Margat

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Margat
Margat Castle, general view, 2004

Margat Castle, general view, 2004

Alternative name (s): Qala'at al-Marqab
Creation time : 1062
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Standing position : Barons
Construction: Basalt construction
Geographical location 35 ° 9 '4 "  N , 35 ° 56' 57"  E Coordinates: 35 ° 9 '4 "  N , 35 ° 56' 57"  E
Height: 350  m
Margat (Syria)
Margat

The Margat Castle ( Arabic قلعة المرقب Qalaʿat al-Marqab ) is a ruined castle in Syria in the Tartuz Governorate . It was an important crusader fortress . Along with Krak des Chevaliers and Saladinsburg , it is the best preserved castle in Syria.

location

Margat is located near the Mediterranean coast, about six kilometers south of Baniyas on a 280-meter-high, wrinkled hill that is of volcanic origin. The foothills of the Jebel Ansariye come in this area up to less than two kilometers from the coast.

history

Margat Castle is located at a point where the Djebel al Ansariye massif almost reaches the coast. It ruled the coastal road from Tartus to Latakia and guarded the flank of the principality of Antioch to the county of Tripoli . The Muslim enclave of the assassins was in close proximity.

The first castle was built in 1062 by a resident landlord. In 1104 the Byzantine admiral Kantakuzenos captured it during a military expedition. In 1116, the then lord of the castle Ibn Muhriz handed the castle over to Prince Roger of Antioch in exchange . Renaud Masoier , an important partisan of the prince, received the castle as a fief . He began to build a huge castle on the basalt mountain. From 1133 to 1140, the complex temporarily fell back into Muslim hands during the clashes between the Crusader states Antioch and Tripoli . In 1140, Renaud II Masoier (Baron Reinald Mansoer II) was able to regain possession of it. In 1157, 1170 and 1186 the castle suffered extensive damage from earthquakes. Although Renaud II had large estates, the costs of maintaining the castle and the occupation exceeded his financial means. He had to sell his property piece by piece to the Order of St. John . After his death in 1185, his son Bertrand finally sold the castle to the Order of St. John on February 1, 1186 in return for an annual pension of 2000 gold Byzantines .

The Order, at the height of its power, quickly put the castle back into a state of defense. When Sultan Saladin passed the castle immediately after the battle of Hattin , he did not attack it. In the years up to approx. 1205 the mighty fortress, which is still preserved today, was built. It was the headquarters of the Order of St. John and was the starting point for many military operations at the beginning of the 13th century. Around 1205 a general chapter of the order was held at the castle.

The situation had changed in the middle of the 13th century. The crusader states were less and less able to cope with the military pressure of the Mamluk sultan Baibars . Ever larger parts of the territory fell into Mamluk hands. In 1269 and 1270, two sieges by Baibar's troops could still be repelled. In 1281 the Mameluk leader Balban al Tabbakhi was commissioned to conquer Margat. The army of 7,000 men could again be turned away.

On April 17, 1285 Sultan Qalawun , the successor of Baibar, appeared again with a Mamluk army before Margat. The fortress withstood fire from launching machines for five weeks. The undermining of the walls and towers finally caused the defenders to surrender on May 23, 1285 after the collapse of the so-called spur, the southern outskirts of the donjon. According to tradition, Qalawun had shown the Hospitallers the already completed mining tunnels and thus convinced them of the pointlessness of further defense.

After the conquest, the damage caused by the siege was quickly repaired. Due to its strategic location, the fortress remained one of the most important fortifications in the country in both the Mamluk and Ottoman times. A small Turkish garrison was located here until the 20th century.

etymology

The word 'marqab' is derived from the arab. rootرقب (Raqaba) and means something like 'observe' or 'guard'

literature

  • Thomas Biller: Castles in the Crusader States. In: Castles and Palaces in Saxony-Anhalt 1992, Issue 1. * Thomas Biller: Castles in the Crusader States - from aristocratic residence to "fortress". In: Castles and palaces in Saxony Anhalt. Vol. 1, 1992, ISSN  0944-4157 , p. 8 ( PDF ; 525 kB).
  • Ross Burns: Monuments of Syria - An historical guide . Tauris Publ., London 1999, ISBN 1-85043-468-9 .
  • Robin Fedden, John Thompson: Crusader castles in the Holy Land . Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1959.
  • Hansgerd Hellenkemper: Crusader castles in the county of Edessa and in the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia . Habelt, Bonn 1976.
  • Hugh Kennedy: Crusader castles . Univ. Pr., Cambridge 1995, ISBN 0-521-42068-7 .
  • Thomas E. Lawrence: Crusader castles . Clarendon, Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-19-822964-X .
  • Wolfgang Müller-Wiener: Castles of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, on Cyprus and in the Aegean Sea . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1966, pp. 58–60.
  • Syria (Baedeker Alliance Travel Guide). Baedeker, Ostfildern 2000, ISBN 3-89525-629-3 .
  • Walter Zöllner: History of the Crusades . German Verl. Der Wissenschaft, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-326-00237-8 .

Web links

Commons : Margat  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Article in the Encyclopaedia of Islam 2, Volume VI, Brill: Leiden 1991, p. 577