Castle of Al-Shawbak

This fortress was created 228 kilometres south of Amman to control the roads of East Jordan – the Arab trade routes linking Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea to the Levant – and the farming of this fertile, well-watered land by the Francs.

According to the historical sources the Francs, after the taking of Jerusalem in 1099, began thinking in terms of expansion and the control of strategic points forming a nexus on the land routes between Damascus and Cairo. Their intention was to weaken the main seats of power of the Ayyubid princes. Baldwin, king of the Francs, began building a fortress at Shawbak in 1115, as part of a large-scale military project to reinforce the Frankish presence in East Jordan in the wake of numerous campaigns in the region. This Krak, named "Castle of the Imperial Mountain" after the site it was built on, remained in Frankish hands until it surrendered to Saladin's troops in 1189. After the Ayyubids it was occupied by the Mamelukes, and was partially destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha during his occupation of the Levant in 1840. The limestone came from local quarries and was treated in two different ways in the interests of judicious use: the blocks used for the entrance arches, windows and arrow slits were polished; for the wall bases, the external walls and the towers, they were quarry-faced and block-and-header bonded. The towers were striped with bands of cursive script. Some incised rosettes are still visible.  

The natural slope of the mountain represented the fortress's first line of defence. The historical sources mention three surrounding walls of which only one has survived, punctuated by several rectangular and circular towers. The most significant feature of this wall, perhaps, is the way it is reinforced by sloping external walls that were difficult to climb because made of finely cut, polished stones; this also helped increase resistance to earthquakes and explosions. Within the wall were various rooms: sleeping quarters for soldiers, kitchens and laundries.

The plan of the fortress is irregular. In the interior courtyard are a number of buildings serving different functions and in varying states of preservation: two churches, a wine press, a mosque, a cistern and a tunnel to a spiral staircase of over 300 steps leading to a drinking-water spring. In addition, a number of rainwater collection cisterns have been dug within the citadel. The entrance is one of the main architectural features: the door, closed by two wrought iron locks, provides access via a corridor.

As a rule the military architecture of the time is relatively unadorned in comparison with that of religious and civil monuments; this was doubtless because of a quest for austerity and the increased danger of damage in the event of an attack. Decoration at Shawbak is concentrated on the church: certain stones have been sculpted with crosses ornamented with two flowers and set inside a hexagon, while other stones found on the floor are sculpted and decorated with geometrical shapes and vegetal motifs such as palm trees and circles adorned with flowers. Calligraphy in Thuluth script is to be found on the outside walls of the towers.

The design of Shawbak was influenced by the local topography, the raw materials available nearby, and the climate (observable in the arrangement of the rooms and the shape of the building). In respect of the choice of site, the citadel resembles other Crusader constructions on the Syrian-Palestinian borders, among them the Krak of the Knights (1031), Nimrod's Castle, or Banias (1129) and the Beaufort Citadel of Shkif in Southern Lebanon (1139). There are also similarities between Shawbak and the Citadel of Aleppo (1128), where glacis are to be seen on the slopes of two forts. At the Fort of Harem (1085), which overlooks the main road between Shawbak and the Citadel of Aleppo, the slopes are paved with stones. Other parallels can be noted between Shawbak and the Fortress of Karak in terms of the walls, the dimensions and a method of handling surfaces that belongs to the Crusader building phase.