Qalat (fortress)

Qalat or kalata () in Persian,For the derivation of the Arabic term from the Persian, see Leslau (1987) p. 426, citing Fraenkel (1886) p. 237 and Belardi (1959) pp. 147-150.

* Leslau, Wolf (1987). ''Comparative dictionary of Geʻez (Classical Ethiopic): Geʻez-English, English-Geʻez, with an index of the Semitic roots''. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden
page 426

* (1886). ''Die Aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen'' (''The Aramaic Loanwords in Arabic''). Brill Publishers
page 237
, in German, reproduced from original in 1962 by , Hildesheim, , and again in 1982,
* Belardi, Walter (1959). "Arabo qal‘a". ''AION Linguistica'' 1: pp. 147—150 and qal'a(-t) or qil'a(-t) () in Arabic, means 'fortress', 'fortification', 'castle', Reprint of first edition. or simply 'fortified place'. The common English plural is "qalats".

Qalats can range from forts like Rumkale to the mud-brick compound common throughout southwest Asia. The term is used in the entire Muslim world to indicate a defensive fortress. The term took various forms in different languages, such as ''qala''/''qal'a'' and ''qalat''/''qal'at'' (Persian and Arabic), ''kale'' (Turkish), ''kaleh'' and ''kalleh'' (Persian), ''qila'' (Urdu and Hindi), and often became part of place-names. It is even preserved in toponyms in places such as Sicily, which was occupied by the Aghlabid dynasty and then the Fatimids from the ninth to the twelfth centuries.''Influsso arabo: L’elemento arabo è ben attestato, soprattutto in Sicilia, a testimonianza di un dominio, quello saraceno, che durò dall’inizio del IX fino alle soglie del XII secolo. Con il toponimo generico qal‘a (‘cittadella’, ‘fortezza’) abbiamo per esempio Calatafimi, Calatamauro (ovvero ‘la rocca del Moro’), Calatrasi (‘la rocca del tessitore’), Caltabellotta (‘la rocca delle querce’).'' (''Arab influence: The Arab element is well attested, especially in Sicily, evidence of the Saracen rule beginning in the ninth and lasting until the beginning of the twelfth century. From the generic name Qal'a ('citadel', 'fortress') we have, for example: Calatafimi, Calatamauro (i.e. 'the stronghold of the Moor'), Calatrasi ('the fortress of the weaver'), Caltabellotta ('the fortress of the oak trees').'') Bentsik, R. "Tracce" ("Traces"
"Intercultural Dialogue European Radio Campaign"
page 61, www.tatapume.org; see also Pellegrini, Giovan Battista (1974) "Attraverso la toponomastica urbana medievale in Italia" ("Through the medieval urban toponymy in Italy") pp. 401–499 ''In'' Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo (1974) ''Topografia urbana e vita cittadina nell'alto Medioevo in Occidente, 26 aprile-1 maggio 1973'' (Conference publication) Presso la sede del Centro, Spoleto, Italy, volume 2
page 415

The word is used an various Arabic placenames.

Etymology

Wolf Leslau (1987), citing (1886) and Walter Belardi (1959), offers that the Arabic word has been adopted from the Iranian (Persian) ''kalata''.

'' The Etymological Dictionary of Contemporary Turkish'' written by Armenian-Turkish author Sevan Nişanyan states that the Turkish word ''kale'' is adapted from ḳalˁa(t), which originates from the Arabic root ḳlˁ. Nişanyan goes on to note that the Arabic word shares its origin with the Middle Persian variant ''kalak'', which has no written record and originates in the Akkadian word of the same meaning ''kalakku''.

Persian

The Persian word is ''kalata''.

Arabic

The Arabic word takes the forms ''qal'a(-t)'' and ''qil'a(-t)'', plural ''qilâ' '' and ''qulû' '', meaning fortress, fortification, or castle.

Middle East

See the lists of castles from Saudi Arabia, Jordan ( Qalʻat ar-Rabad, Qal'at al-Karak and Qal'at ash-Shawbak), Tal Afar, Lebanon, Egypt, etc.

Central Asian fortified city

A typical qala in Central Asia consisted of a tripartite city model: ''kuhandiz'' (citadel), ''shahristan'' (residential area), and '' rabad'' (faubourg, suburb; the regional variant for ''rabat''). This city model is valid not only for Central Asian city typology and is also used to describe similar city types elsewhere in Islamic geography.

Kuhandiz (citadel)

In the pre-Islamic Iran and Turkestan towns consisted of a fortress called ''diz'' (also means "fortress" in Persian), and the actual town which was called ''shahristan''. Middle Eastern Islamic geographers use the word ''kuhandiz'' for the oldest part of the settlements in the town centers. It later started to be used in with the meaning of citadel. The word ''kuhandiz ''originates from Persian () and means literally "old fortress". But the word ''kuhandiz'' can't be applied to solitary fortresses which were independent of towns, as it would cause conceptual confusion. Although in Arabic the word ''hisn'' or ''husûn'' () was used to indicate fortresses which were located off towns, since Arabic terms did not have proper meaning to describe those structures, they borrowed the word ''kuhandiz'' during the Islamic conquest of Iran. Kuhandizes were usually built on high ground and were the last line of defence in the town. Administrative units were mostly located here. The Turkish term and the English "citadel" are synonymous.

