Sack of Damiette (853)

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The sack of Damiette in 853 was an important victory for the Byzantine Empire . On May 22, 853, the Byzantine fleet attacked the Egyptian port city of Damiette , whose garrison was absent. The city was sacked, leaving the Byzantines in possession of large stocks of weapons destined for the emirate of Crete .

background

In the 820s, the Byzantine Empire suffered two major losses that destroyed its nautical superiority in the Mediterranean : the incipient Saracen conquest of Crete and the fall of Crete to Andalusian exiles. These defeats marked the beginning of a period when Muslim pirates were able to pillage the Christian coastal areas of the empire almost unhindered. The emergence of the emirate of Crete , which served as a base of operations for pirates, opened the Aegean to Arab raids, while their - partial - control of Sicily enabled the Arabs to plunder and even settle southern Italy. Several Byzantine attempts to quickly recapture Crete, but also a large-scale campaign in 842/843 failed.

The sack of Damiette

So the Byzantine government tried another way in 852/853: It assembled a contingent of the entire Byzantine fleet (allegedly up to 300 ships) and ordered it to devastate the Muslim naval bases in the eastern Mediterranean simultaneously. One of these fleets, which comprised 85 ships and 5,000 soldiers and was led by a general who is only called "Ibn Qatuna" in Arabic sources, sailed towards the Egyptian coast, from where the Abbasids supported the Cretan emirate.

The Byzantine fleet reached the city on May 22, 853. At that hour the garrison was absent as they were attending a festival arranged by Anbasa ibn Ishaq al-Dabbi in Fustat . The residents of Damiette fled the city, which was sacked by the Byzantines for two days and finally set on fire. As booty, the Byzantines abducted about six hundred Arab and Coptic women, as well as a large number of weapons and other war goods destined for Crete. The fleet now sailed eastward and attacked the Ushtun fortress. After conquering it, the Byzantines burned many of the siege weapons they found there.

consequences

Despite being one of the most effective military operations by the Byzantine fleet, the looting of Damiette was completely ignored in Byzantine sources (perhaps because they were generally negative about the rule of Michael III (ruled 842-867)). The attack is only known in Arabic sources such as at-Tabari and al-Yaqubi .

According to the Arab chroniclers, the attack on the Muslim side led to the realization that the Egyptian coast was insufficiently defended: Ships were built, new crews recruited and Damiette and other coastal cities were fortified. This marked the beginning of the rebirth of the Egyptian fleet, which would reach its greatest strength under the Fatimids .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pryor, Jeffreys: The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ. 2006, pp. 46-49; Whittow: The Making of Byzantium. 1996, pp. 151-152.
  2. ^ Bury: A History of the Eastern Roman Empire. 1912, pp. 289-292; Pryor, Jeffreys: The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ. 2006, pp. 46-47.
  3. ^ A b Bury: A History of the Eastern Roman Empire. 1912, p. 292.
  4. ^ Pryor, Jeffreys: The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ. 2006, p. 47.
  5. ^ Bury: A History of the Eastern Roman Empire. 1912, pp. 292-293.
  6. ^ A b Bury: A History of the Eastern Roman Empire. 1912, p. 293.
  7. Christides: The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs. 1984, p. 164.
  8. Christides: The Conquest of Crete by the Arabs. 1984, p. 52 ff.

literature