As-Salih Ayyub, son of Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, had in 1221 become a hostage at the end of the Fifth Crusade, while John of Brienne became a hostage of as-Salih's father, until Damietta was reconstructed and restored to Egypt.

He had in 1232 been given Hisn Khayfa in the Jazirah (now part of Turkey), which his father had captured from the Artuqids.

His father in 1234 had sent him to rule Damascus, removing him from the succession in Egypt after suspecting him of conspiring against him with the Mamluks.

His uncle as-Salih Ismail had soon expelled him from Damascus, and he fled to the Jazirah, where he had allied with the Khwarezmians.

Though the Mongols in 1220 had destroyed the Khwarezmian Empire, many Khwarezmians have survived by working in northern Iraq as mercenaries.

As their wages are particularly low, they have attempted to create work unions; historians disagree on whether the work unions were successful.

Khwarezmian Sultan Jalal ad-Din's followers, remaining loyal to him even after his death in 1231, had raided the Seljuq lands of Jazira and Syria for the next several years, calling themselves the Khwarezmiyya.

Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil had died in 1238 and had been succeeded by his son Al-Adil II, as-Saleh Ayyub’s brother; Ismael with the support of the Ayyubids of Kerak, Hama and Homs, had in September 1239 captured Damascus from Ayyub.

Ayyub, abandoned by his troops, had been taken captive by local Bedouin who transferred him to the control of an-Nasir Dawud, Emir of Kerak, ushering in an era of future rivalry between Ismail and Ayyub.

An-Nasir held him prisoner, refusing to give him up to Al-Adil II, Ayyub's brother and the ruler of Egypt.

An-Nasir, quarreling with Al-Adil II, releases Ayyub in April 1240 and allies with him against the Egyptians, in return for a promise that Ayyub will reinstall him in Damascus.

Al-Adil is assassinated by his own troops, and Ayyub and An-Nasir enter Cairo in triumph in June.

An agreement is brokered in July 1240 via Theobald I of Navarre, with the Crusaders allying with Damascus against Egypt.

The Crusaders will secure the southern border of Palestine from Ayyub, while Ismail is forced to effectively cede all of the land west of the Jordan River that Saladin had gained for the Ayyubids in 1187, including Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gaza, and Nablus.

Ismail also gave up his own fortresses in Hunin, Tiberias, Beaufort, and Safad.

The terms of the treaty provoke outcries and consternation throughout the Arab world, and Muslim imams denounce Ismail because of the loss of Jerusalem.

 An-Nasir, on his return to Kerak the next month, finds himself under attack from the crusaders, who had entered into alliance with his enemy, As-Salih Ismail of Damascus.

Meanwhile, Ayyub renounces his promises to restore An-Nasir in Damascus, leaving An-Nasir diplomatically isolated.

An-Nasir in order to hold onto his lands is forced to come to an agreement with Ismail, then with the crusaders.

Ayyub, having in the spring of 1241 signed a truce with the crusaders, launches a campaign to reconquer Syria.

His army meets the troops of An-Nasir in battle west of Jerusalem, and are defeated.

An-Nasir now changes sides again, submitting to Ayyub.

A parliament at Acre in 1243 refuses homage to Frederick's son Conrad, German king from 1237, unless he appears in person, and names Alice, queen dowager of Cyprus, as regent.

Thus it is that baronial rule triumphs over imperial administration in the Levant.

Nevertheless, the victory of the barons brings to the kingdom not strength but continued division, the more serious as new forces appear in the Muslim world.

An-Nasir has been faced with constant fighting against the Franks for the past two years, and occasionally with Ismail as well, and has received little in the way of concrete aid from Ayyub, so he changes sides once again in 1243, going over to his uncle Ismail's side.

The arrival of a force of Khwarezmian freebooters from the north leads to the abandonment of an attempted joint Crusader-Damascene invasion of Egypt, and An-Nasir again withdraws to Kerak.

The displaced Khwarezmians, heading south from Iraq towards Egypt, invade Crusader Christian-held Jerusalem on July 11, 1244,

Jerusalem’s citadel, the Tower of David, surrenders on August 23; the Crusader Christian population of the city is expelled, as are Jews.

This will trigger a call from Europe for the Seventh Crusade, but the Crusaders will never again be successful in retaking Jerusalem.

After being conquered by the Khwarezmian forces, the city is to remain under Muslim control until 1917, when the British take it from the Ottomans.

The Khwarezmian forces continue south after their capture of Jerusalem, which has caused great alarm among both the Christian and the Muslim states.

Al-Mansur, the Emir of Homs and an-Nasir Dawud, ruling Kerak, have joined the Templars, the Hospitallers, the Teutonic Knights, the Order of Saint Lazarus and the remaining forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to take the field against the Egyptian Sultanate.

The Egyptian army is commanded by a Mamluk officer named Rukn al-Din Baibars.

Battle is joined on the morning October 17, with the Christian knights repeatedly charging the Egyptians and fighting up and down the line.

The Egyptian army holds its ground.