with Shawar's and besieged Shirguh in Bilbeis for three months;
at the end of this time, owing to the successes of Nureddin in Syria,
the Franks granted Shirguh a free passage with his troops back to Syria,
on condition of Egypt being evacuated (October 1164). Rather more than
two years later Shirguh persuaded Nureddin to put him at the head of
another expedition to Egypt, which left Syria in January 1167, and,
entering Egypt by the land route, crossed the Nile at Itfih (Atfih), and
encamped at Giza; a Frankish army hastened to Shawar's aid. At the
battle of Babain (April 11th, 1167) the allies were defeated by the
forces commanded by Shirguh and his nephew Saladin, who was presently
made prefect of Alexandria, which surrendered to Shirguh without a
struggle. Saladin was soon besieged by the allies in Alexandria; but
after seventy-five days the siege was raised, Shirguh having made a
threatening movement on Cairo, where a Frankish garrison had been
admitted by Shawar. Terms were then made by which both Syrians and
Franks were to quit Egypt, though the garrison of Cairo remained; the
hostile attitude of the Moslem population to this garrison led to
another invasion at the beginning of 1168 by King Amalric, who after
taking Bilbeis advanced to Cairo. The caliph, who up to this time
appears to have left the administration to the viziers, now sent for
Shirguh, whose speedy arrival in Egypt caused the Franks to withdraw.
Reaching Cairo on the 6th of January 1169, he was soon able to get
possession of Shawar's person, and after the prefect's execution, which
happened some ten days later, he was appointed vizier by the caliph.
After two months Shirguh died of indigestion (23rd of March 1169), and
the caliph appointed Saladin as successor to Shirguh; the new vizier
professed to hold office as a deputy of Nureddin, whose name was
mentioned in public worship after that of the caliph. By appropriating
the fiefs of the Egyptian officers and giving them to his Kurdish
followers he stirred up much ill-feeling, which resulted in a
conspiracy, of which the object was to recall the Franks with the view
of overthrowing the new regime; but this conspiracy was revealed by a
traitor and crushed. Nureddin loyally aided his deputy in dealing with
Frankish invasions of Egypt, but the anomaly by which he, being a
Sunnite, was made in Egypt to recognize a Fatimite caliph could not long
continue, and he ordered Saladin to weaken the Fatimite by ev