Muslim Fortresses in the Levant

Between Crusaders and Mongols

Kate Raphael

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781138788886
• eBook ISBN: 9781136925252
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

During much of the twelfth century the Crusaders dominated the military scene in the Levant. The unification of Egypt and Syria by Saladin gradually changed the balance of power, which slowly begun to tilt in favour of the Muslims. This book examines the development and role of Muslim fortresses in the Levant at the time of the Crusaders and the Mongol invasion, situating the study within a broad historical, political and military context.

Exploring the unification of Egypt with a large part of Syria and its effect on the balance of power in the region, Raphael gives a historical overview of the resulting military strategies and construction of fortresses. A detailed architectural analysis is based on a survey of four Ayyubid and eight Mamluk fortresses situated in what are today the modern states of Jordan, Israel, Southern Turkey and Egypt (the Sinai Peninsula). The author then explores the connection between strongholds or military architecture, and the development of siege warfare and technology, and examines the influence of architecture and methods of rule on the concept of defence and the development of fortifications.

Drawing upon excavation reports, field surveys and contemporary Arabic sources, the book provides the Arabic architectural terminology and touches on the difficulties of reading the sources. Detailed maps of the fortresses in the region, the Mongol invasion routs, plans of sites and photographs assist the reader throughout the book, providing an important addition to existing literature in the areas of Medieval Archaeology, Medieval military history and Middle Eastern studies.

1
Ayyubid fortresses in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries

The notion that the arrival of the Crusades at the end of the eleventh century revolutionized military architecture”¹ presents a picture that is only partially accurate. True, there were relatively few Muslim fortifications in the Levant prior to the advent of the Crusaders, but they were far from inferior to what the newcomers were about to build.

Urban Muslim fortifications in the Middle East were without doubt more sophisticated and had advanced far beyond the rural and frontier castle. Among the finest examples are the great city gates built in Cairo under the supervision of the Amir al-Juy

sh Badr al-Jam

l

, during the years 480/1092–485/1097, on the eve of the first Crusade. The curtain walls that partly surrounded the city of Cairo and the three massive gates,

,

and B

b Zuwayla, admittedly designed by three Armenians, were by no means inferior to the first fortresses constructed in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and appear to have set very high standards.² William of Tyre describes with great awe the mighty walls and numerous towers surrounding the Muslim cities of Tyre (1124) and Ascalon (1153).³ By the time the Ayyubid sultanate was established around 1171 the Muslims were well acquainted with the art of military architecture and were employing their own architects and craftsmen. Towards the end of the twelfth century Ayyubid fortresses matched those of the Franks in both scale and design. However, they evidently developed along different lines of thought, to some degree as a result of the way the Ayyubid armies and fortress garrisons were composed, and partly in reaction to the methods of sapping and assault used by the Franks.

The following chapter will examine the characteristics of Ayyubid rural and frontier fortresses, emphasizing the main architectural elements and comparing them with Frankish fortresses constructed in the region at the same time. After presenting the architectural aspects, it may become possible to attempt an explanation of what led to some of the disparities between Ayyubid and Frankish fortifications. In addition this chapter, will, I hope, provide an adequate background to early Mamluk fortifications and will help in understanding some aspects of their evolution.

A short explanation as to why the following fortresses were chosen and the current state of research

The boundaries of the region under discussion are the Sinai Peninsula and what are today the modern states of Jordan and Israel.⁴ The following chapter is based on field work conducted in four fortresses: Mount Tabor, also known in contemporary Muslim sources as Jabal

;⁵ the first two building phases of

(

Namr

d) at the foot of Mount Hermon; the fortress of

in the northern part of the modern state of Jordan; and

, referred to in the Arabic sources as

;⁶ built in the north western region of the Sinai Peninsula (Map 1.1). The choice fell upon these fotresses because of the clearly documented construction dates given in inscriptions found on the site and in the historical sources. Almost all fortresses are in a reasonably good state of preservation. All four have been either excavated or surveyed and the finds have been published.

Johns conducted a thorough study of

in the late 1920s.⁷ His detailed conclusions were partly revised by a French team, headed by Dangles which surveyed the site in 2002.⁸ The ranciscan monks Bagatti and Battista published the excavations and survey of the fortress on Mount Tabor.⁹ Deschamps surveyed

, and was the first to chart and draw a plan of the fortress, still used today by most scholars. This fotress, at first attributed to the Crusaders, was recognized as an Ayyubid construction only in 1989, after Ellenblum and Amitai carefully surveyed the historical sources and the inscriptions.¹⁰ Hartal thoroughly explored the Ayyubid towers on the western side of

in his excavation conducted in the winter of 1993, but did not cover the rest of the site.¹¹ Barthoux, who published his finds in a short paper, first visited the fortress of

in 1909.¹² Wiet translated and analyzed the inscriptions from photographs taken by Barthoux, publishing them in 1922.¹³ The site was later visited and surveyed by Tamari while researching the Darb

(“Pilgrims’ Road”) in the Sinai Peninsula.¹⁴ In the 1990s Jean-Michel Mouton and

surveyed the fortress and published a seri...

Table of contents

• Culture and Civilization in the Middle East
• Contents
• Figures
• Maps
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on transliteration
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Ayyubid fortresses in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries
• 2 Mongolian siege warfare and the defense of Mamluk fortresses
• 3 Laying the foundations
• 4 Mamluk power on display
• 5 Military architecture versus political and military organization
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index