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THE KARAK PLATEAU IN THE
EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD (636-1116 C.E.)
Note: Make yourself familiar with the names of places and
regions on the map below before reading the text. For more
detailed geographical and historical information, see the
historical atlases and guides suggested in the bibliography. All
dates are Common Era unless otherwise stated.
Introduction
 The
Early Islamic period on the Karak plateau (in Arabic, Ard al-Karak)
covers a period from 636 (Hijra year 15) to 1116. The
former date is that of the defeat of the Byzantine armies at
Yarmūk in northern Jordan. The victory of the Arab forces under
the leadership of Khālid ibn al-Walīd was the last of a series
of battles and skirmishes between the two sides in the lands
east of the Jordan valley and Dead Sea valley (an area now
covered by modern Jordan). The latter date marks the
construction of the castle of Montréal in southern Jordan (known
in Arabic as Shawbak) by the Crusader king of Jerusalem, Baldwin
I. Crusader forces had made previous incursions onto the Karak
plateau and further south in 1100, 1106, and 1112-13, but it was
only with the construction of Montréal, and later
Karak castle
(known in Crusader sources as Petra of the Desert or Crac de
Montréal, and in Arabic as Hisn al-Karak) after 1142, that the
Kingdom of Jerusalem gained complete control of the regions
stretching from the Wādī Zarqā’ in the north to the Red Sea port
of Ayla (`Aqaba) in the south. During the Early Islamic period
the Karak plateau formed a small part of larger empires: first
the Umayyads (650-750), then the Abbasids (750-c.950) and
finally the Fatimids (in Jordan: c.975-c.1100). In
the final years before the Crusader conquest the south of Jordan
may have been under the control of a minor prince of Damascus
called Zāhir al-Dīn. It is important to recognize, however, that
for much of the Early Islamic period central government control
on the Karak plateau and the regions south of the Wādī al-Mūjib
appears to have been comparatively weak (or at times completely
absent). The historical development of the
Karak plateau in the Early Islamic period is difficult to
reconstruct with certainty. The main problem lies in the fact
that few of the written sources of this time deal specifically
with the Karak plateau and the remainder of southern Jordan. The
Arab writers discussing Jordan in the period prior to the
Crusades tend to be more concerned with the area north of the
Wādī al- Mūjib, known as al-Balqā’. This bias reflects the fact
that, in Jordan, it was al- Balqā’ that received the bulk of the
architectural patronage under the Umayyad caliphs and later
rulers. As a result, it is necessary to assemble the history
from brief references mainly found in Arabic chronicles and
geographical works of the period from the ninth to the fifteenth
century. In addition, we have further evidence from a few
standing monuments as well as the excavations and field surveys
that have been carried out on the Karak Plateau and further
south in Jordan. |
