Muslim Fortresses in the Levant: Between Crusaders and Mongols (13 page)

Tamari, who conducted detailed research on the
, suggests that “
should be conceived from the outset as having functioned within the framework of the
rather than the context of military activity of the Ayyubid Sultans in the twelfth century.”
⁵⁶
Yet in spite of its small dimensions and old-fashioned military architecture,
⁵⁷
this statement of Tamari’s should be reconsidered, for
is often mentioned as a place where the campaigning Muslim armies marching to and from Egypt during the late 1160s gathered, halted for a short rest or camped for a few days.
⁵⁸
Cairo lay within only two days march. The distance form
to the Port of Ayla (modern
) was three days; however, according to Abū Shāma, water had to be carried from Ayla for the duration of the journey.
⁵⁹

Map 1.2
and the route off the Darb
that crosses the Sinai Peninsula

The first Crusader assault on the fortress took place in 573/1177–8,
⁶⁰
the second in 579/1183 along the road leading to the fortress. An Ayyubid contingent fell upon the Franks before they actually reached
, the whole force was killed and the garrison returned with goods the Franks had looted from the regions they had just passed through.
⁶¹
Although the fortress is small and could hardly supply a large army on the march, it seems that the proximity to Cairo and to the port of Ayla turned
into a convenient site to organize an army that was advancing towards Cairo.
was quick to acknowledge the importance of the site and kept it well stocked, as the desert land around it could not supply the garrison’s needs. In the spring of 1184 a caravan laden with livestock, weapons and goods was dispatched to the fortresses of
and Ayla after a Frankish attack that had occurred earlier the same year. The caravan was protected by a contingent led by Qaysar, the governor of the East (al-Sharqiyya, a province in the eastern Delta).
⁶²
Even though the fortress rates as one of the smallest, the Franks were not able to take it by force. The rugged terrain and the protection provided by the steep topography accounted for much of its fortifications.
⁶³