Qualla: Sack of Damietta (853) https://qualla.com/sack-of-damietta-853 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Sack of Damietta (853) https://qualla.com/sack-of-damietta-853 Sack of Damietta (853): Introduction https://qualla.com/sack-of-damietta-853/ The garrison was at a feast. On May 22, 853, when eighty-five Byzantine warships appeared off the coast of Damietta, the city's soldiers were miles away in Fustat, celebrating the Day of Arafah at a gathering organized by their governor, Anbasah ibn Ishaq al-Dabbi. The inhabitants of the Nile Delta port looked out at the approaching fleet and ran. For two days, Byzantine troops plundered and torched the undefended city, carrying off six hundred Arab and Coptic women, along with vast quantities of weapons and supplies that had been stockpiled for shipment to the Arab Emirate of Crete. It was, in the words of historian Vassilios Christides, "one of the brightest military operations" the Byzantine military ever conducted. And it changed the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean.

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]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/w/e/sack-of-damietta-853-wp/stwe-sack-of-damietta-853-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sack of Damietta (853): An Empire Losing Its Sea https://qualla.com/sack-of-damietta-853/ The backstory begins three decades earlier, when the Byzantine Empire lost control of two islands that had anchored its Mediterranean supremacy. In the 820s, Arab forces began the conquest of Sicily, and Andalusian exiles seized Crete, establishing an emirate that turned the isla...

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]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/w/e/sack-of-damietta-853-wp/stwe-sack-of-damietta-853-an-empire-losing-its-sea.mp3 0:06 2 full Sack of Damietta (853): Three Fleets, One Target https://qualla.com/sack-of-damietta-853/ According to the Arab historian al-Tabari, the Byzantines assembled nearly three hundred ships and dispatched them on simultaneous raids against Muslim naval bases across the eastern Mediterranean. The precise targets of two of the fleets remain unknown. The third -- eighty-five ...

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]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/w/e/sack-of-damietta-853-wp/stwe-sack-of-damietta-853-three-fleets-one-target.mp3 0:06 3 full Sack of Damietta (853): The Raid and Its Aftershock https://qualla.com/sack-of-damietta-853/ After sacking Damietta over two days, the Byzantine fleet sailed east and attacked the fortress of Ushtum, burning the siege engines and artillery stored there before withdrawing. The raid's military impact was immediate: the Byzantines returned to strike Damietta again in 854, a...

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]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/w/e/sack-of-damietta-853-wp/stwe-sack-of-damietta-853-the-raid-and-its-aftershock.mp3 0:06 4 full Sack of Damietta (853): The Rebirth of a Navy https://qualla.com/sack-of-damietta-853/ Ironically, the raid that humiliated Egypt catalyzed the revival of its naval power. The fleet that Anbasah built was the foundation on which later dynasties would construct a Mediterranean force to rival the Byzantines themselves. Under the Tulunid dynasty, which ruled Egypt fro...

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]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/w/e/sack-of-damietta-853-wp/stwe-sack-of-damietta-853-the-rebirth-of-a-navy.mp3 0:06 5 full