15th century illuminated manuscript shows the papal legate, Pelagius, waiting to disembark at Damietta, as troops prepare to besiege the city. The Siege of Damietta of 1218 was part of the Fifth Crusade (1213-1221) an attempt to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt. The knights lay siege to the city of Damietta with the aid of a Frisian fleet and a flotilla from the Republic of Genoa under father and son Simone and Pietro Doria. The city, under the control of the Ayyubid Al-Kamil, was besieged by and taken by the Crusaders in 1219.