in 1201 was peculiarly favorable for an attack on that country. Saladin had conquered it, had abolished the Egyptian caliphate in 1171, and had done all that he could to exhaust its resources. On his death, in 1193, his two sons had quarrelled about the division of his empire. The one ruling in Egypt asked the aid of the Christians in Syria against his brother. The civil war which followed had still further weakened Egypt. But an exceptional and remarkable circumstance rendered an attack upon Egypt still more opportune. During five successive years the Nile had ceased to fertilize the country.[1] The result of this unprecedented calamity had been famine and distress. The population had been largely reduced. The wealth and strength of the country had been greatly diminished. To these considerations have to be added the fact that if Egypt were once in the hands of a crusading army it could be held against all invaders, and its wealth turned against Islam. Every Mahometan country would feel the loss of Egypt. A wedge would have been driven into the long stretch of Moslem territory between the Atlantic and India. Islam would have been cut in two and its wealth used to reconquer and hold Syria.
The desirability of striking at Islam through Egypt, the very centre and fulcrum of Moslem power, had been recognized from the time of Godfrey by a succession of warriors and statesmen. Innocent the Third was especially impressed with the necessity of making the attack through Egypt. He called particular attention to the exceptional opportunity which the time presented from the accidental or, as he believed it, the providential impoverishment of the richest country in Islam, from the failure of the Nile to overflow, and from the division of its rulers. Even without these ac-
- ↑ "Quod utique si fecissent " (i. e., take Alexandria), " sperabile satis crat tarn ipsam magnificam civitatem quaui et maximam ipsius totius Egypti partem, facile conipendio, in coruni potestatem posse transferri, eo quod totus fere populus terra? vel consumptus fame perierat, vel squalebat penuria propter sterilitatem eiusdem videlicet terræ, cui Nilus frugiferas aquas, quibus earn rigare solet, annis, ut aiunt, jam quinque subtraxcrat."— Gunther, " Exuv. Sac." i. 71.
