A.D. 1239.--A new Crusade arrived in September 1239. Theobald, Count of Champagne and King of Navarre, was its most important leader. Several hundred knights surprised the Muslims in the neighbourhood of Gaza. The result was a serious disaster. The Latins were attacked and practically cut to pieces on November 13. This rebuff occurred in spite of the remonstrances of Theobald. No precautions having been taken by the Duke of Burgundy, the Counts of Bar and Mountfort, they suddenly found themselves nearly surrounded by the enemy in a narrow pass. There was yet time for them to escape by retreating rapidly by the way in which they had entered; but the majority refused to do this, as inconsistent with the high courage which they professed, and after a desperate struggle Count de Bar was slain, and Amory de Mountfort, with many nobles and knights, were taken captives. The main body of the Crusaders arrived too late to be of any assistance. A.D. 1242.--Damascus had been in Nejm-ed-din Ayub's hands during the early part of 1239, and had been taken from him by Imad-ed-din Ismail. In May 1242, the Knights Templars and their Muslim allies defeated an Egyptian army on the borders of Palestine. The Egyptians lost heavily, and were driven back to Gaza, which was their base of operations. A.D. 1244.--Ayub in his trouble found allies in an unexpected quarter. The Kharezmian Turks had recently been driven from their homes by the Tartar invasion, and were ready to put their swords at the disposal of the highest bidder. These savages, at the invitation of Ayub, entering from the north, flowed like a tide past Safed and Jerusalem, and on St. Luke's Day (October 18, 1244), annihilated the Christian and Saracen armies united for a common cause in the valley of Gaza. History records few more terrible struggles than this decisive battle, which lasted without ceasing from the rising to the setting of the sun, and was renewed on the morrow with the same ferocity. Thirty thousand of the military Orders are said to have been slain; thirty-three Templars, twenty-six Hospitallers, and three Teutonic Knights alone escaped of these brave Orders. The Master of the Temple was amongst the slain, and the Master of the Hospital was amongst those taken captive. From this blow the Latin Kingdom of the East never recovered. And since this date Gaza has remained a town of comparatively little importance. A.D. 1250.--King Louis IX (St. Louis of France) and the Mameluke Emirs agreed that all prisoners taken since the Battle of Gaza, in 1244, should be released. A.D. 1250.--Malek-el-Nâsir of Damascus, as descendant of Saladin, besieged Gaza. Ebek, the first of the Mameluke Slave Dynasty, sent his General Aktai to relieve the city, in which he succeeded. A.D. 1260.--The whole of Palestine was raided by the Tartar invaders, and they stationed garrisons in towns as remote as Gaza.