Salchad

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صلخد / Ṣalḫad
Salchad
Salchad (Syria)
Red pog.svg
Coordinates 32 ° 29 '  N , 36 ° 43'  E Coordinates: 32 ° 29 '  N , 36 ° 43'  E
Basic data
Country Syria

Governorate

as-Suwaida
ISO 3166-2 SY-SU
height 1370 m
Salchad Castle
Salchad Castle

Salchad , Arabic صلخد Salchad , DMG Ṣalḫad , is the capital of a district in the as-Suwaida governorate in southern Syria . The small town isoverlookedby a hill with the remains of an Ayyubid fortress.

location

Salchad is located in the mountains of the Jebel ad-Duruz in the Hauran region . The place spreads upwards from about 1330 meters height on the southern slope of an old, 1420 meter high basaltic volcanic cone. The distance from Damascus is almost 130 kilometers, the nearest cities are as-Suwaida about 28 kilometers northwest and Bosra , 22 kilometers to the west. The border with Jordan is 15 kilometers south.

history

In the Old Testament the place is called Salcha , which is in the land of Bashan , which is ruled by King Og ( Deuteronomy 3:10 ; Joshua 12, 5 and 13, 11; 1 Chronicles 5:11). After the conquest by Moses , Salcha was located on the eastern border of the Israelite territory.

From the 2nd century BC Salchad belonged to the northern sphere of influence of the Nabateans . 106 AD they lost their independent rule to the Roman Empire and the place now belonged to the Roman province of Arabia Petraea . This was followed by Byzantine rule, during which wine-growing is reported in the fertile area, which continued even after the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. The area came under the control of the Arab Bedouin tribe of the Banū Hilāl . The place was important as a transit station for camel caravans on the route through the Syrian desert to Baghdad .

The first fortification was built in 1073/74 by the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir . During the Crusades , the Mamluke Altuntasch of Salchad revolted against the rule of Mu'in ad-Din Unur in Damascus and allied with the Kingdom of Jerusalem , which marched against the governor of Damascus in 1146. In 1147 he formed an alliance with the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din of Aleppo . The two armies besieged the fortresses of Salchad and Bosra until the crusaders withdrew.

One of Saladin's sons , al-Afdal (1171– around 1218) took control of Damascus, which included southern Syria and Palestine, after his father's death and the division of the empire in 1193. After proving himself incapable, rule was taken over by his brother al-Aziz , before power struggles with Abu-Bakr , another brother, broke out. Al-Afdal was assigned Salchad as a residence in 1196.

Most of the remains of the castle that are visible today date from the Ayyubid period from 1214 to 1247. Together with the fortress of Bosra, Salchad was supposed to secure the border with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1277 the Mamluk Sultan Baibars I had the castle, which was probably partially destroyed, restored.

Since the end of the 17th century, the Druze migrated from Lebanon to the mountainous region named after them. Especially from the middle of the 19th century, Druze settled in a second wave of immigration from Lebanon, Palestine and the region around Aleppo. Like the rest of the region, Salchad was re-established during this period. In 1858 some Druze settled for a short time, the harvest of which was eaten by locusts . From around 1860 a large number of farmers had settled permanently, mostly Druze, as well as some Christians and Muslims. Salchad became the largest town in the south of the mountain region, around which 14 hamlets were soon grouped.

During the Ottoman Empire , several family clans exercised feudal rule in the region. At its head was the Hamdan family clan, which in 1868 had to give up its traditional leadership role to the al-Atrasch family. The Atrasch family comes from the Halabi clan who came to the mountains around the 1830s.

In 1904 Howard Crosby Butler found a Turkish garrison of 150 men stationed in Salchad as head of the American Princeton expedition. He was disappointed by the only small remains of columns of a presumed Roman colonnade street that had been walled into the modern houses.

During the French mandate , the strongest Syrian national resistance came from the Druze areas around as-Suwaida. These were never completely under government control, even during the Ottoman period, and now resisted the interference of the French in their internal affairs. In April and June 1925, three Druze delegations tried in vain to negotiate with the French High Commissioner Maurice Sarrail . After they were turned away, attacked the Druze on July 20, 1925, under the leadership of Sultan al-Atrash, who came from the village of al-Qrayya about 15 kilometers northwest of Salchad. The next day French troops, consisting of seven officers and 166 men, set out from al-Suwaida in the direction of Salchad. They were wiped out by superior Druze militias, and fewer than 70 men returned to as-Suwaida. On August 2, a 3,000-strong French force (63 officers, 840 French of other ranks, the larger rest were Malagasy and Syrians) on the way from Izra ' to as-Suwaida was attacked and repulsed. The Druze also got supplies of weapons, ammunition and provisions. After Salchad, they also held the provincial capital as-Suwaida for almost a year. The unrest that started here lasted in various parts of the country until the beginning of 1928.

Around 1940 the market town had around 1900 inhabitants, a hotel, a gas station and a post office.

Cityscape

There is no surface water in the area. The water is supplied from wells and traditionally from cisterns (birchet), in which rainwater is collected in winter and spring for the dry summer months.

The fortress is located in the volcanic crater. It is in poor overall condition, with some parts of the outer walls and glacis being secured. The facility was used by the Syrian armed forces until the 1990s; the remains of these buildings have remained within the castle. Two breaches in the outer wall are from French air raids.

In the center of the village there is a hexagonal minaret from the Ayyubid period. It consists of black basalt and is divided by two white limestone bands with calligraphy . There are also some Ayyubid tombs with richly designed inscriptions. The small town extends with multi-storey new buildings up to the arable plains at the foot of the castle hill.

literature

  • Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal: Syria. High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert. DuMont, Cologne 1998, p. 412 f

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ross Burns: Damascus: A History. Taylor & Francis, London 2005, p. 156
  2. ^ Norman N. Lewis: Nomads and settlers in Syria and Jordan, 1800–1980. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987, p. 87
  3. ^ Howard Crosby Butler: Syria. Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-5 and 1909. Division I: Geography and Itinerary. EJ Brill, Leiden 1930, p. 27 online at Archive.org
  4. ↑ Naval Intelligence Division (ed.): Syria. BR 513 (Restricted). Geographical Handbook Series. April 1943. Archive Editions, Buckinghamshire 1987, pp. 143-145
  5. ^ Geographical Handbook Series, p. 232