Damietta is a Levantine corruption of the Coptic name _Tamiati_, Arabic _Dimyat_. The original town was 4 m. nearer the sea than the modern city, and first rose into importance on the decay of Pelusium. When it passed into the hands of the Saracens it became a place of great wealth and commerce, and, as the eastern bulwark of Egypt, was frequently attacked by the crusaders. The most remarkable of these sieges lasted eighteen months, from June 1218 to November 1219, and ended in the capture of the town, which was, however, held but for a brief period. In June 1249 Louis IX. of France occupied Damietta without opposition, but being defeated near Mansura in the February following, and compelled (6th April) to surrender himself prisoner, Damietta was restored to the Moslems as part of the ransom exacted. To prevent further attacks from the sea the Mameluke sultan Bibars blocked up the Phatnitic mouth of the Nile (about 1260), razed old Damietta to the ground, and transferred the inhabitants to the site of the modern town. It continued to be a place of commercial importance for a considerable period, until in fact Port Said gave the eastern part of the Delta a better port. Damietta gives its name to dimity, a kind of striped cloth, for which the place was at one time famous. Cotton and silk goods are still manufactured here.
DAMIRI, the common name of KAMAL UD-DIN MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA UD-DAMIRI (1344-1405), Arabian writer on canon law and natural history, belonged to one of the two towns called Damira near Damietta and spent his life in Egypt. Of the Shafi'ite school of law, he became professor of tradition in the _Rukniyya_ at Cairo, and also at the mosque el-Azhar; in connexion with this work he wrote a commentary on the _Minhaj ut-Talibin_ of Nawawi (q.v.). He is, however, better known in the history of literature for his _Life of Animals_ (_Hayat ul-Hayawan_), which treats in alphabetic order of 931 animals mentioned in the Koran, the traditions and the poetical and proverbial literature of the Arabs. The work is a compilation from over 500 prose writers and nearly 200 poets. The correct spelling of the names of the animals is given with an explanation of their meanings. The use of the animals in medicine, their lawfulness or unlawfulness as food, their position in folk-lore are the main subjects treated, while occasionally long irrelevant sections on political history are introduced.