Damietta (, ) is a port city which serves as the capital city of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the Damietta branch, an eastern distributary of the Nile Delta, from the Mediterranean Sea, and about north of Cairo. The city was a Catholic bishopric and is a multiple titular see. Damietta is also a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, having joined in 2019.
Etymology Egyptologist Heinrich Karl Brugsch believed that the town was Het-nebset in ancient Egypt. Damietta is an Italian adaptation of the Arabic name Dumyāṭ. The settlement is called Tamiat/Tamiati ( ) in Coptic. The medieval author al-Maqrizi believed that Damietta's name originated from the Syriac language. In medieval Jewish tradition reflected in Geniza documents the city is equated with biblical Capthor () and is called Kapotkya ().
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.
History Early history and Islam 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.
Crusaders 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 survived the siege.
Earlier that year, Francis of Assisi had arrived to negotiate with the Muslim ruler peaceably. In 1221 the Crusaders attempted to march to Cairo, but were destroyed by the combination of nature and Muslim defenses.
Damietta was also the object of the Seventh Crusade, led by Louis IX of France. His fleet arrived there in 1249 and quickly captured the fort, which he refused to hand over to the nominal king of Jerusalem, to whom it had been promised during the Fifth Crusade. However, having been taken prisoner with his army in April 1250, Louis was obliged to surrender Damietta as ransom.
Modern Damietta was destroyed by the Mamluks in November 1250, and a new town was founded to the south around an old mosque. The first mention of Damietta in Mamluk sources after its destruction was when Sultan Aybak gave the town to Prince Ala' al-Din Aydaghdi al-Azizi in 1254. Sultan Baybars ordered that the river be blocked to seafaring ships in 1260, and this work was completed in 1264.
The Republic of Genoa attacked Damietta in May 1384, and February 1412.
The first mention of a governor for Damietta was by scholar Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad in 1285. The governorship was upgraded to viceroyalty by Sultan Barsbay in 1427. Ibn Battuta wrote during his stay in Damietta that Governor Ahmad ibn Bilbak al-Muhsini would not allow anybody to enter or leave the port without his permission. The historian Ibn Duqmaq was governor for a short period. Governor Muhammad al-Salakhuri was killed in a riot in 1418, after a group of fishermen rose up in rebellion.
A fire broke out across the city in 1425 and destroyed one-third of Damietta.
Sultan Al-Mansur Ali was banished to Damietta after being overthrown by Qutuz in 1259. Prince Yalbugha al-Salimi was exiled to the city from 1400 to 1402. The Ottomans banished people to Damietta, such as Umar Makram in 1809.
Ottoman soldiers sent to Arabia and Yemen commonly went via a sea route going through Damietta and then on land to Cairo.
Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha was sent to Egypt to suppress a rebellion by Albanian soldiers. However, he was defeated in Alexandria and withdrew to Damietta. At Damietta he surrendered to an army led by Muhammad Ali of Egypt and Mamluk leader Uthman Bey al-Bardisi in July 1803.
Damietta was a centre of the Urabi revolt and city governor Abdul-Al supported the Urabi movement.
The first cholera case of the 1883 epidemic that killed 50,000 people in Egypt was reported in Damietta on 22 June.
Governors Governor Sultan Start date End date Previous position Comments References Name not recorded 1250 1313 The position of governor existed, but the names of those who held the office was not recorded. Ala' al-Din ibn al-Qalanjaqi Al-Nasir Muhammad 30 July 1313 ? Ahmad ibn Bilbak al-Muhsini Al-Nasir Muhammad 1326 ? Ibn Battuta came to Damietta during his tenure as governor. First time as governor. Rukn al-Din al-Karaki Al-Nasir Muhammad 1329 13 November 1329 Governor of Alexandria He was dismissed after a few months as governor of Damietta. Balban al-Husami Al-Nasir Muhammad 13 November 1329 ? Governor of Giza First time as governor Sayf al-Din Balban al-Muhsini Al-Nasir Muhammad ? 19 May 1334 Governor of Cairo Ahmad ibn Bilbak al-Muhsini Al-Nasir Muhammad 1335 ? Second time as governor. Balban al-Husami Al-Nasir Muhammad 3 February 1336 ? Governor of Cairo Second time as governor Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Mujahidi Al-Nasir Muhammad 1336 1338 Balban al-Husami Al-Nasir Muhammad 1338 1340 Third time as governor. Al-Husam Lajin Al-Nasir Muhammad 1341 ? Ala' al-Din Ali ibn al-Tashlaqi Al-Ashraf Sha'ban ? 1363 Muhammad ibn al-Sumaysati Al-Ashraf Sha'ban 1363 ? Muhammad ibn Tajar Al-Ashraf Sha'ban 19 April 1378 17 June 1378 Muhammad ibn Qarabugha Al-Salih Hajji ? 27 July 1382 Qutlubugha Abu Darqa Al-Salih Hajji 27 July 1382 February 1384 Tashtamur al-Sayfi Barquq February 1384 ?
