The presence of a Frankish adviser at the court of the Caliph, a garrison in Cairo, as well as officials responsible for collecting the indemnities increased the discontent of the Egyptian people, because it implied additional taxes. Members of the court began to regard the alliance with Nur ad-Din as a lesser evil. The Frankish knights and officials became worried and began to send distress messages to Amalric. The latter hesitated, because he was negotiating an alliance with Byzantines for the conquest of Egypt, but a large fraction of his entourage pushed him to intervene immediately. At this point in time the crusaders should have focused on strengthening their position against Syria, but instead Amalric was tempted by
Gilbert of Assailly, Grand Master of the
Knights Hospitaller, who provided five hundred knights and five hundred
turcopoles to attack Egypt and take it.
Manuel Komnenos received the idea well. However, the
Venetian fleet, which at that time often operated in the eastern Mediterranean, refused to take part in the Egyptian campaigns because they did not want to jeopardize their trade relations with Egypt by war. The alliance between the Crusaders and Byzantines was still being finalized when Amalric who utilized the fact that the vizier did not pay the agreed tribute to the Crusaders in Alexandria in time as an excuse, launched a quick attack against
Bilbeis in November 1168, massacring the population. This outraged the
Coptic population of Egypt and led to them ending their support of the Crusaders. Shawar appealed to Damascus and Shirkuh returned. Meanwhile, Amalric's fleet after taking
Tanis, where the bloodshed was repeated, could not go up the Nile and was ordered to withdraw. When faced with an imminent attack by Amalric, Shawar ordered the burning of his own capital city,
Fustat, to keep it from falling into Amalric's hands. According to the Egyptian historian
Al-Maqrizi (1346–1442): Later on, Amalric demanded tribute from Shawar for exchange for his withdrawal, which would be a million bezants, but the approach of Shirkuh forces forced him to lower his demands and give up half of the tribute. On 2 January 1169, the troops of Amalric withdrew from the vicinity of Cairo. Later that month, Shirkuh entered Cairo and had the untrustworthy Shawar executed. He himself died two months later and his nephew, Saladin, took power as regent.
Siege of Damietta 's
Historia). In 1169,
Andronikos Kontostephanos was appointed commander of a fleet carrying a Byzantine army to invade Egypt in alliance with the forces of Amalric. The campaign had been planned possibly since the marriage of Amalric with Manuel's great-niece
Maria in 1167. According to the chronicler William of Tyre: 150 galleys, sixty horse-carriers and a dozen
dromons specially constructed to carry siege engines. The fleet set sail from the port of
Melibotos in the
Dardanelles on 8 July 1169. After defeating a small Egyptian scouting squadron near
Cyprus, Kontostephanos arrived at
Tyre and
Acre in late September to find that Amalric had undertaken no preparations whatsoever. The delays on the part of the Crusaders infuriated Kontostephanos and sow mistrust among the ostensible allies. It was not until mid-October that the combined armies and fleets set forth, arriving at
Damietta two weeks later. The Christians delayed three days in attacking the city, allowing Saladin to hastily move in troops and supplies. Damietta's defenders stretched strong chains across the Nile to prevent the Navy from attacking directly. The siege was prosecuted with vigour on both sides, with Kontostephanos and his men constructing huge siege towers, but the besiegers were hampered by the growing mistrust between Byzantines and Crusaders, especially as the Byzantines' supplies dwindled, and Amalric refused to share his own with them but sold them at exorbitant prices. However, Byzantines had urged the Franks to attack the city, but Amalric hesitated and did not want to risk great losses. In addition, winter rains occurred in December weakened the attackers' combat readiness. Exasperated by the dragging-on of the siege and the suffering of his troops, Kontostephanos once again disobeyed Manuel's instructions ordering him to obey Amalric in all things, and launched with his troops a final attack on the city. As the Byzantines were about to storm the walls, Amalric stopped them by announcing that a negotiated surrender of Damietta had just taken place. The discipline and cohesion of the Byzantine army almost instantly disintegrated after the news of the peace deal were announced, with troops burning the engines and boarding the ships in groups without order. Left with only six ships, Kontostephanos accompanied Amalric back to Palestine, returning home with part of his army by land through the crusader states of the Levant, while about half of the Byzantine ships that had sailed from Damietta was lost in a series of storms on its return journey, with the last ships arriving in their home ports only in late spring 1170. == Aftermath ==