[Illustration: 025.jpg VASE IN THE ABBOTT COLLECTION, NEW YORK]

El-Adil was so much engaged with wars against the Moslem princes,--the
princes of Nissibis and Mardin,--and also with repulsing El-Afdhal, who
wished to recover his lost kingdom, that he was unable to proceed with
any force against the Crusaders; he took unwilling measures against them
when they actually broke the peace, and was always ready to conclude
a new treaty. He took Jaffa by storm when the pilgrims, armed by Henry
VI., came to Palestine and interfered with the Moslem devotions, and
when the chancellor Conrad thereupon seized Sidon and Beirut, El-Adil
contented himself with laying waste the former town and hindering
the capture of the fortress Joron; Beirut he allowed to fall into
the enemy's hands. Still later he permitted several attacks of the
Christians--such as the devastation of the town Fuah, situated on the
Rosetta arm of the Nile--to pass unnoticed, and even bought peace at
the expense of the districts of Ramleh and Lydda, which had formerly
belonged to him. It was not until the year 1206 that he acted upon the
offensive against the regent, John of Ibelin, and even then he contented
himself with slight advantages and concluded a new truce for thirty
years.

Shortly before his death, El-Adil, like his brother Saladin, narrowly
escaped losing all his glory and the fruits of so many victories. Pope
Honorius III. had successfully aroused the zeal of the Western
nations for a new Crusade. Numerous well-armed and warlike-minded
pilgrims--among whom were King Andreas of Hungary and Duke Leopold of
Austria--landed at Acre in 1217, and King John of Jerusalem led them
against the Moslems. El-Adil hastened from Egypt to the scene of action,
but was forced to retreat to Damascus and to give up the whole of the