Desert castles explained

The desert castles or qasrs are often called Umayyad desert castles, since the vast majority of these fortified palaces or castles were built by the Umayyad Dynasty in their province of Bilad ash-Sham, with very few Abbasid exceptions. The desert castles of Jordan represent a prominent part of this group of buildings, with most Umayyad "desert castles" being scattered over the semi-arid regions of north-eastern Jordan, with several more in Syria, Israel and the West Bank (Palestine), and just one Abbasid exception in Iraq.

Name

What is known in English as a "desert castle" is known in Arabic as qaṣr (singular), quṣur being the plural.[1] However, qasr is a widely-used Arabic word for palace, castle or fortress, so only a few of the buildings called quṣur are "desert castles".

Historical background

The Umayyads erected a number of characteristic palaces, some in the cities, but mostly in the semi-arid regions, and some along important trading routes. The castles were built roughly between 660 and 750 under the Umayyad Caliphate, which had made Damascus, now in Syria, their new capital in 661. After the Abbasid Revolution of 750, the capital moved to the newly-built Baghdad and some of the buildings were never completed.[1]

After the Limes Arabicus was abandoned by the Roman Empire, many of the castra continued to be in use.[2] This continuity was subject to archaeological investigations in the fort of Qasr al-Hallabat, which at different times served as a Roman castrum, Christian cenobitic monastery, and finally as an Umayyad Qasr.[3]

Most of the desert palaces were abandoned after the Umayyads fell from power in 750, leaving many projects uncompleted and others were left to decay.

Description

The typical desert castle is more than a single residence; rather it is a compound of various building including a substantial main residence along with other buildings such as a hammam (bath-house), storage areas and other agrarian structures and possibly a mosque, all within a large enclosure.[4] Desert castles are typically situated near a wadi or seasonal water course.[5] The inner part of the main residence typically consists of two-storeys, arranged around a central courtyard. The main residence is often richly ornamented with mosaics, frescoes and stucco reliefs.[6]

With a few exceptions, the desert castles conform to a common template consisting of a square structure similar to Roman forts ("castra")[7] as their main building, typically boasting an elaborate entrance.[8] [7] Other buildings in the complex would include a hammam (bath house), a mosque, and often an agricultural enclosure (walled areas for animals, dedicated buildings for processing produce such as olive oil), and a water reservoir or dam.[8] The interior rooms of the main structure were ornately decorated with floor-mosaics, and wall paintings featuring designs that exhibit both eastern and western influences.[9]

Some of the desert castles, for example Qasr Hallabat or Qasr Burqu', are rebuilt from remains of earlier Roman or Ghassanid structures; others are new constructions.[7]

Purpose

The function and use of the buildings are today not entirely clear, and scholarship has suggested that they might have served a variety of defensive, agricultural, residential, recreational and commercial purposes.[7] The earliest researchers, such as Musil and Lammens, suggested that desert castles were primarily used for recreational purposes: to escape bad air associated with city living to escape epidemic outbreaks; to indulge hedonic pleasures or for use as hunting lodges.[10] Yet other scholars, investigating the geographic distribution of desert castles have noted that they are principally situated along the silk road or pilgrimage routes and may have operated as a type of caravanserai.[11]

Archaeologists have investigated the role of these desert castles, with the traditional view that they served as country estates or hunting lodges for the use of aristocratic families during the winter season. However, recent scholarship has suggested a much greater diversity of roles, including as agricultural estates or military forts. The complex at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (Syria), for example, sits within a vast agricultural estate and the buildings include structures associated with the production of olive oil.[12]

According to a hypothesis developed by Jean Sauvaget, the Umayyad quṣūr played a role in the systematic agricultural colonisation of the uninhabited frontier areas, and, as such, continue the colonisation strategy of earlier Christian monks and the Ghassanids.[13] The Umayyads, however, increasingly oriented their political strategy towards a model of client politics, of mutual interdependence and support.[14] After the Umayyad conquest, the quṣūr lost their original function and were either abandoned or continued to serve as local market places and meeting points until the 10th century.

