Safita ( ar, صَافِيتَا '; phn, 𐤎‬𐤐𐤕‬𐤄, ''Sōpūte'') is a city in the

Tartous Governorate Tartus Governorate, also transliterated as Tartous Governorate, ( ar, مُحافظة طرطوس / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ṭarṭūs'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in western Syria, bordering Latakia Governorate to t ...

, northwestern Syria, located to the southeast of Tartous and to the northwest of

Krak des Chevaliers Krak des Chevaliers, ar, قلعة الحصن, Qalʿat al-Ḥiṣn also called Hisn al-Akrad ( ar, حصن الأكراد, Ḥiṣn al-Akrād, rtl=yes, ) and formerly Crac de l'Ospital; Krak des Chevaliers or Crac des Chevaliers (), is a medieva ...

. It is situated on the tops of three hills and the valleys between them, 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 ...

. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Safita had a population of 20,301 in the 2004 census.

Geography

Safita is situated at the southeastern end of the

. It is southeast of the Mediterranean port city of

Tartus ) , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = Tartus corniche Port of Tartus • Tartus beach and boulevard Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa • Al-Assad Stadium& ...

and northwest of Homs. The average elevation of Safita is above sea level, while the Crusader fortress stands about .

History

Safita is located on a site where remains of the

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their his ...

n settlement were discovered. The archaeological remains at the site of Tell Kazel were identified as the Phoenician city of Sumur mentioned in the Amarna letters.

Crusader era

Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse ( 1041 – 28 February 1105), sometimes called Raymond of Saint-Gilles or Raymond I of Tripoli, was a powerful noble in southern France and one of the leaders of the First Crusade (1096–1099). He was the Count of ...

founded the

County of Tripoli The County of Tripoli (1102–1289) was the last of the Crusader states. It was founded in the Levant in the modern-day region of Tripoli, northern Lebanon and parts of western Syria which supported an indigenous population of Christians, Dru ...

. The

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ( la, Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar, or simply the Templars, was a Catholic military order, o ...

, to whom the lands of the region were given, built the fortress known today as the "

Chastel Blanc Chastel Blanc ( ar, برج صافيتا, Burj Safita or Safita Tower) is a medieval structure in Safita, western Syria. It was built by the Knights Templar during the Crusades upon prior fortifications. Located on the middle hill of Safita's three ...

". The fortress sits on a strategic observation point, and from there it maintains eye contact with the network of fortresses of the Templar Order,

Arwad Arwad, the classical Aradus ( ar, أرواد), is a town in Syria on an eponymous island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative center of the Arwad Subdistrict (''nahiyah''), of which it is the only locality.Chastel Rouge in the southwest and

in the southeast. 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 o ...

managed to capture Safita in 1271, bringing it under Muslim rule.

Ottoman era

Safita was the center of the principal

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

(subdistrict) of the southern Syrian Coastal Mountain Range during the Ottoman rule through the 16th and early 17th centuries, spanning about forty villages and, at times, including the subdistricts of Mi'ar, Qulay'a and Tartus within its jurisdiction.Winter 2016, p. 124. The

Sayfa dynasty Yusuf Sayfa Pasha ( ar, يوسف سيفا باشا, Yūsuf Sayfā Pāsha; – 22 July 1625) was a chieftain and ''multazim'' (tax farmer) in the Tripoli region who frequently served as the Ottoman ''beylerbey'' (provincial governor) of Tripol ...

, based in the hinterland of Tripoli, controlled the town until 1640, often using its fortress in their wars with the

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings o ...

Ma'an dynasty of

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at . Geography The Mount Le ...

. In 1621 Yusuf Sayfa dispatched a force against his nephew, and ally of the Ma'anid Fakhr ad-Din II, Sulayman, in Safita for not forwarding the subdistrict's tax revenue to Tripoli. After 1640, Safita is seldom mentioned in the historical chronicles of the middle Ottoman period. However, court records in Tripoli Sanjak, of which Safita was part, the earliest of which date to 1666 and 1667 indicate the

iltizam An Iltizām (Arabic التزام) was a form of tax farm that appeared in the 15th century in the Ottoman Empire. The system began under Mehmed the Conqueror and was abolished during the Tanzimat reforms in 1856. Iltizams were sold off by the gov ...

(tax farms) of the Safita nahiya were sold to the

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Is ...

brothers Muhammad and Zaydan, sons of Shamsin in 1667–1668. They were charged with collecting taxes on behalf of the government on fruit trees, agricultural lands, falcons, bees, silk, flour mills, buffalo, wave labor, festivals, weddings and wintering camps of Turkmen and Arab nomads. The Shamsin family emerged as the dominant local force of Safita until the late 17th century, but resumed the role in 1721.Winter 2016, p. 127.

Modern era

In 1943 its population of 3,500 largely consisted of

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also call ...

Christians. At the time, its houses were described as well-built and made of alternating black and white stones and clustered around the Crusader-era fortress. In 1960 Safita had a population of 4,300 Christians and 1,900 Alawites.

Landmarks

The Crusader fortress "

", a square tower built in 1202, is well preserved and rises to a height of 28 meters. It is 18 meters wide and 31 meters long. Among its walls, 3 meters high, is a chapel dedicated to

St. Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

and serving the

community of the city. The second floor of the building, which can be ascended in a stone staircase, was originally used as a dormitory and is illuminated by firing slits. Beneath the tower was a water cistern that was used by the inhabitants of the fortress.

Twin towns – sister cities

Marrickville, New South Wales Marrickville is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marrickville is located south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council local govern ...

, Australia (2005)

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Authority control Cities in Syria Populated places in Safita District Eastern Orthodox Christian communities in Syria Phoenician cities