Mansourah (Égypte)

Mansoura (ALA, el.mɑnˈsʕuːɾɑ, rural: el.mænˈsʕuːɾe) is a city in Egypt, with a population of 960,423. It is the capital of the Dakahlia Governorate. Mansoura in Arabic means "victorious". The city is named after the El Mansoura Battle against Louis IX of France during the Seventh Crusade. Mansoura was established in 1219 by al-Kamil of the Ayyubid dynasty upon a Phatmetic branch of the Nile on a place of several older villages like Al-Bishtamir (البشطمير) and Kafr al-Badamas (كفر البدماص, from ποταμός, "river, canal"). After the Egyptians defeated the Crusaders during the Seventh Crusade, it was named Mansoura (aka. "The Victorious"). In the Seventh Crusade, the Capetians were defeated and put to flight; between fifteen and thirty thousand of their men fell on the battlefield. Louis IX of France was captured in the main Battle of Fariskur, and confined in the house of Ibrahim Ibn Lokman, secretary of the sultan, and under the guard of the eunuch Sobih. The king's brother was imprisoned in the same house. The sultan provided for their sustenance. The house of Ibrahim Ibn Lokman is now the only museum in Mansoura. It is open to the public and houses articles that used to belong to the French monarch, including his personal thirteenth century toilet. The Mansoura Air Battle on October 14, 1973, occurred during the Yom Kippur War. Israeli Air Force fighters attacking Egyptian air bases were intercepted by the Egyptian Air Force. On that day, 160 jet fighters, most belonging to Israel, battled for 53 minutes over Mansoura. The Egyptian army claimed that despite the numerical and qualitative superiority of the Israeli warplanes, 17 Israeli planes were downed. (2 according to the Israelis), while the rest retreated. Egypt announced the loss of six planes, only three of which fell to Israeli fire. The Egyptian government subsequently changed the country's "Air Force Day" from November 2 to October 14, to commemorate the Mansoura Air Battle. Mansoura lies on the east bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile, in the Delta region.