User:Al Ameer son/Palmyra castle

Location
The castle at Palmyra is located 2 km north of Palmyra's ancient ruins. The castle is situated on a hilltop overlooking the two roads linking Palmyra to Homs in the west and Damascus in the southwest, as well as the Palmyrene oasis to the east. Two paths lead to the castle, one of which originates in the Camp of Diocletian and snakes around the hilltop, while the other begins northeast of the castle and loops back to the east midway up the hilltop.

Establishment
Prior to the 12th century, the population of the Palmyra oasis was concentrated in a small, fortified settlement at the temenos of the Temple of Bel. In the early 12th century, the fort's walls were strengthened. Later, the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din (r. 1146–1174) established a minor emirate at Homs to serve as a buffer zone between his principle domains in Aleppo and Damascus. The Emirate of Homs stretched as far east as the Euphrates River and included Palmyra and al-Rahba, the two principle population centers of the Syrian Desert at the time. In 1161, Nur ad-Din granted the Emirate of Homs to Asad ad-Din Shirkuh as a hereditary fief; Shirkuh was the uncle of Saladin, who would later establish the Ayyubid Sultanate. After Sultan Saladin (r. 1171–1193) captured the Emirate of Homs from the Zengids, he restored it his Shirkuhid kinsmen, who effectively served as vassals for the Ayyubid emirs of Damascus.

According to the 13th-century local historian Ibn Nazif, the modern-day fortress of Palmyra was founded by the Shirkuhid/Ayyubid emir of Homs, Shirkuh II (r. 1186–1240). Though Ibn Nazif is the only known source that mentions Shirkuh II's construction at Palmyra, his claim is considered "trustworthy" by modern historian Janusz Bylinsky due to the time Ibn Nazif spent in the court of Shirkuh II's son, al-Mansur Ibrahim. Existence of the fortress is attested to in the mid-13th century by historian Ibn al-Amid, further strengthening Ibn Nazif's claim. Moreover, archaeological investigations in the 1990s by Khaled Asaad of Syria's Directorate of Antiquities and Museums and Michael Gawlikowski of the Polish Center of Archaeology of Warsaw University confirm the fortress's 13th-century establishment.

No specific date is mentioned, but in his history book, Ibn Nazif described the fortress of Palmyra among the list of Shirkuh II's building works under the section of the year 1229. Ibn Nazif wrote Shirkuh II "built the castle (qalʿa) at Palmyra on top of a high and inaccessible hill, having destroyed the town fort (burj)". The "burj" referred to the small fort at the temenos of Bel. Bylinsky speculates that Shirkuh's motivation for destroying the burj of Palmyra may have been distrust of the local inhabitants or to deprive the Bedouin of the local Al Fadl tribe, who had fiefs in Palmyra and Salamiyah, from utilizing it against his authority. The Fadl Bedouin were patrons of a number of buildings, including a mosque, in the village of Palmyra, and the Shirkuhids cooperated with them to stave off raids by the Khafaja Bedouin of lower Mesopotamia. Despite a working relationship with the Al Fadl, Shirkuh II may have built the fortress on an high isolated hilltop to assert his direct authority and supervision over the desert countryside of his emirate, instead of sole dependence on the locally powerful Al Fadl.

Ottoman era
A long-established tradition falsely held that the Druze prince of Mount Lebanon, Fakhr ad-Din II, founded the fortress at Palmyra. This tradition is ascribed to a local source cited by Aleppo-based English merchants who traveled to Palmyra in 1691. Another European account about the castle's founding by Fakhr ad-Din dates to the 19th century, though the author considered the theory doubtful. Further doubt was cast by Orientalist F. Buhl in his Encyclopedia of Islam entry on Palmyra where he wrote "The strong citadel of Qal'at al-Ma'an north of the town is ascribed by the inhabitants to the famous Druse king Fakhr al-Din, but this is doubtful." Finally, Syrian archaeologists excavating the site after World War II discovered vast evidence of the the 12th-13th-century ceramics, which led them to firmly conclude that the fortress was a medieval construction.

Nonetheless, Fakhr ad-Din did come into control of the castle in Palmyra in 1630, according to a number of contemporary local sources, namely the Maronite chronicler Istifan al-Duwayhi, the Damascene historian Muhammad al-Muhibbi and an unnamed author cited by the 20th-century Homsi writer Munir al-Khury Isa As'ad. According to al-Duwayhi, by 1626, Fakhr ad-Din had already acquired the fortresses of Marqab, Safita, the Krak des Chevaliers, Salamiyah and Shumaimis, and later took possession of Palmyra. His control of these central Syrian fortresses may have been a result of his alliance with the amir al-ʿārab of Syria, Mudlij al-Hiyari of the Al Fadl tribe, which had long dominated the central Syrian steppe. Al-Duwayhi noted that Fakhr ad-Din had left Palmyra to recapture Baalbek from the Ottoman governor of Damascus in 1630. Al-Muhibbi also notes that Fakhr ad-Din controlled Palmyra and the aforementioned fortresses, as well as the territories of Ajlun, Jawlan and Hawran. Munir al-Khury explicitly notes that Fakhr ad-Din captured Palmyra's fortress and strengthened its walls in 1630; however, no sources, including al-Khury, mention Fakhr ad-Din's construction of the fortress. Fakhr ad-Din's control of Palmyra did not last long as he was finally apprehended and executed by the Ottoman authorities in 1632.

Architecture
The castle consists of a trapezoidal enclosure containing a labyrinth of interior structures accessible through numerous corridors.

Construction phases
According to Bylinsky, the castle's shape was the result of several different phases of construction. The first phase saw the erection of a triangular-shaped enclosure with eight towers connected to each other by curtail walls, some of which were bent for additional flanking. Five of these towers are rectangular, two are trapezoidal and one has a pentagon shape. The towers from this phase have varying dimensions, with the widest and tallest tower measuring 7 x 7 x 9 meters. Most of the towers are barrel-vaulted.