egyptian Revolution
Meanwhile, extraordinary events were transpiring at Fariskur, where the Sultan and the main Egyptian army were encamped. On May 2, Turanshah gave a great banquet. At the end of the feast, a faction of Mamluk soldiers rushed in and tried to kill him. These soldiers had been offended by Turanshah's treatment of them and, led by Baibars, decided to exact vengeance. The Sultan was wounded but managed to escape to a tower next to the Nile River.
The Mamluks pursued him and set the tower on fire. Turanshah leaped into the river. His pursuers stood on the banks and shot at him with arrows, even as he begged for his life, offering to abdicate. Unable to kill him from the shore, Baibars himself waded out into the water and hacked the Sultan to death. A puppet Sultan was chosen, but he lasted only a few years. In reality, from that bloody night forward, Baibars Bundukdari was the ruler of Egypt. The Mamluks would rule here for almost three hundred years as the slave-sultans.
The Patriarch of Jerusalem arrived in the immediate aftermath of these events. Despite some blood-curdling threats, the Mamluks chose to confirm the bargain made by Turanshah, mainly because of the enormous ransom of half a million pounds tournois. On May 6, Damietta was surrendered to the Egyptians, and King Louis was brought there and released the same day. He was required to pay half the ransom (now reduced to 400,000 pounds) immediately. With the reluctant help of the Templars, he managed to do this and to set sail the same day for Acre. A great many wounded soldiers had been left behind at Damietta; as soon as the Crusaders were gone, the Mamluks slaughtered all these.