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Ajloun Castle

When the first Crusaders left for the Holy Land at the end of the 11th Century, most castles were made of wood. When the Crusaders returned, they brought back several good ideas from the Middle East, and I have a private, uninformed theory that the stone castle may have been one of them.

Consider, too, the similarity of the English word 'castle' with the Arabic 'Qasr'. Possibly some cross-pollination took place, although in which direction, only a serious student can say. And they've been known to disagree at times!

Another thing scholars disagree upon is why the Crusades started in the first place. The version that used to be taught in schools was that the Saracens (= Muslims) under Salah al-Din (Saladin) took over the holy city of Jerusalem, and the Pope of the day gave out that any knight who could shift him was guaranteed a place in heaven.

But, Saladin didn't capture Jerusalem until 1187, and, indeed, wasn't even born when the First Crusade was launched. Nevertheless, the Holy Land abounds with stone castles; built by the invading Crusaders and the defending Saracens.

Probably the best known castles are at Aqaba, in modern Jordan, which was extensively rebuilt by the Mamelukes in the 16th Century and Azraq, in continuous use from Roman times, through the Crusades, when it was held by the Saracens, until the First World War, when it was used as a headquarters by Col. T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) during the Arab Revolt.

Most of the Crusader castles in Jordan, known to Europeans in those days as 'Oultre Jordan' (Beyond the River Jordan), were built along the King's Highway, from Amman to Aqaba. The Saracen castles were built with an eye to trade, as well as defence and it wasn't only the Crusaders they were defending against.

Let's take the fortress of Qala'at al Rabadh, or Ajloun Castle, as it's more usually known, after the name of the nearby village. It was built in 1184 by Emir Izz al-Din Usama, the nephew of Saladin, to protect the iron mines of Ajloun, and the important trade route to Jordan from Syria from the invader.

Usama built well. The Crusaders spent decades trying to capture the castle and the nearby village without success. Little wonder; Usama's castle had four towers with arrow-slits in the thick walls and that was after the 45 foot wide and 40 foot deep moat had been negotiated.

After Usama's death, a fifth tower was added by the castle's commander, and a bridge across the moat added. This bridge, decorated with pigeon reliefs,

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