Tripoli Castle

A visit to the huge and imposing castle of Tripoli, founded by one of the leaders of the First Crusade, shows almost nothing of the Crusader castle, now almost lost in a mix of Mamluk and Ottoman restructuring. Built in 1103 the castle lasted less than 200 years before destruction by the Mamluks and modern Tripoli’s sprawl encroaches so much it is difficult to get any sense of the castle without a drone.

My Experience

My visit to the castle was in 2004 as part of a wider tour of the Holy Land, detailed in my travel blog here. We drove from Beirut and the castle was our last stop in Lebanon before continuing into Syria. On the way we paused briefly to take some pictures of Mseilha Fort in a wadi below the road.

Tripoli Castle was another strange visit. The slab sided design without rounded or projecting towers, crenellations or a moat meant it almost blended in to the surrounding houses, other than the lack of tv aerials and sheer size. Almost all that is left today is post crusader but at one time this was a massive Christian bastion in the Holy Land.

Founded by Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse and one of the leaders of the First Crusade on earlier Arabic (and presumably even earlier Byzantine and Phoenician) foundations, the castle is on a commanding hilltop. A large crusader town grew up around the castle, Mont Pelerin, and it was a major centre for trade until it was destroyed with the Mamluk capture of the castle in 1289.

Now, you can walk through a lot of the restored castle and climb the ramparts. The entrance gateway is impressive, with three separate gates before you get inside the castle. There weren’t any sizable baileys in the castle so it felt very cramped for all its size.

Tripoli Castle Photo Gallery

These next photos were taken in the dim and distant past of 2004 and they were not taken in RAW so these are pretty much unedited jpgs. I’d like to think my own skill in photography has moved on since then too so these may not be ideal pictures. Sorry!

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History

The citadel of Tripoli was built by Raymon De Saint-Gilles, governor of Tripoli, in 1103 on the emplacement of the castle of Saint-Gilles. When the Mont Pèlerin quarter was set ablaze by the Mamluks in 1289, the castle of Saint-Gilles suffered from the holocaust and stood abandoned on the hilltop for the next eighteen years. It was essential to have an adequate stronghold in Tripoli for the sultan’s troops, temporarily garrisoned in Hisn al-Akrád (Krak des Chevaliers), as the distance was too great in case of enemy attack. The governor therefore chose the emplacement of the gutted Crusader castle on the hill, incorporating what he could in his citadel, and made use of Roman column shafts and other building material he found nearby. Many of the interior walls, ramps and terraces of the citadel seen today were built in his time.

Abou’l Fidá and Ibn al-Wardi record that, among the important events which took place in the year A.H 746 (1345), was the promulgation of a military decree which was set up by order of the Mamluk Sultan al-Kamil Sha’ban in the citadels of Aleppo, Tripoli, Hisn al-Akrâd and other fortified places. The decree, put over the second entrance way of the citadel of Tripoli, is by far the best preserved. Apparently this sultan, who lived a life of luxury and debauch, was in constant need of extra revenues. In order to fill his depleted treasury, he imposed a heavy registration tax upon all feudal land concessions and appropriations. This tax was unpopular and was obviously going to stir up discontent among his subjects. To forestall any uprising and gain the support of his troops, upon whom his power was based he issued this military decree. It was the custom that a Mamluk soldier, under contract for a specified number of years, received an annual gratuity which amounted to slightly over eleven days extra pay. If the soldier died before the end of his contract, the sultan had the right to claim the extra sum of money which had accumulated during the soldier’s years of service. Sha’bán abandoned his rights to this claim, once and for all, hoping thus to enlist the support of his troops.

In 1516, Syria and Egypt fell to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. His son and successor Suleiman I, called the Magnificent (1520-1566), soon after his accession made an inspection tour of his newly conquered lands. He gathered about him in Damascus all his provincial governors and on this occasion took the decision to rebuild the great citadel of Tripoli. Over the entrance portal, the sultan commemorated this important restoration work with an inscription: “In the name of Allah, it has been decreed by the royal sultan’s order, al Malik al-Muzuffar Sultan Suleiman Shah, son of Sultan Selim Shah, may his orders never cease to be obeyed by the emirs, that this blessed citadel be restored so as to be a fortified stronghold for all time. Its construction was completed in the blessed month of Sha’bân of the year 927 (July 1521)

In the years that followed, various Ottoman governors of Tripoli did restoration work on the citadel to suit their needs and with time the medieval crenelated battlements were destroyed in order to open sally ports for cannons. In the early 19th century, the citadel was extensively restored by the Ottoman governor of Tripoli Mustafa Agha Barbar. Very little of the original Crusader structure has survived until this day. The graves of a number of nameless Frankish knights, here and there, are the only bits of evidence today evocative of their presence on the heights of Tripoli’s “Pilgrim’s Mountain” many centuries ago.

References

The history above is copied from the Wikipedia page here.

Lebanon Untravelled has a nice guide to the castle here but the history is just lifted from the Wiki page above.