ool of orthodoxy ever
since.

Saladin's kinsmen, known as the Ayyubid dynasty, ruled Egypt for over
half a century after the death of their great leader. First his politic
brother, Adil Seyf-ed-din ("Saphadin") carried on his fine tradition for
a quarter of a century, and then from 1218 to 1238 Seyf-ed-din's able
son Kamil, who had long been the ruler of Egypt during his father's
frequent absences, followed in his steps. The futile efforts of the
discredited Crusaders disturbed their peace. John of Brienne's seizure
of Damietta was a serious menace, and it took all Kamil's energy to
defeat the "Franks" at Mansura (1219) and drive them out of the country.

On the other hand, he cultivated very friendly relations with the
Emperor Frederic II., who concluded a singular defensive alliance with
him in 1229, to the indignation of the Pope. He was tolerant to
Christians, and listened to the preaching of St. Francis of Assisi; he
granted trading concessions to the Venetians and Pisans, who established
a consulate at Alexandria. At the same time he notably encouraged Moslem
learning, built colleges, and developed the resources of the kingdom in
every way. What had happened to the dynasties of Tulun, Ikhshid, and the
Fatimides, was repeated on the death of Kamil. Two sons kept the throne
successively till 1249, and then, in the midst of Louis IX's crusade,
the salvation of Egypt devolved on the famous Mamluks, or white slaves,
who had formed the _corps d'elite_ of Saladin's army.

_V.--The Mamluks_

Political women have played a great role in Egypt from Hatshepsut and
Cleopatra to the Christian wife of Aziz, the princess royal who
engineered the downfall of Hakim, and the black mother who dominated
Mustansir; and it was a woman who was the first queen of the Mamluks.
Sheger-ed-durr ("Tree of Pearls"), widow of Salih, the last reigning
Ayyubid of Egypt, was the brain of the army which broke the chivalry of
France.

At the second battle of Mansura in 1249, she took Louis prisoner. Then
she married a leading Mamluk emir, to conciliate Moslem prejudice
against a woman's rule, and thenceforth for more than two centuries and
a half one Mamluk after another seized the throne, held it as long as he
could, and sometimes transmitted it to his son. When it is noted that
forty-eight sultans (twenty-five Bahri Mamluks, or "white slaves of the
river," so called from the barracks on an island in the Nile, and
twenty-three Burgis, name