Political History of the Karak Plateau in the Ayyubid-Mamluk Period
Castle of Montreal (Arabic Shawbak)
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.
Southern fortification of Karak Castle mainly constructed during the Mamluk period
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.
Burj al-Banawi, Karak - 13th century
Many examples of his military structures are still visible today, including the south end of the castle, the towers known as Burj al-Banawī 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.