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He was the son of sultan al-Adil , a brother of Saladin. In 1218 al-Kamil led the defense of Damietta against the Fifth Crusade, and later that year became sultan when his father died. In 1219 he was almost overthrown by a conspiracy among Coptic Christians, and considered fleeing to Yemen until the conspiracy was put down by his brother al-Mu'azzam , governor of Damascus.

Al-Kamil made many offers of peace to the Crusaders, all of which were rejected, due to the influence of the papal legateA Papal legate is a representative of the Pope to the nations. He is empowered on the matters of unity of the catholic faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters. The legate is appointed directly by the Pope, hence a legate is usually sent to Pelagius . He offered to return Jerusalem and rebuild its walls (which his brother had torn down earlier in the year), and to return the True CrossAccording to Christian tradition, the True Cross is the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified. According to medieval legend, the True Cross was built from the Tree of Jesse (father of King David), which became identified with the Tree of Knowledge t (which he probably did not have). At one point he even negotiated with Francis of AssisiSaint Francis of Assisi (born in Assisi, Italy, ca. 1182; died there on October 3, 1226) founded the Franciscan Order or "Friars Minor". He is the patron saint of animals and the environment. Boyhood and early manhood Born Giovanni Bernardone commonly kno, who had accompanied the crusade, and who apparently tried to convert the sultan.

Due to famine and disease after the NileThe Nile ( Arabic: an-nil , in Africa, is one of the two longest rivers on Earth. Whether the Nile is longer than South America's Amazon still remains the subject of much debate. This is, for the most part, due to two reasons: first, the lengths of rivers failed to flood, al-Kamil could not defend Damietta and it was captured in November of 1219. The sultan withdrew to al-Mansourah, a fortress further up the Nile. After this there was little action until 1221, when al-Kamil offered peace again, but was again refused. The Crusaders marched out towards CairoCairo ( Arabic: ; romanized: al-Qāhirah is the capital city of Egypt and has an estimated metropolitan area population of 15 million. It is the largest city in both Africa and the Middle East and is currently the thirteenth most populous city in the, but al-Kamil simply opened the dams and allowed the Nile to flood, and finally the Crusaders accepted an eight-year peace. He retook Damietta in September.

In the following years there was a power struggle with his brother al-Mu'azzam, and al-Kamil was willing to accept a peace with Frederick II, Holy Roman EmperorFrederick II ( December 26, 1194 ( December 13, 1250), Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212, unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 until his deat, who was planning the Sixth CrusadeThe Sixth Crusade began in 1228 as an attempt to reconquer Jerusalem. It began only seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade in 1221. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, had attempted to join the Fifth Crusade, but Pope Innocent III prevented him. Al-Mu'azzam died in 1227, eliminating the need for a peace, but Frederick had already arrived. After al-Mu'azzam's death, al-Kamil and his other brother al-Ashraf negotiated a treaty giving all of Palestine and Transjordan to al-Kamil and Syria to al-Ashraf. In February of 1229 al-Kamil negotiated a ten-year peace with Frederick II and returned Jerusalem and other holy sites to the Crusader kingdom. Muslims and Jews were forbidden from the city, except for the Muslim holy sites around the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa. Jerusalem had never recovered from Saladin's conquest in 1187, and as he would not allow the walls to be rebuilt, al-Kamil was not worried it becoming a centre of Christian power. Nevertheless many Muslims were still opposed to this treaty, as were many Christians, including the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who placed an interdict over the holiest city in Christianity (Frederick ignored it). After this there was peace with the Crusaders, but al-Kamil had to contend with the Seljuks and the Khwarezmians before he died in 1238.

His sons as-Salih and al-Adil II succeeded him in Syria and Egypt respectively, but the Ayyubid empire soon descended into civil war. In 1239 the treaty with Frederick expired, and Jerusalem came under Ayyubid control, until it was taken by the Khwarezmians in 1244.

Few gardeners are aware that al-Kamil is commemorated in the low-growing herb Achemilla with the glaucous leaves.