Ecclesiastical history Hellenistic Tamiathis became a Christian bishopric, a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Pelusium, the capital of the Roman province of Augustamnica Prima, to which Tamiathis belonged. Its bishop Heraclius took part in the Council of Ephesus in 431. Helpidius was a signatory of the decree of Patriarch Gennadius of Constantinople against simony in 459. Bassus was at the Second Council of Constantinople (553). In a letter from Patriarch Michael I of Alexandria read at the Photian Council of Constantinople (879), mention is made of Zacharias of Tamiathis, who had attended a synod that Michael had convened in support of Photius. Later bishops too of Tamiathis are named in other documents.Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 589-592Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico ecclesiastica, Vol. 72 (Venice 1855), p. 236
There are four known bishops for Damietta between 431 and 879. In 1249, when Louis IX of France captured the city, it became for a short time the seat of a Latin Church bishop Gilles of Saumur.
The Latin bishopric, no longer residential, is today listed by the Catholic Church twice as a titular see under the names Tamiathis (Latin) and Damiata (Curiate Italian), each at time of episcopal or archiepiscopal rank, of the Latin and Melkite Catholic Churches.Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 879
Titular Latin see The diocese was nominally restored in the 17th century when established as Latin titular archbishopric of Damietta of the Romans ( or ; ) and had the following incumbents of the intermediary archiepiscopal rank: Bernardino Spada (later Cardinal) (1623.12.04 – 1626.01.19) Cesare Facchinetti (1639.09.05 – 1672.11.14) Neri Corsini (later Cardinal) (1652.08.12 – 1664.01.14) Angelo Maria Ranuzzi (later Cardinal) (1668.04.30 – 1678.04.18) Ercole Visconti (1678.07.18 – 1712) Marco Antonio Ansidei (later Cardinal) (1724.06.12 – 1726.12.16) Raffaele Cosimo De Girolami (later Cardinal) (1728.03.08 – 1743.09.09) Paul Alphéran de Bussan, Sovereign Military Order of Malta (O.B.E.) (1746.09.19 – 1757.04.20) Vincenzo Maria de Francisco e Galletti, Dominican Order (O.P.) (1757.12.19 – 1769.07.19) Bonaventura Prestandrea, Conventual Franciscans (O.F.M. Conv.) (1769.12.18 – 1777.12.21) Bartolomeo Pacca (later Cardinal) (1785.09.26 – 1801.02.23) Giovanni Francesco Compagnoni Marefoschi (1816.04.29 – 1820.09.17) Giovanni Giacomo Sinibaldi (1821.08.13 – 1843.01.27) (later Patriarch)* Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci (later Pope Leo XIII) (1843.01.27 – 1846.01.19) Diego Planeta (1850.01.07 – 1858.06.05) Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano (later Cardinal) (1866.05.04 – 1873.12.22) Eugène-Louis-Marie Lion, O.P. (1874.03.13 – 1883.08.08) Eugenio Lachat, Missionaries of the Precious Blood (C.PP.S.) (1885.03.23 – 1886.11.01) Ignazio Persico, O.F.M. Cap. (later Cardinal) (1887.03.14 – 1893.01.16) Andrea Aiuti (later Cardinal) (1893.06.12 – 1903.06.22) Edoardo Carlo Gastone Pöttickh de Pettenegg, Teutonic Order (O.T.) (1904.11.14 – 1918.10.01) Sebastião Leite de Vasconcellos (1919.12.15 – 1923.01.29) (1923.03.24 – 1936.08.14)
Demoted in 1925 as Titular bishopric, it has been vacant for decades, having had the following incumbents, all of the episcopal (lowest) rank: Guglielmo Grassi (1937.01.13 – 1954.09.14) Eugenio Beitia Aldazabal (1954.10.30 – 1962.01.27) Marco Caliaro, Scalabrinians (C.S.) (1962.02.10 – 1962.05.23) Antonio Cece (1962.08.06 – 1966.03.31)
Titular Melkite see Established in 1900 as titular bishopric of Damietta of the Melkite Greeks ( or ; ), it was suppressed in 1935, after a single incumbent of this episcopal (lowest) rank: Titular Bishop Paul-Raphaël Abi-Mourad (1900.07.02 – 1935.08.08)
Restored in 1961 as Titular archbishopric, it has had the following incumbents of the archiepiscopal (intermediary) rank: Titular Archbishop Antonio Farage (1961.03.07 – 1963.11.09) Titular Archbishop Nicolas Hajj (1965.07.30 – 1984.11.03) Titular Archbishop Joseph Jules Zerey (2001.06.22 – ... ), protosyncellus of Jerusalem of the Greek-Melkites (Palestine)
Demographics Benjamin of Tudela reported that Damietta had 200 Jews in 1170.
In the 1897 census there were 31,000 to 32,000 people recorded in Damietta, making it the 10th largest settlement in Egypt. In 1907, 1% of Egypt's population lived in Damietta. The Catholic Encyclopedia reported a population of 53,000, with all of them being Muslim except for 75 members of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, 60 Roman Catholic, and 250 other Christians. Budge reported a population of 29,354 in 1911.
Climate Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh), but blowing winds from the Mediterranean Sea greatly moderate the temperatures, typical to the Egypt's north coast, making its summers moderately hot with relatively high humidity while its winters mild and moderately wet where sleet and hail are also common.
Port Said, Kosseir, Ras El Bar, Baltim, Damietta and Alexandria have the least temperature variation in Egypt.
Economy