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A Survey of the Buildings
 The plan of the town and castle of Karak illustrate how the fortifications were meant to
function. The whole of the plateau on which the town is
located was originally encircled by a long defensive wall (the
dotted lines on the plan mark in the sections of the wall that
no longer exist). Towers (Arabic: burj) were
constructed at points along the wall so that the defenders
would enjoy maximum visibility of the surrounding countryside
and the routes leading up to the town. Some of these towers
still exist. The largest of these is located at the northwest
extension of the city and is known as Burj al-Zāhir [
Photo].
An inscription on the interior of the tower states that it was
built by order of the Mamluk sultan Baybars (reigned 1260-77). It is noticeable that the style of this
imposing structure is very similar to that of donjon at the
south end of the castle (see below). Another one of the towers
created by Baybars is the smaller round tower, known as Burj
al-Banawī [
Photo], located at the southeast end of the
circuit. This time, the inscription is placed in a band on the
upper part of the exterior. In addition to giving the name of
the founder, it also carries two carved depictions of lions
[
Photo]. This heraldic image appears on many of the structures
and objects commissioned by Baybars, and is known to have
acted as his personal emblem. An undated tower, known as Burj
al-Sā`ub employs a very different design with a machicolated
parapet [
Photo].
 It is clear from looking at
the two towers commissioned by Baybars, and those of the
remainder of the circuit, that little emphasis was placed upon
employing a consistent style in the buildings. In part this can
be attributed to the fact that they were the products of
different patrons, but also it may be that as time progressed
the design of fortifications had to take account of changes in
the technology of siege warfare. Another aspect of the defences
of the town were the entrances. It is not known how many gates
there were into the town, but it seems likely that points of
access were kept limited for security reasons. In addition,
there are two subterranean passages with entrances in the
escarpments near Burj al-Zāhir and northeast of Burj al-Sā`ub . The latter passage is undated, but the former has an
inscription saying that it was built by order of the Ayyubid
sultan al-Mu`azzam `Īsa in 1227. Such subterranean entrances
were much easier to defend against attackers because they only
allowed small numbers through at any one time and also could be
blocked. These entrances, the defensive wall and the towers
comprised the first line of defence against an attacking army.
If this failed then the inhabitants of the town could flee to
the safety of the castle.
 In its present form
Karak castle is the result of multiple phases of building over
several centuries, starting with the first period of Crusader
construction after 1142. The castle is separated from the town by a ditch
(originally much deeper, but over the centuries gradually filled
with debris). The north end of the castle employs the rough-cut
masonry that is a characteristic feature of Crusader military
architecture [
Photo]. Although modern visitors pass over a
bridge and through the ruined remains the the western salient
(i.e. rectagular projection from the line of the wall), in the
past an invading army would have been faced with the problem of
bridging the ditch and then making their way (under fire from
defenders inside the castle) across to the small gateway located
in the eastern salient. It is typical of castles of this period
that the entrance to the castle is both relatively small and
awkwardly located. The placement of deep ditches at the north
and south ends of the castle provided further security, but the
development of ever more sophisticated machines for firing
projectiles (known as mangonels or trebuchets) meant that the
occupants did not live in complete safety during sieges. In the
1340s when the castle was besieged by the Egyptian Mamluk army,
we find references to the first use of gunpowder and cannon in
the Middle East. By the nineteenth century the advances in the
technology of cannon and explosives made the fortifications of
Karak redundant. Large portions of the walls were destroyed by
the Ottoman army in the 1830s to stop the castle being used as a
refuge for rebels against the government.
 The
remainder the castle includes examples of both Crusader and
Muslim architecture. The main extant section of the Crusader
castle is the lower terrace on the west side and the
vaulted halls immediately inside the north wall. The lower
terrace gave the occupants commanding views over the wādī below,
and west as far as the Dead Sea. There are also the remains of a
Crusader chapel in the upper sections of the castle. We know
from administrative documents of the twelfth century that the
lord of Karak had his own priest who presumably conducted
services in this building, but there was also a cathedral in the
town itself. The site of the Crusader cathedral is now occupied
by the Congregational Mosque for the town. Chronicles of the
Medieval period note that the Ayyubids conducted renovations in
the town and castle between 1188 and 1263, but the most
conspicuous remains in the castle date to the Mamluk period.
After conquering the castle in 1263, sultan Baybars extensively
rebuilt the south and west defences of the castle. Most
impressive is the massive donjon (i.e. tower or keep) at the
south end [
Photo]. Noticeable is the change in masonry style
from the time of the Crusaders; here the masons of the Mamluk
period have taken much more care in the shaping and finishing of
each block.
In the fourteenth century mamluk sultans
continued to add new structures inside the castle. North of
the donjon is a small courtyard surrounded by rooms that
probably served as the palatial residence of sultan al-Nāsir
Muhammad (reigned 1293-94, 1299-1309, 1310-41) and his
successors [
Photo]. We know that sultan al-Nāsir Muhammad
instructed his governor to build a palace, a hospital (Arabic:
maristān), a religious school (Arabic: madrasa)
and a parade ground (Arabic: maydān) in Karak.
Unfortunately, we are no longer able to identify where these
buildings were located, but the palace may well be the one
that survives today in the castle. It is striking that this
complex of rooms is comparatively modest in scale. This may be
explained by the fact that the sultan was drawn to Karak
because he enjoyed spending time with the nomadic bedouin
tribes of the region (he also sent his sons here so that they
could be educated in bedouin ways), and so the comforts of
palatial life might have been a rather secondary
consideration. The palace complex is now rather bare of
ornament, but a trace of its original appearance can be seen
in a carved geometric panel located in an entrance vestibule
on the east side [
Photo]. |
