Le Krak des Chevaliers & Our Lady of Tortosa

Visited 22 June 2007

“If grace, wisdom, and beauty are given to you, pride all alone can tarnishe these qualities when added to them.”

The above quote comes from an inscription found at the Castle of the Knights, aka Qalat al-Husn, or Le Krak des Chevaliers, an hour or so east of modern Tartus. It is one of the few remaining inscriptions found in Crusader architecture of the Levant and Holy Land. Indeed, it is generally only the architecture of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (and its principalities) that survives to this day. Castle ruins in various states of decay range from modern Turkey and Syria to Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Jordan, and, of course, Cyprus. Castles of Outremer (as it was called: “Over the Sea”) usually had one or more chapels, but the Latins also built magnificent churches and cathedrals. Two of the most notable include the Church of St Anne in Jerusalem and, relevant here, Our Lady of Tortosa in modern day Tartus.

TE Lawrence (ala ‘Lawrence of Arabia’) wrote his undergraduate thesis on Crusader castles, touring both Europe and the Levant. Of the Krak, he described it as ‘perhaps the best preserved and most wholly admirable castle in the world.’ TSR Boase, a very significant 20^th century scholar of the medieval Near East, stated: ‘As the Parthenon is to the Greek temples and Chartres to Gothic cathedrals, so is the Krak des Chevaliers to medieval castles, the supreme example, one of the great buildings of all times.’ If you have not guessed it, this was a truly exciting trip and I was delighted when I heard that our school was organizing it (thus nice bus transportation, entry fees, and breakfast for all of US$7). If you see but one castle in Syria, make sure it is the Krak!

The ancient Egyptians may have used the site of the Krak (the Jebel Kalakh) in their defensive positioning against the Hittites millennia ago. The Emir of Homs installed a Kurdish garrison in a fortress at this site in 1031AD. The Crusaders initially took the Jebel in 1099, and again in 1110. The Count of Tripoli transferred the improved castle (and its dependents) to the Knights of the Hospital of St John (“Knights Hospitaller”) in 1144, who massively expanded it in several phases, particularly after 1170. Although it could accommodate a garrison of some 4,000 troops, there were more usually only several hundred.

Note that the Latin Kingdom consisted primarily of the coastal lands in this area (and, indeed, in most of their territories of Outremer). A mountain range separated them from the (Sunni) Moslem forces of the four major cities of the interior: Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo. The Krak defended the Homs Gap, the easiest east-west route between Turkey and Palestine. Within this mountain range, many minority peoples took refuge, including Christian Maronites and various Shi’ite sects such as the Druze, Alawites (today’s Syrian rulers), and Ismailis. This latter group formed the “Assassins” of the Middle Ages. They were ruled in their heyday by Rashid al-Din Sanid, better known as “the Old Man on the Mountain.” They used hashish (hence its derivative “assassin”) to “encourage” their agents in their work, and were at various times allied to the Latins, at other times to various Moslem rulers. They were finally crushed about the same time as the Crusaders. The Ismailis, however, remain as a separate group to this day.

The Krak des Chevaliers withstood attacks by Nur ad-Din in 1163AD (the rather successful initiator of the jihad against the Crusaders) and by his successor, the Kurdish Salah ad-Din (known in the West as Saladin), in 1188. More than anything, lack of manpower was the most significant reason for the downfall of the Crusader kingdom. No matter how skilled or dedicated, it is difficult for a garrison of a few hundred to withstand an assault by an army of tens of thousands, especially when there is no hope of relief. The Mameluke Sultan Baybars (from Egypt) finally forced the Hospitaller garrison to surrender on 7 April 1271. The Mamelukes restored the castle and used it as a base for some while, but eventually Muslim villagers settled in it (though the area was and is predominantly Orthodox Christian). They were cleared out in 1934 during the French Mandate period, since which it has been an historic site. Although the Krak des Chevaliers is not the largest castle of the Crusader period, given its structural integrity and inspired architectural design, it is certainly the most impressive.

