Tell Sultan ( ar, تل سلطان; also spelled Tall as-Sultan) is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Ham ...

, located southeast of Idlib and 37 kilometers southwest of Aleppo. Nearby localities include

Abu al-Thuhur Abu al-Duhur ( ar, أَبُو الظُّهُور; ''ʾAbū aẓ-Ẓuhūr'', also spelled Abu al-Thuhur) is a town in northwestern Syria on the edge of the Syrian Desert, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate, located about 45 kilometer ...

to the southeast, Tell Mardikh to the southwest, Saraqib to the west and Tell Touqan to the northwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Tell Sultan had a population of 2,389 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Idlib Governorate.

History

''Tell as-Sultan'' translates as the "Sultan's Hill." It received this name after the sultan of the Seljuks encamped at the hill during his siege of Aleppo in 1070 CE.

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

and his

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin ...

army decisively defeated the

Zengid The Zengid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from Tripoli to ...

s army led by Ghazi II Saif ud-Din in a battle on the site of Tell Sultan in 1176. The town was visited in the early 13th century by Syrian geographer

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

who noted it was a "day's march from Halab (Aleppo) towards Damascus" and that it contained "a

caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes coverin ...

and a rest-house for travelers." Later, in 1232, the regent queen of Aleppo,

Dayfa Khatun Dayfa Khatun ( ar, ضيفة خاتون; died 1242) was Ayyubid princess, and the regent of Aleppo from 26 November 1236 to 1242, during the minority of her grandson An-Nasir Yusuf. She was an Ayyubid princess, as the daughter of Al-Adil, Sultan o ...

received Fatima Khatun, the daughter of Ayyubid sultan

al-Kamil Al-Kamil ( ar, الكامل) (full name: al-Malik al-Kamil Naser ad-Din Abu al-Ma'ali Muhammad) (c. 1177 – 6 March 1238) was a Muslim ruler and the fourth Ayyubid sultan of Egypt. During his tenure as sultan, the Ayyubids defeated the Fifth ...

, and Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad at a ceremony in Tell Sultan.Tabbaa, 1997, p. 45.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Idlib Governorate, idlib Populated places in Idlib District