Castle of al-Al

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Not to be confused with Iaal Fortress.

The castle of al-Al[1] (Arabic: قلعة العال‎, "Qal'at al-'Al")[dubious – discuss] was, if indeed it existed, a short-lived castle built in 1105 near al-‘Al on the Golan Heights in Terre de Suète by Hugh of Saint Omer, the man put in charge of the Galilee by King Baldwin I (r. 1100–1118).[2]

The older identification with the ruins at the site of Qasr Bardawil has been abandoned after it being classified as a Bronze Age site.[3][4]

History according to Qalanisi[]

The history of the castle is based on the works of Damascene politician and chronicler ibn al-Qalanisi (c. 1071–1160), which say that the Franks built the castle in 1105 and that Toghtekin, atabeg of Damascus, destroyed it on December 24th of the same year.[3][1]

The castle was one of three, including Chastel Neuf[citation needed] and the castle at Toron,[2] built in the region. The uncompleted[citation needed] castle of al-Al was first used in 1105 and Hugh was killed returning there after a successful raid in Damascene territory, after which Toghtekin, not wishing to have a Frankish stronghold so close to Damascus, attacked and easily conquered site, killing or taking captive the defenders.[2][1] The Franks then abandoned the site as too difficult to defend, relocating to Cave de Suète.[citation needed]

Doubts about existence[]

Moshe Sharon, in his monumental (CIAP), plainly states that there has been no such castle at all.[5] He considers it to be a legend that must have begun with someone identifying the Arabic name of the site, Qasr Bardawil (qasr meaning castle), with the Crusader king Baldwin I, called Bardawil in Arabic chronicles.[5] The legend with all its elements (construction year 1105, with Hugh of St. Omer, who did indeed build Toron, as the man put in charge) was copied from one author to the next, including by noted medievalists Runciman and Prawer, until the archaeological survey done by Israeli archaeologists right after the Six-Day War, in 1968, and published in 1972, dated the site to the Bronze Age (Judea, Samaria and the Golan: Archaeological Survey 1967-1968, The Archaeological Survey of Israel and Carta, editor Moshe Kochavi).[5]

Rejected identification with Qasr Bardawil[]

Denys Pringle lists the Qasr Bardawil ruins under "Rejects" in his gazetteer of Crusader fortifications, due to lack of medieval material at the site.[3] He quotes "Deschaps and others", referring by name to Paul Deschamps (French article) (1888-1974) who surveyed the area in the 1930s and identified the fortified spur with a Crusader castle mentioned in a Demascene chronicle, allegedly built by King Baldwin I.[3] Deschamps argues that Qasr Bardawil was a Crusader castle, which dominated a village by the name of Al from a strategic position that controlled the Roman road from Baysan to Damascus and located some 12 km east of the Lake of Tiberias[4] After the rejection of the identification based on more recent work at the site, the castle mentioned by Qalanisi is considered by Sinibaldi to be, as of 2014, still unidentified.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Ibn Al-Qalanisi, Abu Ya'la Hamzah Ibn Asad; Gibb, H. A. R. (transl. ed.) (2002). The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades: Extracted and translated from the Chronicle of ibn al-Qalānisi. Dover books on history and social science (unabridged reprint of 1st ed. by Luzac & Co., London, 1932 ed.). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-486-42519-1. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Runciman, Steven (1999). A History of the Crusades, Volume Two: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187 (1999 reprint of 1951 1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-521-34771-8. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Pringle, Denys (1997). Qasr Bardawil (R 14). Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer. Cambridge University Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780521460101. Retrieved 21 July 2019. Identified by Deschamps and others as a castle built by Baldwin I in 1105 ... However, more recent survey suggests the occupation to be principally Middle Bronze Age II.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Sinibaldi, Micaela (2014). Settlement in Crusader Transjordan (1100–1189): a Historical and Archaeological Study (PDF). Cardiff University (PhD in Archaeology thesis). pp. 56–57. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c Sharon, Moshe. Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae (CIAP) Volume Two: B-C. BRILL, 1997, ISBN 9789004110830, p. 34, accessed 19 July 2019

Bibliography[]

  • Devais, Cédric, A Seigneury on the Eastern Border of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: The Terre de Suète, in Studies in the Archaeology of the Medieval Mediterranean, edited by James Schryver, Brill, 2010, (available on-line), p. 74
  • Runciman, Steven, A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187, Cambridge University Press, London, 1951, p. 95
  • Kennedy, Hugh, Crusader Castles, Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 40, 52-53

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