TORTOSA

The Krak des Chevaliers was built within visual range of another Crusader castle, Safita, and from this latter site to other castles and thus to the main coastal city of Tortosa (today’s Tartus). This city was founded by the Phoenicians to complement their central settlement on the island of Arwad (mentioned in Genesis 10:18), some 3-4km off the coast. While the Seleucids (heirs of Alexander the Great) and the Romans favoured Arwad as a major trading center, “Antaradus” became the dominant side after the 4^th century. Perhaps a part of the reason had to do with an already existent chapel traditionally consecrated by St Peter and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whose icon there was attributed to St Luke. The city was Byzantine until the Moslem Conquest of the 630s, though the former retook it for thirty years in 968.

The Crusaders invested Tortosa (as they called it) first in 1099, and then, permanently, in 1101, under Raymond de Saint Gilles, Count of Toulouse. Nur ad-Din briefly occupied the town in 1152, after which King Baldwin assigned it to the Knights of the Temple Solomon of Jerusalem (aka Knights Templar). They significantly expanded its defenses, particularly after Saladin nearly took it in 1188. They continued to hold it until their evacuation on 3 August 1291 – excepting Athlit, the final Crusader presence in the Holy Land. The Templars remained at Arwad for another 12 years, but soon abandoned it for Cyprus.

Although the hinterland of Tartus – including the “Valley of the Christians” around the Krek – was and is majority Christian, Tartus was, at the time of the Crusades, predominantly Moslem. I should add that the vision and raison d’etre of the Crusaders was to return the Holy Places of Jerusalem into Christian hands (thus allowing unfettered pilgrimage) and to aide and protect their Eastern Christian brethren. Individual motives might have followed this vision or have been more complex and even less noble, but this was the vision. There is a popular misconception that knights and peasants beggared themselves for the purpose of militantly converting Moslems to Christianity, but this was not the case. Whereas the Moslems had required their Christian (and Jewish) subjects to pay a jizya tax as part of their dhimmitude (second-class citizenship as “People of the Book”), the new Latin lords subjected their Moslem subjects to a similar tax, but otherwise largely left them alone as far as religion is concerned: they needed the revenue for their massive building campaigns. At various times, the Latin Christian rulers of Outremer allied with the Shi’a Ismaili Assassins, the Emir of Damascus, and even, for a short time, created a protectorate of Fatimid Egypt! The Middle East was greatly fragmented at the time of the Crusades, and the Moslem Emirs by-and-large viewed the Latins as another contingent in the complexity of the age. It was only in the 19^th century, with the renewed interest in the Crusades by the Colonial powers and their portrayal of themselves as latter-day Crusaders, that the Moslem and Arab world gained a new appreciation for the religious dynamic of the Crusades.

To continue to my narrative, we took the ten-minute boat-ride to Arwad (no OSHA standards here!), though it is extremely crowded and there is really not much to see. We did, however, tour a stone fortress there. We were not told any details, but the feel of the place was rather Colonial Caribbean, in my unprofessional opinion. Regardless, after the Krak, it could not, I confess, overly hold my interest. What was interesting, however, was the assortment of “beach” crafts for sale. A friend commented that they rather looked like the trinkets one finds at any beach resort in the world. Indeed, we wondered if they were all made in China!

Tartus, too, has really little to offer the visitor, as far as historical sites are concerned. After the French gave the Republic of Hatay (i.e. Antioch/Antakya, Alexandretta, etc, ala Indiana Jones) to Turkey in 1938 to buy their neutrality in the Second World War (or so I understand it), Syria only had one seaport – Lattakia. Therefore, they developed Tartus extensively into a port city, including, more recently, for oil export. The most significant site to see in Tartus is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa, which is today (and has been since the French Mandate period), a museum. It was built around the Byzantine chapel from AD 1123 (rebuilt post-1200) actually outside of the main defenses of the city, and therefore built as something of a ‘fortress-church’. Like St Anne’s, it is very pretty in its simplicity, and one can see that its builders took full advantage of the latest in ecclesiastical architecture from Europe (the transition from Romanesque to Gothic). One very interesting aspect is of a column somewhat split by masonry to form a passageway, which would have led to the Byzantine chapel below. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside museums here. Also, posters of el presidente abounded around the perimeter, giving a new twist to my photo attempts.

Besides the Cathedral, one can see the remains of the seaward defenses, including the small postern gate from which the Crusaders finally abandoned their Levantine presence after nearly 200 years.