Bourzey castle, also known as Mirza castle (), is located at the border of

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

coastal mountains and Ghab valley, 25 km away from

Jisr al-Shughur Jisr ash-Shughūr (, , also rendered as ''Jisser ash-Shughour'' and other spellings), known in antiquity as Seleucobelus (), is a city in the Idlib Governorate in northwestern Syria. Situated at an altitude of above sea level on the Orontes rive ...

, at altitude 450 m. The inscriptions and mentioning of the castle relate it to the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era in the 11th century. Architecturally, it has a triangular shape. The western façade is 175 m, the eastern is 50 m. The southern and eastern façades are adjacent to deep gorges, but the western façade is the least steep. There are 21 towers and a small church on the surface.

History

From the

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, a ...

era, the castle's hill played a role under the ancient name "Lysias" to secure the connection between the cities of Laodicea and

Apamea Apamea or Apameia () is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the Sogdian wife of Seleucus I Nicator, several of which are also former bishoprics and Catholic titular see. Places called Apamea include: Asia Minor ...

. In 65 BC, Roman general,

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey ( ) or Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. ...

, controlled the region. Later on, the Byzantines built the castle on the hill. In 948/9, the commander Abu al-Hagar controlled the castle on behalf of the emir of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Sayf al-Dawla ʿAlī ibn ʾAbū'l-Hayjāʾ ʿAbdallāh ibn Ḥamdān ibn Ḥamdūn ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taghlibī (, 22 June 916 – 8 February 967), more commonly known simply by his honorific of Sayf al-Dawla (, ), was the founder of the Emirate of Aleppo, ...

. In 975, the Byzantine Emperor,

John I Tzimiskes John I Tzimiskes (; 925 – 10 January 976) was the senior Byzantine emperor from 969 to 976. An intuitive and successful general who married into the influential Skleros family, he strengthened and expanded the Byzantine Empire to inclu ...

recaptured the castle from the

Hamdanids The Hamdanid dynasty () was a Islam, Shia Muslim Arab dynasty that ruled modern day Northern Mesopotamia and Bilad al-Sham , Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib tribe of Mesopotamia and Arabia. History Origin ...

. After the Battle of Mantzikert in 1071, the Muslims again gained the upper hand in northern Syria.

Aq Sunqur al-Hajib Abu Said Aq Sunqur al-Hajib (full name: ''Qasim ad-Dawla Aksungur al-Hajib'') was the Seljuk governor of Aleppo under Sultan Malik Shah I. He was beheaded in 1094 following accusations of treason by Tutush I, the Seljuk Turkish ruler of Damasc ...

, Seljuk governor of Aleppo, took possession of the castle in May 1090. About 1103, the crusaders from the

Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch (; ) was one of the Crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and History of Syria#Medieval era, Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of ...

controlled the castle, during the reign of Bohemond I, and it was called "Rochefort". On August 23, 1188,

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

took the castle after a three-day siege in his campaign after the

Battle of Hattin The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of ...

. The lord of the castle's wife was sister to , the third wife of

Bohemond III Bohemond III of Antioch, also known as Bohemond the Child or the Stammerer (; 1148–1201), was Prince of Antioch from 1163 to 1201. He was the elder son of Constance of Antioch and her first husband, Raymond of Poitiers. Bohemond ascended to th ...

, and because of this Bourzey's lord and the seventeen members of his family were allowed to flee to

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

. Ibn al-Athir claimed that the castle's lady was also an informant for Saladin, which is why the family was spared.Ibn al-Athīr, ʻIzz al-Dīn. 2016. ''The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athir for the Crusading Period from al-Kamil Fi’l-Ta’rikh. Part 2, The Years 541-589/1146-1193: The Age of Nur al-Din and Saladin.'' Translated by D S. Richards. Crusade Texts in Translation. London: Routledge, 351-52.

Structure

After Byzantine rule the castle passed to

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...

s, who built additional towers in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

style. Mamelouks came later to fortify the southern towers. However, based on comparisons in construction technology and style, it can be determined that the systems that still exist today were built by the crusaders in the first phase of castle construction (1100–1140). The castle has several arrow bastions, underground rooms, water reservoirs. The road to the castle ends at the western slope. One needs climbing the mountain (~100 m) to reach the castle.

Notes

Sources

Official site of Hama governorate - Syria

External links

References