Maniqa ( ar, المنيقة) is a castle located in the
Syrian Coastal Mountain Range
The Coastal Mountain Range ( ar, سلسلة الجبال الساحلية ''Silsilat al-Jibāl as-Sāḥilīyah'') also called Al-Anṣariyyah is a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north–south, parallel to the coastal plain.Federal ...
, dated back to the Roman era, it was also known as "Malikas" or "Malghanes" during the Crusader rule.
History
In 1028, Byzantine
doux of
Antioch Michael Spondyles Michael Spondyles ( el, , it, Michele Sfrondilo) was a high-ranking Byzantine courtier who became governor of Antioch, and then Apulia and Calabria.
Biography
A court eunuch and favourite of Constantine VIII (r. 1025–28), Spondyles was a ...
was tricked by the Arab tribal leader
Nasr ibn Musharraf al-Rawadifi
Nasr ibn Musharraf al-Rawadifi ( ar, نصر بن مشرف الروادفي; died 1032) was an Arab chieftain of the Citadel of Maniqa and Jabal al-Rawadif near Antioch.
Biography
In 1027 AD, the ruler of Aleppo, Salih ibn Mirdas, was able to defe ...
to construct a fortress at Maniqa from where he would defend the Byzantine domains. Michael agreed and even sent a 1,000-strong garrison there, but when the fortress was finished, Nasr refused to hand it over, and with assistance from the qadi of
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
*Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in t ...
and the local
Fatimid commander, he killed the garrison. In 1030, Byzantine Emperor
Romanos III Argyros ordered
Niketas of Mistheia, doux of Antioch, to recapture Maniqa from al-Rawadifi. Niketas managed to control the fort in 1031 after a 13-day siege, in which he also captured Nasr's wife and four daughters, who were abandoned to their fate.
[John Skylitzes, ''Synopsis of Histories'', 383.91–93] Niketas then secured the region by 1032.
In 1118 or 1119,
Rainald I Masoir
Rainald I Masoir, also known as Renaud I Masoir (died around 1135), was constable of the Principality of Antioch from around 1126, and also baillif (or governor) of the principality from 1132. Although he was a prominent military commander and he ...
persuaded the commander of
Margat from
Banu Muhriz
The Banu Muhriz were an Arab princely family that controlled the fortresses of Marqab (Margat), Kahf and Qadmus in the late 11th and early 12th centuries.
The family is credited by a 13th-century Alawite treatise for patronizing the budding Ala ...
to surrender the fortress to him, along with the nearby forts Maniqa,
Qulay'ah and
Hadid.
During the mid-12th century the
Assassins
An assassin is a person who commits targeted murder.
Assassin may also refer to:
Origin of term
* Someone belonging to the medieval Persian Ismaili order of Assassins
Animals and insects
* Assassin bugs, a genus in the family ''Reduviid ...
captured or acquired several fortresses in the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range including Maniqa. For the most part, the Assassins maintained full control over these fortresses until 1270–73 when the
Mamluk sultan
Baibars
Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari ( ar, الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري, ''al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Bunduqdārī'') (1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), of Turkic Kipchak ...
annexed them.
References
Sources
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Castles in Syria
{{Syria-struct-stub