Shahristan (residential area)

''Shahristan'' is a combination of two words, (city) and -stan/-istan (region, area), thus it literally means "city area". Before the Islamic conquest of Central Asia, castle-style settlements were common rather than large political and economic centers. The word used by Muslim Arabs for these fortified towns, which were protected by walls, is ''qal'a''. As the feudal system was transcended, this tripartite city model appeared with castle-like structures, which are called ''kuhandiz'', forming the core of the city. With the development in itself of the settlement within the old walls, cities without ''kuhandizes'' also appeared. Most of the townspeople dwelled in the ''shahristan''. Mesut Can states that this might be the reason the name ''shahristan'' was used. Most of the buildings for recreation and worship were also located there.

Rabad (faubourg, suburb)

Qala compounds in Iran and Afghanistan

In many areas of Iran and Afghanistan, particularly in tribal areas with pre-modern building practices, the qalat compound is the standard housing unit for multi-generational families. Qalats can be quickly constructed over the course of a single season, and they can be extremely large, sometimes covering several acres. Towers may be placed at the corners or points along the walls to create a more defensible position, but most qala compounds consist only of the walls.

While the foundation of a qala compound may be stone or fired brick, the walls are typically dried mud. Walls are created by laying down a row of adobe bricks with mud mortar along the entire length of the wall. By the time that the mason returns to the point of origin, the mortar is dry and the next row can be added on top of the old. Using this technique walls dozens of feet high can be built very rapidly.

Turkey

Kale

In modern Turkish, () is an umbrella term that encompasses all types of fortified structures.

In Turkish, the scope of the term can vary. Today many fortified buildings are called ''kale'', which causes confusion. Originally the word ''kale'' (or in Ottoman Turkish) refers to fortresses which were built on roads, at narrow passes, and at bottlenecks, where the enemy was expected to pass by, or in cities with strategic value. Building materials of ''kales'' could differ according to geographical conditions. For example, Ottoman palankas were mostly built of wooden palisades.

A typical kale has the same features known from Western and Eastern counterparts, such as curtain walls with towers and a gatehouse, an inner tower similar to a keep (''bâlâhisar'', ''erk'' or ''başkule'' in Turkish), battlements and embrasures, a moat and sometimes postern gates. In the 15th century, the Greek word for tower, ''purgos'', was adopted into Turkish as ''burgaz''.

Ottoman towns in the Balkans and Anatolia had a tripartite city model: old castle (inner fortress), ''varoş'' (residential area, in modern Turkish used as 'suburb'), and outer city (suburb).

Kale vs hisar, kermen

There are also other similar terms such as or .

The definition of the term ''hisar'' is similar to that of castle, a fortified structure that acts as a residence, such as Rumelihisarı or Anadoluhisarı. The word originates in Arabic, where it means 'fortress' and 'blockade', and from where it also made it into Persian as ''hessar''.Rajki, András (2005)
''Arabic Dictionary with etymologies''
Accessed 5 September 2018.

Another word used for forts is ''kermen'', which originates from Cuman. It is known as ''kirmen'' in Tatar, and as ''karman'' in Chuvash. The Russian word ''kremlin'' also originates from ''kermen''.

When toponymically examined, it can be seen that ''hisar'' is used for place-names in western Turkey, ''kale'' in eastern Turkey, and ''kermen'' in the Crimean peninsula.

See also

* Kala (disambiguation) - Persian alternate spelling of Arabic ''qal'a''
* Qala (disambiguation) or qal'a - Arabic word for fortress or castle
* Qalat (disambiguation) - places whose names contain the words Qalat, Qelat, Kalat, Kalaat, Kalut, or Kelat
* Qila (disambiguation) - Persian (Urdu, Hindi) variant of Arabic ''qal'a''

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

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Further reading

*Kennedy, Hugh N. (2006) ''Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria'' Brill, Leiden,
*Facey, William (1997) ''Back to Earth: Adobe Building in Saudi Arabia'' Al-Turath in association with the London Centre of Arab Studies, London,
*Bing, Judith ''et al.'' (1996) ''Architectural Elements of Traditional Settlements'' International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, Berkeley, California,
*Szabo, Albert and Barfield, Thomas J. (1991) ''Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture'' University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas,
*Hallet, Stanley Ira and Samizay, Rafi (1980) ''Traditional Architecture of Afghanistan'' Garland STPM Press, New York,
*Mumtaz, Kamil Khan (1983) ''Traditional Forms of Rural Habitat in Pakistan'' UNESCO, Paris,

{{Islamic architecture
Fortifications by type
Castles by type
Architecture in Iran
Arabic fortifications