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Damietta ( ', ), also known as ''Damiata'', or ''Domyat'', is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the Damietta branch, a distributary of the Nile, from the Mediterranean Sea, about north of Cairo. ==History== In Ancient Egypt, the city was known as ''Tamiat'', and in the Hellenistic period was called Tamiathis (Ταμίαθις). Mentioned by the 6th-century geographer Stephanus Byzantius,〔(Siméon Vailhé, "Damietta" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' (New York 1908) )〕 the town later became known as Damiata and as Damietta. 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. 589-592〕〔Gaetano Moroni, ''(''Dizionario di erudizione storico ecclesiastica'', Vol. 72 (Venice 1855), p. 236 )〕 In 1249, when Louis IX of France captured the town, it became for a short time the seat of a Latin Church bishop. The Latin bishopric, no longer residential, is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see under the name "Tamiathis", while under the name "Damiata of the Melkite Greeks" it is recognized as a titular see, of archiepiscopal rank, of the Melkite Catholic Church,〔''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 879〕 for the Catholic Church, having been until the early 20th century an important centre for that church.〔 Under Caliph Omar (579–644), the Arabs took the town by treachery and successfully resisted the attempts by the Byzantine Empire to recover it, especially in 739, 821, 921 and 968.〔 The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and the Tang Empire of China. Damietta was an important naval base during the Abbasid, Tulunid and Fatimid periods. This led to several attacks by the Byzantine Empire, most notably the sack and destruction of the city in May 853. Damietta was again important in the 12th and 13th centuries during the time of the Crusades. In 1169, a fleet from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with support from the Byzantine Empire, attacked the port, but it was defeated by Saladin. 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 would be able to conquer Egypt. From Egypt they could then attack Palestine and recapture Jerusalem. When the port was besieged and occupied by Frisian crusaders in 1219, Francis of Assisi arrived to peaceably negotiate with the Muslim ruler. The siege devastated the population of Damietta. In October 1218 reinforcements arrived including the Legate Pelagius with the English earls Ranulf of Chester, Saer of Winchester, and William Aubigny of Arundel together with Odonel Aubigny, Robert Fitzwalter, John Lacy of Chester, William Harcourt and Oliver the illegitimate son of King John.〔Remfry, P.M., (1997). Buckenham Castles, 'The Aubignys and the Fifth Crusade, 1218 to 1221'. ISBN 1-899376-05-4〕 In 1221 the Crusaders attempted to march to Cairo, but were destroyed by the combination of nature and Muslim defences. 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.〔 Hearing that Louis was preparing a new crusade, the Mamluk Sultan Baibars, in view of the importance of the town to the Crusaders, destroyed it in 1251 and rebuilt it with stronger fortifications a few kilometres from the river in the early 1260s, making the mouth of the Nile at Damietta impassable for ships.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Damietta」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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