Given the variety observed in the archaeological record, it is unlikely that one single theory can explain the range of purposes of all the buildings. These functions include fortresses, meeting places for Bedouins (between themselves or with the Umayyad governor), (retreats for the nobles) or caravanserais. A proliferation of desert castles appeared around the same time as the number of caravans increased substantially.[15] Many seem to have been surrounded by natural or man-made oases and to have served as country estates or hunting lodges, given that hunting was a favoured pastime for the aristocracy.[16]

The generic term "desert castle" is not ideal, since it artificially separates similar quṣur according to their location. Jordan possesses at least one urban Umayyad qaṣr: the Amman Citadel. While the majority of quṣur are located in Jordan, examples can also be found in Syria, the West Bank and Israel, either in cities (Jerusalem), in relatively green areas (al-Sinnabra, Khirbat al-Minya), or indeed in the desert (Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi and Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi, Jabal Sais, Hisham's Palace).[17] The more isolated "desert castles" built in arid regions, are chiefly located on the ancient trade routes connecting Damascus with Medina and Kufa or adjacent to a natural oasis.[1] Their location along major routes and next to the very scarce water sources seems to indicate that they enabled the Umayyads to control the roads militarily, monitor and tax the seasonal movement of people and their livestock, and not least, impress travellers and local tribes with lavish displays of monumental architecture, baths and ponds in the middle of an arid landscape.[18]

Artistic value

The castles represent some of the most impressive examples of early Islamic art and Islamic architecture, and some are notable for including many figurative frescos and reliefs depicting people and animals, less frequently found in later Islamic art on such a large and public scale. Many elements of the desert palaces are on display in museums in Amman, in Jerusalem's Rockefeller Museum (decorations from Hisham's Palace) and the Pergamon Museum of Berlin (the Mshatta Facade).

List of sites

Jordan

Partial alphabetical list by main name without article:

