مادة دمياط من موسوعة إدنبره

النقوش اللاتينية واليونانية في دمياط

DAMIETTA, or DAMIATT, is a town of Egypt, situated on the eastern bank of the Nile, and about 5 miles from its mouth. It stands upon a tongue of land, stretching about 6 miles from east to west, and bounded on one side by the river, and on the other by western extremity of the Lake Menzale.

The town, which is very large, is rounded in a semicircle, and from one end of the crescent the whole extent of it may be seen.

The houses, particularly those on the banks of the river, are very high, and have commonly handsome saloons built on the tops of their terraces.

The principal ornaments of the town are the squares, the chief of which has retained the name of Menchie (thic original name of the town); the mosques, which are adorned with lofty minarets; the public baths, which resemble those of Cairo, and are lined with marble; the bazars and the khans or okals, which are filled with great varieties of merchandise.

Damietta was formerly celebrated for its fine gardens, which abounded with orange groves, and produced every kind of fruit; and where the finest rice was raised in the greatest abundance. Owing, however to the stream of the Nile having been taken to the canal of Menouf, instead of passing by Damietta, its gardens have disappeared, its rice fields are sown with wheat, and not even fresh water can be obtained. This evil, however, has been in a great measure removed by Achmet Aga, who has constructed a large vessel for bringing water to the town. It is conveyed in vast cisterns from above Fareskour, where the river has sufficient force to drive back the salt water.

In descending the river from Damietta to Lesbe, the houses on its banks have a very picturesque appearance. Stages are generally stretched across the river, on which vines are planted, and seats erected under their shade. The village of Lesbe which is distant only a mile from the sea, was destroyed by the French, who left upon its site an unfinished fort. It has a high brick wall, without any fosse or glacis, and there are in the interior three excellent barracks ; but the remains of the old houses were not carried away. Lord Valentia could not discover any of the ruins mentioned by Savary as existing in his time, and which he imagined to have been part of the ancient Damietta. He could find neither vestiges of walls, nor heaps of pottery, nor any appearance of lime and brick mingled with the soil; and even in the places through which the canal has been cut, no remains were to be seen. Achmet Aga, the governor, has erected a thriving village below Lesbe, in which he obliges all the fishermen to reside, that they may give assistance to vessels in distress, or when wrecked on the shore. Here Lord Valentia observed a round tower of ancient masonry, which forms the extremity of a building that reaches to the river; and he is of opinion that the great iron chain which was formerly stretched across the river was fastened to this edifice.

In order to prevent a hostile fleet from entering the river, the mouth of it is choked up with a bar called Boyaz, which is not so impassable as the bar at Rosetta. It admits ships of much larger burthen than the Schcrms or Jerms, which are employed in loading and unloading the ships in the road. The vessels which are able to get over the bar anchor close to the town in fourteen feet of water.

Damietta carries on a very considerable commerce with Syria, Cyprus, and Marseilles. Its principal exports are rice, of which six millions worth is annually exported, linens, sal ammoniac, and corn, the last of which is sent off under the name of rice, as its exportation is prohibited.

In the numerous villages which encircle Damietta, are fabricated the most beautiful linens, and particularly a kind of napkins fringed with silk.

There are few remains of antiquity in this town. Lord Valentia saw the ruins of an ancient granite obelisk, which is nearly worn away, and which is mentioned by Andreossi as forming the door sill of the barracks. He also found near the door of a merchant, two pedestals, one of which contained the following Latia inscription.

LICINIAE LF SECUNDAE

DOMITI CATULLI.

The other, which was partly concealed by a step, exhibited when removed the following Greek inscription.

Η ΒΟγΛΗ ΚΑΙΌ ΔΗΜΟΣ

ΛΟγΚΙΟΝ ΠΟΠΙΛΛΙΟΝ ΒΑΛΒΟΝ

ΠΡΗΣΒΕγΤΗΝ ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟγ 

ΚΛΑγΔΙΟγ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ

ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟγ ΓΕΡΜΑΝΙΚΟγ

ΤΟΝ ΠΑΤΡΟΝΑ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΕΟΣ.

The owner of these pedestals informed Lord Valentia, that they were brought in a vessel from Syria. Andreossi mentions a Greek inscription on a column in a mosque, which Lord Valentia copied, and of which he has given an engraving. He considers it as cabalistic. At Menchie, a suburb nearer the sea, he found an Arab inscription, which places its erection in the 1117th year of the Hegira. It contained several beautiful marble columns greatly injured, and near it was a marabout, having its dome sustained by four columns of jasper, which had preserved their polish in a remarkable manner. A fifth jasper column was placed at the entrance.

The greater number of authors who have written upon Egypt, such as Sicard, Pocock, Prospero Alpini, Shaw, Maillet, and Niebuhr, have supposed that the modern Damietta was built upon the site of the ancient town. Savary, however, is of opinion, that ancient Damietta occupied the spot on which the village of Lesbe now stands, and in proof of this, he mentions the ruins which Lord Valentia could not discover. “ The mosque which Savary mentions,” says Lord Valentia, “ could not be the one left when the Sultan of Egypt destroyed the town, as it is of a modern date. Certainly if Savary have faithfully translated the quotations he has given from Macrizi and Abulfeda, there can be no doubt that the ancient Damietta was destroyed, in order to prevent its being taken from the Christians, and a new town of the same name was built higher up the river; yet it is difficult to comprehend what advantage would arise from removing it only a few miles to the site of the present town, or indeed for its removal at all since the walls and fortifications alone were of importance, and their complete destruction would have precluded the possibility of its again becoming an asylum to a vanquished enemy. ” Population of the town 80,000. Distance from Cairo, 84 miles N. N. E. East Long, from Greenwich observatory 31° 57', and North Lat. 31° 25' 40". See Savary’s Letters on Egypt, vol. i. ; Niebuhr’s Travels in Arabia , vol. i. ; and Lord Valcntia’s Voyages and Travels to India , Egypt,  & c. vol. iii. p. 416—421. (π)

Source: Vol. 7 : The Edinburgh encyclopaedia, conducted by David Brewster, with the assistance of gentlemen eminent in science and literature (Link).