Sack of Damietta (853)

Coordinates: 31°30′00″N 31°50′06″E / 31.50000°N 31.83500°E / 31.50000; 31.83500
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Sack of Damietta
Part of the
Arab–Byzantine Wars

Map of the Arab–Byzantine naval conflict in the Mediterranean, 7th–11th centuries
Date22–24 May 853
Location
Damietta, Egypt
Result Byzantine victory
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire Abbasid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
"Ibn Qaṭūnā" unknown
Strength
85 ships, 5,000 men unknown

The Sack of Damietta was a successful raid on the port city of

Fatimid
periods.

Background

During the 820s, the

Adriatic shores.[1][2] Several Byzantine attempts to retake Crete in the immediate aftermath of the Andalusian conquest, as well as a large-scale invasion in 842/43, failed with heavy losses.[3][4]

Byzantine expedition against Damietta

In 853 the Byzantine government tried a new approach: instead of attacking Crete directly, they tried to sever the island's lines of supply, principally from

Egypt, which was, in the words of Alexander Vasiliev, "the arsenal of the Cretan pirates".[5][6] The Arab historian al-Tabari reports that three fleets, totalling almost 300 ships, were prepared and sent on simultaneous raids of Muslim naval bases in the Eastern Mediterranean. The precise targets of the first two fleets are unknown, but the third, comprising 85 ships and 5,000 men under a commander known from Arab sources only as "Ibn Qaṭūnā", headed for the Egyptian coast.[7]

Various identifications have been proposed by modern scholars for "Ibn Qaṭūnā", but without any firm evidence. Based on the similarity of consonants in their names, Henri Grégoire variously suggested an identification with Sergios Niketiates, who however probably died in 843, and with Constantine Kontomytes.[8] In a later work in 1952 he suggested that he might be identified with the parakoimomenos Damian, considering the Arabic name a rendering of the Byzantine title epi tou koitonos ("in charge of the imperial bedchamber").[9] Previously, in 1913, the Syriac scholar E. W. Brooks had suggested an identification with the strategos Photeinos.[10]

Egyptian naval defences were weak. The Egyptian fleet had declined from its

siege engines found there before returning home.[13]

Aftermath and impact

Although the raid at Damietta was, according to historian Vassilios Christides, "one of the brightest military operations" undertaken by the Byzantine military, it is completely ignored in Byzantine sources, probably because most accounts are warped by their hostile attitude to Michael III (r. 842–867) and his reign. As a result, the raid is known only through two Arab accounts, by al-Tabari and Ya'qubi.[7][14]

The Byzantines returned and raided Damietta again in 854. Another raid possibly took place in 855, as the Arabic sources indicate that the arrival of a Byzantine fleet in Egypt was anticipated by the

reconquered Crete, and secured control of the Aegean.[17][18]

In the more immediate aftermath, according to the Arab chroniclers, the raid led to the realization of Egypt's vulnerability from the sea. After a long period of neglect, Egypt's maritime defences were urgently strengthened by Governor Anbasah. Within nine months of the raid, Damietta was refortified, along with

Fatimids (969–1171).[13][21][22]

References

  1. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, pp. 46–49.
  2. ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 151–152.
  3. ^ Bury 1912, pp. 289–292.
  4. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, pp. 46–47.
  5. ^ Christides 1981, p. 92.
  6. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, p. 47.
  7. ^ a b Bury 1912, p. 292.
  8. ^ PmbZ, Ibn Qaṭūnā (#2651); Konstantinos Kontomytes (#3929/corr.); Sergios (#6664).
  9. ^ PmbZ, Ibn Qaṭūnā (#2651); Damianos (#1212).
  10. ^ PmbZ, Ibn Qaṭūnā (#2651); Photeinos (#6241).
  11. ^ Kubiak 1970, pp. 45–50.
  12. ^ Bury 1912, pp. 292–293.
  13. ^ a b Bury 1912, p. 293.
  14. ^ Christides 1984, p. 164.
  15. ^ Kubiak 1970, p. 59.
  16. ^ Rémondon 1953, pp. 248–250.
  17. ^ Christides 1981, pp. 93–100.
  18. ^ Pryor & Jeffreys 2006, pp. 61–64, 71, 72.
  19. ^ Levi della Vida 1944, pp. 216–221.
  20. ^ Kubiak 1970, pp. 55–59.
  21. ^ Christides 1984, pp. 52ff..
  22. ^ For the activities of the Egyptian fleets in the later 9th century, cf. Kubiak 1970, pp. 59–65.

Sources

31°30′00″N 31°50′06″E / 31.50000°N 31.83500°E / 31.50000; 31.83500

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