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Political History of the Karak Plateau in the
Ayyubid-Mamluk Period
 The Karak plateau and the other lands south of the Wādī al-Mūjib
seldom featured in the Arabic chronicles dealing with the
Early Islamic period [reference
link]. This changed with the construction of Montréal in 1116 and other castles in the following
decades of the twelfth century. The thirteenth-century Arab
geographer Yāqūt described Montréal as a ‘blockage in the
throat of Islam’ because the castle effectively controlled the
means of communication between the great Muslim urban centers
of Egypt and Syria. It was for this reason that Salāh al-Dīn
invested a great deal of energy during the 1170s and 1180s in
military expeditions into Jordan aimed either at taking the
castles of Karak and Shawbak, or at least, destroying the
farmlands around them. In particular, he wished to curb the
activities of the lord of Oultrejourdain, Renauld de Châtillon.
The threat posed by Renauld was exemplified by his notorious
maritime raid on the port of the cities of Mecca and Medina
that resulted in the deaths of numerous pilgrims. Although
Salāh al-Dīn succeeded in taking the port of Ayla in 1170, it
was not until the destruction of the Crusader army at Hattīn
in 1187 that he was able to return to Jordan and capture its
military installations. Renauld had been executed by Salāh al-Dīn
following the battle of Hattīn, but his wife, Stephanie of
Toron, who was residing at Karak managed to negotiate the
surrender of the Crusader forces to the Ayyubid army in 1188.
The Crusaders were never again to regain a foothold in Jordan
In 1192 the territories of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Palestine
were divided amongst members of the Ayyubid family. Al-`Adil,
the brother of Salāh al-Dīn received all of Jordan, as well as
other lands in northeast Syria and southern Anatolia. This
division of lands was a means to reward members of the family
for their support during previous military campaigns, but
following the death of Salāh al-Dīn in 1193 the rulers of each
territory began to compete with one another for mastery over
the entire empire. In general, the most powerful members of
the Ayyubid family were those who held the positions of sultan
in Cairo or Damascus. This incessant infighting between the
rulers of minor principalities set the pattern for the
remainder of the Ayyubid period. In the late twelfth and first
half of the thirteenth century the castles of Karak and
Shawbak played an important role in the political and military
developments. Both were well fortified and could be garrisoned
with many troops. Local bedouin could be employed to give
advance intelligence concerning troop movements in other
areas. In addition, the fertile lands around both castles
provided a large surplus of wheat and other foodstuffs that
could be stockpiled against sieges. In the written sources of
the Ayyubid period there are references to Karak and Shawbak
being used as treasuries, arsenals, storage depots and
prisons.
The status of the Karak plateau and the other regions of
southern Jordan fluctuated during the Ayyubid period. The
first ruler of the region, al-`Adil succeeded through a
combination of alliances and military action to take the title
of sultan in 1200, but he retained Karak and Shawbak as part
of this personal lands. During the thirteenth century the
ownership of southern Jordan changed hands on numerous
occasions. At some times it comprised an independent lordship,
but more often it formed part of a larger patchwork of
territories administered from Damascus. One of the most
important rulers of this period was the prince al-Mu`azzam `Īsā
who devoted considerable energies to the improvement of the
fortifications, road system and agriculture of Balqā’, the
Karak plateau and the southern region of Sharāt. In
particular, he seems to have favored Shawbak castle with
extensive patronage. According to the thirteenth-century
Syrian historian Ibn Shaddād, the gardens he created around
the town and castle were so beautiful that they rivalled those
of Damascus.
The last years of the 1240s were the beginning of the last,
and most turbulent chapter of the Ayyubid sultanate. In 1249 a
Crusader army led by the French king Louis IX landed on the
Egyptian coast at Damietta. The death of the penultimate
Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, al-Sālih Ayyūb in the same year
caused a political crisis that resulted in the murder of his
successor Tūrānshāh and the establishment of a new political
dynasty, the Mamluks (see below). In Syria, Jordan and
Palestine the constant fighting amongst the Ayyubid princes in
the 1250s was exploited both by the Crusader principalities on
the coast and by bands of itinerant mercenaries including the
Khwarazmians (a Turkic tribe driven west into Syria as the
result of the Mongol military expansion into Central Asia and
Iran) and disaffected Mamluk troops who had been in the pay of
al-Sālih Ayyūb in Egypt. The threat of an invasion by the
massive Mongol army assembled in Iraq cast a shadow over Syria
in the latter part of the 1250s. It would have required the
concerted efforts of all the Ayyubid princes to offer any
meaningful resistance, but the lack of trust between them made
such an alliance of forces impossible.
In 1250 a minor prince named al-Mughīth `Umar was released
from imprisonment and elevated to the title of ruler of Karak.
He was to be the last Ayyubid ruler of the region. When he
gained the castles of Karak and Shawbak he also took
possession of the monies left there by al-Sālih Ayyūb, a sum
reported to be 6,000,000 gold coins (Arabic: dīnārs). He used
this wealth to buy the services of Mamluk soldiers and bedouin.
He sent two military expeditions west in the hope of taking
Cairo, but his military resources in no way matched his
ambition and both attempts were easily beaten back. The Mongol
invasion of Syria in 1258-59 led to the final disintegration
of the Ayyubid confederacy. The Ayyubid sultan of Damascus,
al-Nāsir Yūsuf was taken in captivity to Iraq and later
executed. Other Ayyubid princes surrendered their properties.
