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THE ARCHITECTURE OF KARAK: TOWN AND CASTLE
Note: For maps of the other important sites of the
Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, see: The History of the
Karak plateau in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (1188-1516).
When reading the text it is advisable to refer back to the plans
of the town and the castle. All dates are Common Era unless
stated otherwise.
Introduction
 Although the fortifications have been much damaged over the
centuries by natural decay, war and occasional earthquakes, the
old town and castle Karak still manage to dominate the local
landscape. In order to approach the town one must ascend
from deep wādīs (the Arabic term for a valley) on steep
switchback roads. The town and castle are located on a plateau
approximately 850m in length, at the south end of which is the
massive castle. The castle itself has been separated from the
town and the hill to the south by means of deep man-made
ditches. Karak castle evidently impressed observers of the
Medieval period, because we have numerous brief descriptions of
it in chronicles, geographical works and the accounts of Arab
and European travellers. One visitor to Karak was the famous
fourteenth-century traveller, Ibn Battūta. During his
extraordinary peregrination from North Africa all the way to
China, he undertook the Muslim pilgrimage (Arabic: hajj)
to the Holy Cities of Mekka and Medina. He started this part of
his journey from Damascus and so the route took him south
through Jordan via the King’s Highway (Arabic: Darb al-Malik).
He records that the pilgrims stopped at the village of al-Thāniyya,
located on a hill east of Karak, in order to buy provisions for
the next stage of the journey. From here it was possible to see
the castle. He writes:
Then the travellers
came to the castle of Karak which is one of the most
marvellous, most inaccessible and most celebrated of castles.
It is called the “Castle of the Raven” (Arabic: hisn
al-ghurāb). It seems to be surrounded on all sides by
valleys.
 Today, we can still
share the view enjoyed by Ibn Battūta over six hundred years’
ago by standing on the hill of Marj al-Thāniyya. We do
not know the reason why it came to be called the “Castle of the
Raven,” although it may be a reference to the bird depicted on
the official seal of the last Crusader lord of Karak, Renaud de
Châtillon. What is clear, however, is that all who wrote about
Karak recognized the strength of the fortifications. In the
regions of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, Karak is only
exceeded in size and magnificence by the Crusader castle of Crac
des Chevaliers (between the Syrian towns of Homs and Tartus) [
Photo] and the Muslim citadels of Aleppo
[
Photo] and Damascus.
The old town and castle of Karak occupy a perfect position with
steep escarpments surrounding it on all sides but the south.
While the castle was besieged on numerous occasions, it was not
stormed by force of arms until the nineteenth century. This
capacity to withstand lengthy sieges led to the castle
performing a wide range of functions in the Crusader
(1142-1188), Ayyubid (1188-1263), Mamluk (1263-1516) and Ottoman
(1516-1918) periods including palatial residence, arsenal,
treasury, prison and military headquarters.
In order to understand the architectural history of Karak we
need to make use of the evidence provided by the standing
architecture, as well as written sources of the Medieval period
(including both descriptions in chronicles and the stone
inscriptions attached to buildings). The town of Karak is
represented on two church mosaics at Mādabā (sixth century) and
Umm al-Rasās (dated 718), both in Jordan. In both cases, the
site (given in the inscriptions as Karakhmoba, i.e. “Karak of
Moab”) is shown as a town surrounded by a defensive wall,
although there is no sign of a castle in this early period. We
know from pottery gathered around Karak that the town was
occupied during the Byzantine period, and much earlier, but
almost no sign of this earlier history is apparent in the
architecture. The only remnant of the Byzantine town is to be
found in the Greek church of St George, although most of the
present structure dates to the nineteenth century. Otherwise,
everything in Karak can be dated from the time of the first
construction of the Crusader castle in c.1142 through to the
modern day. The Crusader churches of Karak have been discussed
in detail by Pringle (see bibliography), but no overall study of
the architecture of Karak castle, and the other fortifications
has been attempted. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify
changes in the style of the buildings which give clues about the
way in which the site developed from the Crusader through to the
Mamluk period. It is
important to recognize that Karak is one example of the many
fortified towns of the Crusader, Ayyubid and Mamluk period.
Under the Crusaders, the lands of Jordan (known in Crusader
sources as Oultrejourdain) were controlled by a series of
fortifications, the most important of which being Shawbak, Karak
and Wu`ayra (near Petra). After 1188 Karak was drawn into larger
political configurations first under the Ayyubids and later the
Mamluks and Ottomans. Therefore, in order to fully appreciate
the military architecture of Karak, it is necessary to consider
the developments in other Crusader and Muslim castles in Syria,
Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon.
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