Editing Suez (section)

==History==
===Achaemenid era===
[[Darius the Great]]'s [[Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions|Suez Inscriptions]] were texts written in [[Old Persian]], [[Elamite language|Elamite]], [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]] and [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] on five monuments erected in Wadi Tumilat, commemorating the opening of a canal between the [[Nile]] and the [[Bitter Lakes]], to facilitate a shipping connection between Egypt, then a [[Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt|satrapy]] of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], and Persia (i.e. the greater portion of the Empire itself).

====Text of the Suez Inscriptions====
Partial transliteration and translation of the inscription:

Transliteration of the Old Persian text:
{{lang|peo|xâmanišiya \ thâtiy \ Dârayavauš \ XŠ \ adam \ Pârsa \ amiy \ hacâ \ Pâ rsâ \ Mudrâyam \ agarbâyam \ adam \ niyaštâyam \ imâm \ yauviyâ m \ katanaiy \ hacâ \ Pirâva \ nâma \ rauta \ tya \ Mudrâyaiy \ danuvatiy \ ab iy \ draya \ tya \ hacâ \ Pârsâ \ aitiy \ pasâva \ iyam \ yauviyâ \ akaniya \ avathâ \ yathâ \ adam \ niyaštâyam \ utâ \ nâva \ âyatâ \ hacâ \ Mudrâ yâ \ tara \ imâm \ yauviyâm \ abiy \ Pârsam \ avathâ \ yathâ \ mâm \ kâma\ âha}}

English translation:
"King Darius says: I am a Persian; setting out from Persia I conquered Egypt. I ordered to dig this canal from the river that is called Nile and flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended."

===Early Islamic era===
In the 7th century AD a town named "[[Clysma|Kolzum]]" stood just north of the site of present-day Suez and served as eastern terminus of a canal built by [[Amr ibn al-'As]], linking the [[Nile River]] and the [[Red Sea]]. Kolzum's trade fell following the closure of the canal in 770 by the second [[Abbasid]] caliph, [[al-Mansur]], to prevent his enemies in [[Arabia]] from accessing supplies from Egypt and the lands north of it. Nonetheless, the town benefited from the trade that remained between Egypt and Arabia.<ref name="Chisholm22">Chisholm, p.22.</ref> By 780 al-Mansur's successor [[al-Mahdi]] restored part of the canal.<ref name="Houtsma498">Houtsma, p.498.</ref> The [[Qarmatians]] led by [[al-Hasan al-A'sam]] defeated a [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] army headed by [[Jawhar al-Siqilli]] at Kolzum in 971 and thereby captured the town. Following his defeat in [[Cairo]] by al-Siqilli at the end of that year, Hasan and his forces retreated to Arabia via Kolzum.<ref name="Houtsma1115">Houtsma, p.1115.</ref> Suez was situated nearby and served as a source of drinking water for Kolzum, according to the [[Arab]] traveler [[al-Muqaddasi]], who visited in 986.<ref>Forgotten Books, p.61. Quotes [[al-Muqaddasi]].</ref>

The [[Ayyubid]] sultan of Egypt, [[Saladin]], fortified both Kolzum and Suez in order to defend Egypt's eastern frontier from [[Crusades|Crusader]] raids by [[Raynald of Chatillon]].<ref>Houtsma, 1993, p.341.</ref> Between 1183 and 1184, Raynald had ships stationed in the [[Red Sea]] to prevent the Ayyubid garrison at Kolzum from accessing water. In response, Saladin's brother [[al-Adil]] had [[Husam ad-Din Lu'lu']] build a naval fleet, which sailed to the southern port of [[Aidab]] to end Raynald's venture.<ref name="Houtsma1115"/> By the 13th century, it was recorded that Kolzum was in ruins, as was Suez, which had gradually replaced the former as a population center.<ref name="Chisholm22"/> According to Muslim historians [[al-Maqrizi]] and [[al-Idrisi]], Kolzum had once been a prosperous town, until it was occupied and plundered by [[Bedouin]]s. Arab geographer [[Shams al-Din al-Ansari al-Dimashqi|al-Dimashqi]] noted that Kolzum belonged to the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] province of [[Al Karak|al-Karak]] at the time.<ref name="Houtsma1115"/>