Syria

Israel and Palestine

Lebanon

Iraq

See also

Furtht reading

Kennedy, David

and Riley, Derrick (2012; first edition: 1990). Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air, Routledge, pp. 8-91 provides a comprehensive list of castles, forts, mosques and other major edifices.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Khouri, R.G., The Desert Castles: A Brief Guide to the Antiquities. Al Kutba, 1988. pp 4-5
  2. Michaela Konrad: Roman military fortifications along the Eastern desert frontier. Settlement continuities and change in North Syria fourth–eighth centuries A.D. In: Bart and Motz 2009, pp. 433–453
  3. Ignacio Arche (2009): Hallabat: Castellum, coenobium, praetorium, qaṣr. The construction of a palatine architecture under the Umayyads I. In: Bartl and Moaz, 2009, pp. 153–182
  4. Genequand. D., “Ummayid Castles: The Shift from Late Antique Military Architecture to Early Islamic Palatial Building” in: Hugh N.Kennedy (ed), Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria: From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Period, Brill, 2006, pp 3 -13
  5. Bartl, K., “Water management in Desert Regions: Early Islamic Qasr Mushash,” in: Stephen McPhillips and Paul D. Wordsworth (eds), Landscapes of the Islamic World: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016, pp 50-52
  6. Meinecke, K., “The Encyclopedic Illustration of a New Empire: Graeco-Roman-Byzantine and Sassian Models on thed Façade of the Qasr al-Mshatta,” In: Stine Birk, Troels Myrup Kristensen, Birte Poulsen (eds), Using Images in Late Antiquity, Oxbow Books, 30 Apr 2014, pp 283-300
  7. Nomad Politics and the Residences of Abulmalik and Walid I, in Fred M. Donner (ed), The Articulation of Early Islamic State Structures, Oxon, Routledge, 2017
  8. Ettinghausen, R., Grabar, O. and Jenkins, M., Islamic Art and Architecture p 650
  9. Petersen, A., Dictionary of Islamic Architecture, Routledge, 2002, p. 296
  10. Genequand. D., “Ummayid Castles: The Shift from Late Antique Military Architecture to Early Islamic Palatial Building” in: Hugh N.Kennedy (ed),Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria: From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Period, Brill, 2006, pp 3 -13; The Articulation of Early Islamic State Structures, Routledge, 2012; Genequant, D., “Desert castles, Umayyad,” in: The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Wiley, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah12066.pub2; The Lineaments of Islam: Studies in Honor of Fred McGraw Donner, BRILL, 2012, p. 430
  11. The Lineaments of Islam: Studies in Honor of Fred McGraw Donner, BRILL, 2012, p. 430
  12. Shaw, I. and Jameson, E. (eds), A Dictionary of Archaeology, John Wiley, 2008, p. 487
  13. [Jean Sauvaget]
  14. Donald Whitcomb (1995): Islam and the socio-cultural transition of Palestine - Early Islamic period (638–1099 C.E.) In: T. E. Levy (Ed.): The archeology of society in the Holy Land. London, Leicester University Press, pp. 488–501
  15. Jordan: Annual, Volume 36, Dāʼirat al-Āthār al-ʻĀmmah, 1992, p. 317 (translated from French)
  16. Meyers, E.M. (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, Volume 5, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 241
  17. Teller, M., Jordan, Rough Guides, 2002 p. 200
  18. http://www.gis.club/sites/default/files/Thesis_final.pdf The spatial analysis of a historical phenomenon: using GIS to demonstrate the strategic placement of the Umayyad "desert palaces"
  19. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_ain_es-sil.php Qasr Ain es-Sil
  20. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_amra.php Qasr Amra
  21. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_azraq.php Qasr Azraq
  22. Web site: Qasr Bayir . The Sacred City . 30 November 2021.
  23. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_el_burqu.php Qasr el Burqu
  24. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_hammam_as_sarah.php Qasr Hammam As Sarah
  25. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_azraq.php Qasr Azraq
  26. https://archiqoo.com/locations/humayma.php Qasr al Humayma
  27. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_kharana.php Qasr Kharana
  28. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_al-mshatta.php Qasr Al-Mshatta
  29. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_mshash.php Qasr Mshash
  30. Book: Bartl, Karin . Water management in desert regions: Early Islamic Qasr Mushash . 50-68 [see p. 63] . McPhillips . Stephen . Wordsworth . Paul D. . Landscapes of the Islamic World: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography, Part I: Hydroeconomies: managing and living with water. . University of Pennsylvania Press . 2016 . 9780812292763 . https://books.google.com/books?id=GaspDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 . 2 November 2020.
  31. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_al-muwaqqar.php Qasr Al-Muwaqqar
  32. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_al-qastal.php Qasr Al-Qastal
  33. https://archiqoo.com/locations/qasr_tuba.php Qasr Tuba
  34. https://archiqoo.com/locations/umayyad_palace_amman.php Umayyad Palace, Amman
  35. https://archiqoo.com/locations/umm_al-walid.php Umm Al-Walid
  36. Book: Bujard . Jacques . Genequand . Denis . Trillen . Wilfried . Umm al-Walid et Khan az-Zabib, deux établissements omeyyades en limite du désert jordanien . fr . 189–218 . Conquête de la steppe et appropriation des terres sur les marges arides du Croissant fertile . Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux . Lyon . Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranéen . 36 . 2001 . https://www.persee.fr/doc/mom_1274-6525_2001_thm_36_1_1172 . 2 March 2024 . Concise but comprehensive article with plans and reconstructions.
  37. Genequand . Denis . Al-Bakhra (Avatha), from the Tetrarchic Fort to the Umayyad Castle . . Levant . 36 . 2004 . 36 . 225–242 [237–38] . 10.1179/lev.2004.36.1.225 . The palatial residence in Dumayr, of which the date and history are still uncertain (Byzantine or early Islamic) . 8 March 2021.
  38. Book: Hoyland, Robert . Two New Arabic Inscriptions: Arabian Castles and Christianity in the Umayyad Period . 327-337 [330] . Nehmé . Laïla . Al-Jallad . Ahmad . To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the languages, archaeology, and cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald . BRILL . Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics . 2017 . It is difficult to make a convincing case for a Ghassanid owner, since we have no residential buildings that can be confidently ascribed to a Ghassanid or any Arab tribal leader from the pre-Islamic period, whereas we have numerous examples of Umayyad palatial residences (Genequand 2003). [Referring to the "rather fine castle" at Khirbat al-Bayda', modern southern Syria] . 9789004357617 . https://books.google.com/books?id=0IJ1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA330 . 8 March 2021.
  39. Jacobson, David M. (1985-86). "Upper Herodium: A Fortress or a Château?" In Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 5, pp.56-68 [63-64]. Accessed 31 March 2024 via academia.edu.
  40. Genequand, Denis (2009). Économie de production, affirmation du pouvoir et dolce vita : aspects de la politique de l’eau sous les Omeyyades au Bilad al-Sham. . In: Mohamed Al-Dbiyat, Michel Mouton, Stratégies d'acquisition de l'eau et société au Moyen-Orient depuis l'Antiquité. New edition [online]. Beyrouth: Presses de l’Ifpo. . . Accessed 2 Apr 2024.

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