Publication Date
Fourth-seventh/tenth-sixteenth
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;24;ar
Library Location
30 km northeast of Latakia, Latakia, Syria
Date
Fourth-seventh/tenth-sixteenth
Notes
Saladin Citadel can be considered one of the most elaborate castles in the Levant, and it bears the characteristics of Byzantine, Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk architectural styles, including military, civil, religious and monumental types. The castle is located on the northern part of the coastal mountains, overlooking the secondary road that passes through the mountain between the city of Latakia and the northern Al-Ghab Plain. The castle served as a residential palace for the Crusaders, Ayyubids and Mamluks. During the 11th century, the Byzantines occupied the site and began an ambitious fortification campaign in their expansion efforts, but were soon stopped by the Seljuks. The castle then passed to the Crusaders in 508/1114-7 and 513/1119. It was subsequently handed over as a fief to Robert, son of Fulk d'Anjou, a Knight of Saint John (the Hospitaller). Under his successors, the status of the citadel clearly improved, perhaps with the help of military forces. But this Crusader control was cut off by the Ayyubid Sultan Saladin in the year 584/1188 after a three-day siege, and it was given to the Ayyubid prince Nasir al-Din Mankufresh. After suffering from the Mongol threat in the middle of the seventh/thirteenth century, the Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baybars restored it peacefully in the year 671/1272, and appointed a governor over it. With the arrival of Sultan Al-Mansur Sayf al-Din Qalawun to power in 679/1280, the rebel prince Sunqur al-Ashqar turned the castle into a headquarters for his forces, but Qalawun defeated him in 686/1287, so the castle turned into a local administrative center in the Mamluk Empire. The triangular castle was established on a protruding rocky elevation separated from the mountain by an artificial ditch about 30 meters deep. The length of the castle from east to west is about 700 metres, and its maximum width along the eastern moat is 120 metres. The elevation is divided into two topographical areas that impose the boundaries of the defences. The Crusaders transformed the upper courtyard, which constitutes the heart of the Byzantine palace, into a residential area by building a huge square fortress that included two large water tanks, bordered by multiple semicircular and rectangular towers, and digging the eastern moat. Later, the Crusaders improved the defenses by using the previous fortifications built by the Byzantines and the Crusaders, and built a large residential complex that included baths and reception rooms on two levels, which was similar in style to the Ayyubid palace in the Aleppo Citadel. Baths and mosques were also built around the complex during the Mamluk period with a reception tower across the western wall of the upper courtyard. The lower heavenly courtyard was also fortified during the periods of Crusader and Islamic occupation by building two towers with a gate and a wall. Ocean.
Sample Text
Benjamin Michaudel “Saladin’s Citadel” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;24;ar