===Ottoman and Egyptian rule===
[[File:Isthme de Soueys (Isthmus of Suez). Plan du port de Soueys et du fond du Golfe Arabique. I-IV. Profils du canal projeté entre les deux mers (NYPL b14212718-1268722).jpg|thumb|c.1800 French map of the "[[Isthmus]] of Suez"; the port area shown on the map is c.10km south of the modern city of Suez and is uninhabited today.]]
To prevent [[Portugal|Portuguese]] attacks against Egyptian coastal towns and the Red Sea port of [[Jeddah]], [[Qansuh al-Ghawri]], the last [[Burji dynasty|Mamluk]] sultan, ordered a 6,000-man force headed by [[Selman Reis]] to defend Suez in 1507, which in turn limited the Mamluk military's capabilities against the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]]s in the [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref>Brummett, p.85 and p.115.</ref> Following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt at the beginning of the 16th century, Suez became both a major naval and trading station. The Ottoman fleets at Suez were instrumental in disputing control over [[Indian Ocean]] trade with the Portuguese.<ref name="Chisholm22" /> in the Red Sea in the 16th & 17th century.  Campaigns against the Ottoman Empire.  Yellow - Factories ( Mokha)  Red  - Allied Territorie or under influence.  Dark Green - Campaigns of Adal.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Rise of Portuguese Power in India |first=R. S. |last=Whiteway |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tSz8lqqFckwC&q=suakin+Portuguese&pg=PA271|date=June 1995|publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn = 9788120605008}}</ref>

==== Portuguese attacks ====
{{Main|Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1560)}}
In trying to limit the [[Ottoman Navy]] to the Red Sea, after the [[Siege of Diu (1538)|siege of Diu]] in 1538, a Portuguese fleet was sent in 1541 to seek out and destroy the Ottoman navy. After capturing [[El Tor, Egypt|El Tor]] on the Egyptian coast, the fleet's commander [[Estêvão da Gama (16th century)|Estevão da Gama]] gave the order to attack Suez, but failed to engage the Ottoman fleet as the Ottomans had received intelligence about the incoming attack beforehand. Instead, the Portuguese fleet spent the next 7 months in the Red Sea sailing from port to port and waiting in [[Massawa]] before eventually leaving for India.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

German explorer [[Carsten Niebuhr]] noted that in the 18th century a 20-strong fleet sailed annually from Suez to [[Jeddah]], which served both as [[Mecca]]'s port and Egypt's gateway for trade with India. However, by the [[French invasion of Egypt and Syria]] in 1798, Suez had once again devolved into an unimportant town. Fighting between [[French Revolutionary Army|French]] and [[Military of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman troops]] in 1800 left most of the town in ruins.<ref name="Chisholm22" /> Its importance as a port increased after the Suez Canal opened in 1869.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item124188.html#:~:text=In%201869%2C%20the%20Suez%20Canal,to%20travel%20round%20southern%20Africa | title=Opening of the Suez Canal }}</ref>

===Modern era===
The city was virtually destroyed during battles in the late 1960s and early 1970s between Egyptian and Israeli forces occupying the [[Sinai Peninsula]]. The town was deserted following the [[Six-Day War]] in 1967. [[Avraham Adan]] tried to [[Battle of Suez|capture the city]] but it failed, it cost the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) 80 troops killed, 120 wounded and 40 tanks destroyed. Reconstruction of Suez began soon after Egypt reopened the Suez Canal, following the [[Yom Kippur War]] with Israel.

Suez was the first city to hold major protests against the government of [[Hosni Mubarak]] during the [[2011 Egyptian revolution]] and was the scene of the first fatality of that uprising.<ref>[http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/revolutionthrougharabeyes/2011/12/20111229132934234283.html Suez: Cradle of Revolt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309202008/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/revolutionthrougharabeyes/2011/12/20111229132934234283.html |date=2012-03-09 }}. [[Al Jazeera English]]. 2012-01-17. Retrieved on 2012-03-10.</ref> On account of this, it has been called the [[Sidi Bouzid]] of Egypt, recalling that small town's role in the [[2010–2011 Tunisian revolution]].<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-protests-suez-idUSTRE70Q49520110127 Could Suez be Egypt's Sidi Bouzid?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141126001829/http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/27/us-egypt-protests-suez-idUSTRE70Q49520110127 |date=2014-11-26 }}. [[Reuters]]. 2011-01-27. Retrieved on 2012-03-10.</ref>
[[File:Container Ship 'Ever Given' stuck in the Suez Canal, Egypt - March 24th, 2021 cropped.jpg|thumb|right| Obstruction at Suez; a container ship got stuck in March 2021]]
In 2021, the container ship ''[[Ever Given]]'' became stuck across the Suez canal near Suez. This came to be known as the [[2021 Suez Canal obstruction]].