Royal palaces gave way to fortresses with the advent of the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century of the Common Era. Doubtless this had to do with partitioning the great empires of early Islamdom to numerous warring kingdoms and principalities and the resultant insecurity, not to mention outside threats from different quarters starting with a resurgent Byzantium in the second half of the 10th century all the way to the Crusades 100 years later and the onslaught of the mongol hordes in mid 13th century.
Needless to say the function of those fortresses was primarily defensive, but they also served as royal residences, and occasionally burial places. A case in point is that of Saladin who was buried in the Citadel of Damascus though his remains were removed shortly afterwards to his mausoleum located north of the Omayyad Mosque.
Military construction, specifically fortresses, achieved near perfection under the Ayyubid and had experienced slow but steady decline in the following centuries especially with the appearance of gunpowder empires. As far as the Citadel of Damascus is concerned, it assumed its current form in the early 13th century under al-Malik al-Adil who had the walls of the edifice rebuilt, modernized it, and endowed it with a state of the art military defenses. In all this he was perhaps motivated by fear of his nephews' ambitions more so than the crusaders threats.
The walls form an irregular rectangle located northwest of the City of Damascus. The rectangle's lengths range between 225-240 meters and widths 120-165 meters. It has two main doors, one in the north overlooking a canal of River Barada from a tower, and the other (of a far richer decoration) in the east opens on the Asrunyia Suq inside the city. The Citadel has 12 huge towers connected with curtain walls 11 meters tall and 3.5 meters thick. The ruler's residence was located in the west part of the edifice until the Mongol invasion in 1260. After expelling the Mongols, the Mameluke Sultan Baybars ordered restoration works but with time the Citadel was to gradually lose its military importance and fall victim to neglect. The south ditch was filled in the second half of the 19th century to create space for the west part of the picturesque al-Hamidiyah Suq, still a landmark of the Old Town.
Architecture in Islamic Civilization, Abdul Kader Rihawi (Arabic)
Needless to say the function of those fortresses was primarily defensive, but they also served as royal residences, and occasionally burial places. A case in point is that of Saladin who was buried in the Citadel of Damascus though his remains were removed shortly afterwards to his mausoleum located north of the Omayyad Mosque.
Military construction, specifically fortresses, achieved near perfection under the Ayyubid and had experienced slow but steady decline in the following centuries especially with the appearance of gunpowder empires. As far as the Citadel of Damascus is concerned, it assumed its current form in the early 13th century under al-Malik al-Adil who had the walls of the edifice rebuilt, modernized it, and endowed it with a state of the art military defenses. In all this he was perhaps motivated by fear of his nephews' ambitions more so than the crusaders threats.
The walls form an irregular rectangle located northwest of the City of Damascus. The rectangle's lengths range between 225-240 meters and widths 120-165 meters. It has two main doors, one in the north overlooking a canal of River Barada from a tower, and the other (of a far richer decoration) in the east opens on the Asrunyia Suq inside the city. The Citadel has 12 huge towers connected with curtain walls 11 meters tall and 3.5 meters thick. The ruler's residence was located in the west part of the edifice until the Mongol invasion in 1260. After expelling the Mongols, the Mameluke Sultan Baybars ordered restoration works but with time the Citadel was to gradually lose its military importance and fall victim to neglect. The south ditch was filled in the second half of the 19th century to create space for the west part of the picturesque al-Hamidiyah Suq, still a landmark of the Old Town.
Architecture in Islamic Civilization, Abdul Kader Rihawi (Arabic)
Gérard Degeorge
Syrie
Art, Histoire, Architecture
Hermann, éditeurs des sciences et des arts
1983
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