We know from the account of a Monk called William of Rubruck
who was sent as a Papal emissary to the court of the Mongol
Khan Hülegü in 1254 that al-Mughīth `Umar had agreed before
the invasion to cooperate with the Mongols. Hülegü had
arranged for a governor to be sent to Karak, but he never
reached the castle.
Having dealt with the Ayyubid threat, the Mongol army advanced
west with the aim of taking Egypt. In 1260 at `Ayn Jālūt
(meaning ‘the Spring of Goliath) in the south of Palestine,
the Mongols were defeated by the forces assembled by the
Mamluk sultan of Egypt, Qutuz. Following the defeat, the
Mamluk army pursued the remaining Mongol soldiers across
Syria. Although the Mongols sent further military expeditions
into Syria during the remainder of the thirteenth century, it
was the Mamluks who were to establish themselves as the rulers
of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and southern Anatolia
until the early sixteenth century. The Mamluks (the term
mamlūk meaning ‘owned’) themselves were a Turkic military
class composed of soldiers who had come from nomadic tribal
groups in the steppe lands stretching from the Caucasus east
as far as the Aral Sea. Bought as boys from slave dealers,
they were transported to barracks in Cairo and other major
cities where they were trained in horsemanship, archery and
other military skills. Such elite soldiers were common in most
Muslim courts of the Middle East, but it was only in Egypt
that they usurped the authority of their former masters and
established their own political dynasty.
 In the aftermath of the victory at `Ayn Jālūt only one of the
Ayyubid princes, al-Mughīth `Umar in Karak, remained opposed
to the authority of the Mamluks (now led by sultan Baybars).
It was not until 1263 that al-Mughīth was finally removed from
his stronghold and his sons offered to surrender Karak and the
other castles of southern Jordan. Sultan Baybars (reigned
1260-77) was well aware of the strategic importance of Karak
castle and its surrounding territories. He established a
governor (Arabic: nā’ib) in the castle and placed a garrison
of troops there. He also set to work on restoring and
rebuilding the fortifications both of the castle and the
defensive wall that surrounds the town [reference
link]. Many examples of his military
structures are still visible today, including the south end of
the castle, the towers known as Burj al-Banawī [
Photo]
and Burj al-Zāhir. Karak and Shawbak were also incorporated
into the postal network that ran all over the empire.
Government officials could transmit messages using a system of
horse and camel riders or via carrier pigeons. This network
was vital to the security of the state because it allowed the
sultan receive fast intelligence concerning rebellions against
the state or possible military action by the Mongols or
Crusaders. Baybars and his successors also remained in close
contact with the powerful bedouin tribes of southern Jordan.
The support of these nomadic tribes was essential to the
governance of the region because they raised large numbers of
horses and other livestock used by the Mamluk army. In
addition, they were paid to keep the roads safe both for trade
caravans and the annual pilgrimage to the Holy Cities of Mecca
and Medina.
It was under a later sultan, al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalāwūn
(reigned 1293-94, 1299-1309, 1310-41) and his sons that Karak
played its most conspicuous role in the political life of the
Mamluk empire. In the period from 1294 to 1310 al-Nasir spent
two lengthy periods of imprisonment in Karak. Despite this
fact, he appears to have developed a great fondness for the
region, and in particular for the local bedouin. When he made
his successful bid for power in 1310 he was strongly supported
by the bedouin tribes of southern Jordan, and he continued to
maintain close contacts with them for the remainder of his
reign. He even sent his sons to Karak in their youth so that
they could learn to hunt and to live the life of the Arab
nomad. In addition, he invested money in building a palace, a
hospital and a parade ground in the town of Karak. This
attachment for Karak was even more powerfully expressed during
the short rule of one of his sons al-Nāsir Ahmad who, in an
attempt to escape the political infighting in Cairo, moved the
capital of the empire to Karak in 1342. He is reported to have
taken the royal insignia, the contents of the state treasury,
slaves and prisoners, and vast flocks of animals. It was only
after eight sieges that the castle of Karak was retaken by his
successor al-Sālih Ismā`īl.
The fortunes of the Karak plateau and the rest of southern
Jordan went into decline in the second half of the fourteenth
century. In 1347 the whole of the Middle East was affected by
the Black Death. Perhaps as many as one third of the
population of the Mamluk empire died in the plague. In rural
areas such as the Karak plateau the loss of life meant that
many of the fertile areas of land remained uncultivated, thus
greatly reducing the annual income of the region. The decline
of Mamluk Jordan can also be attributed to political factors.
In the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries political life
increasingly became focused upon the capital in Cairo, and
much less attention was paid to the administration of the
provinces of Syria, Jordan and Palestine. Governors of Karak
stayed in office for short periods and did not invest money in
local agriculture, industry or the road network. The close
contacts between the state and the bedouin that had been
maintained by the early Mamluk sultans began to break down. As
a result of these factors, the productivity of the land
decreased and both settled communities and traffic on the main
routes through the region became increasingly subject to
raiding by bedouin tribes. Karak was also used as the base for
a rebellion against sultan Faraj (reigned 1399-1405). In the
second half of the fifteenth century Karak fell beyond the
effective control of central government in Cairo and Damascus,
becoming a virtually autonomous state ruled by powerful local
families in Karak. Order was only restored in 1512 when the
governor of Damascus sent an army to Karak in order to pacify
the local tribes. In 1516 Karak, like the other regions of
Syria, Jordan and Palestine became part of the Ottoman empire.
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