Mansoura

Mansoura lies on the east bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile in the Delta. Sultan al-Kamil of the Ayyubid dynasty founded it in 1219 as a fortified camp on the site of older villages, to bar the road inland from Damietta. Its name means the Victorious and recalls the battle of 1250.

That year Louis IX of France marched south from Damietta with the Seventh Crusade. In the fighting around Mansoura, the king's brother, Robert of Artois, was killed in a reckless attack on the town. The crusaders were then beaten downstream and Louis was taken prisoner, as Egypt passed from Ayyubid to Mamluk rule. According to tradition he was held in a house in Mansoura, and the sultan saw to the prisoners' food. Mansoura remained a town of the Delta, surrounded by fields and canals that led to the branches of the Nile.