Damietta

Sister cities

• Yangzhou

History

The first historical mention of Damietta was by the 6th-century geographer Stephanus of Byzantium . The city was called Tamíathis () in the Hellenistic period. George of Cyprus wrote about the city around 605 AD. In 1885, Karl Baedeker wrote that a stone featuring the name of Domitian (r. 81–96) was in Damietta. Miqdad ibn Aswad conquered Damietta and the rest of Egypt. The Byzantine Empire attacked Damietta in 708–709, 738–739, 852–853, 921, and 968. Caliph al-Mutawakkil had walls built for the city after the Byzantines sacked the city in 853. The Amr ibn al-As Mosque is reported to be the second oldest mosque in Egypt. The Sufi organisation Qalandariyya was founded by Jamal al-Din Saoji in Damascus and Damietta in the 13th century. The Abbasid Caliphate used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and Tang China. Badr al-Jamali started his four year military campaign in Egypt after arriving in Damietta in December 1073. The Veil of St. Anne was woven in Damietta in 1096 or 1097. Damietta was attacked by crusaders in 1155 and by a joint crusader and Byzantine force in 1169. Amalric, King of Jerusalem sieged the city in 1169, but failed and additional city walls were created for Damietta. During preparations for the Fifth Crusade in 1217, it was decided that Damietta should be the focus of attack. Control of Damietta meant control of the Nile, and from there the Crusaders believed they could conquer Egypt. From Egypt, they could then attack Ayyubid-ruled Palestine and recapture Jerusalem. After the siege of Damietta of 1218–19, the port was occupied by the Crusaders. The siege devastated the population of Damietta. After the crusaders captured Damietta in November 1219, they looted the city. Only 3,000 of the city's 70,000 inhabitants…

Geography

Damietta is 1-2 metres above sea level and 12 kilometres from the mouth of the eastern tributary of the Nile Delta. Coastal progradation by the Nile created the land in the area in the 1st millennium.