Mseilha Fort

Mseilha Fort
Native name قلعة المسيلحة (Arabic)
The Mseilha fort dominates the Nahr El Jawz valley from atop its rocky spur, as seen here from the south
Location	Hamat, Caza of Batroun, Lebanon
Coordinates	34.273804°N 35.690072°E / 34.273804; 35.690072
Built	Present structure dates to the 17th century
Built for	Fakhr al-Din II
Governing body	Directorate General of Antiquities
Location of Mseilha Fort in Lebanon

The Mseilha Fort (Arabic: قلعة المسيلحة, romanized: Qal'at al-Msaylḥa) is a fortification situated north of the city of Batroun in Lebanon. The current fort was built by Emir Fakhreddine II in the 17th century to guard the route from Tripoli to Beirut. The fort is built on a long, narrow limestone rock near the Nahr el-Jaouz River. Its walls are constructed with small sandstone blocks quarried from the nearby coast and built onto the edge of the limestone rock. The thickness of the walls ranges from 1.5 to 2 meters (4 to 6.5 feet). The larger limestone blocks are the only remains of an earlier structure probably built for the same defensive reason.

Location

The fort stands on the right bank of Al-Jaouz river, south of Ras ash-Shaq'a promontory, It is located within the municipal area of Hamat, 2.5 kilometers northeast of Batroun.

Names and Etymology

Mseilha, derives from the Arabic word for "fortified place," being a diminutive form of musallaha (Arabic: مسلحة), meaning "fortified". An alternative romanization is: Qal'at al Mouseiliha, and Museiliha.

Architecture and description

The Mseilha fort is 15 m (49 ft) high, built on a narrow limestone rock. Its walls range from 1.5 to 2 m (4.9 to 6.6 ft) in thickness, and were built with medium-sized sandstone blocks, although some larger limestone blocks are also present, likely repurposed from older structures. The fort was built in two phases, resulting in two adjoining sections that form a cohesive architectural unit. It is approached through a narrow path and small stairway cut into the northern side of the bedrock. A small platform precedes the low arched main gate.

The main gate leads to a vaulted vestibule, followed by a narrow triangular courtyard, giving access to a small one meter (3 feet) wide passageway leading to the archery room of the west tower. At the southern side of the courtyard, two vaulted bays are constructed within a separate architectural block over large underground arched halls used as warehouses and cisterns.

The more elevated part of the fort is accessed through the east side of the main courtyard. A doorway leading to a hall, followed by three vaulted rooms, gives access to the eastern tower. An internal stairway leads to the room on the first floor. This section is the most fortified and equipped part of the castle due to its strategic position controlling the entrance of the Nahr el-Jaouz valley.

History

Mseilha Fort and medieval bridge.

Historical strategic importance

Following the promontory of Ras ash-Shaq'a collapse in the aftermath of the 551 CE earthquake, the coastal road linking the cities of Batroun, El-Heri and Tripoli completely disappeared, transforming the northern shoreline into a high sea cliff. Consequently, a new road bypassing the promontory from the east was necessary to ensure communication between Batroun and the North. Crossing the Nahr el-Jaouz valley, this road turns around Ras ash-Shaq'a promontory to reach the other side at a spot near El-Heri called Bab el-Hawa (meaning the "door of the wind"). During the Crusades, the prominent land mass of Ras ash-Shaq'a held significant strategic value in the defense of the County of Tripoli. It guarded one of the region's most perilous road segments and overlooked the Bay of Heri, a coastal area well-suited for maritime landings. Due to its strategic importance, Ras ash-Shaq'a was designated as a separate lordship, distinct from the nearby fiefs of Nephin to the north and Boutron to the south. This territory was granted as a fief to the Constable of Tripoli, and there was likely a direct connection between holding the fortification of the Puy and the office of constable.

Twelfth century historian of the First Crusade, Albert of Aix described the strategic position of the defensive fortification that then existed atop the Ras ash-Shaq'a to guard a narrow pass:

This mountain, detached from the more distant mountain chain, extends over a vast area of land all the way to the sea. A tower that dominates and controls the route through one of its gates rises at the summit of this mountain. This small structure can hold no more than six men, but these few would be enough to defend the pass against all who live under the sky.

The location of this structure, is still uncertain. During the two centuries of Frankish occupation that followed, the Crusader Counts of Tripoli fortified Ras ash-Shaq'a, referring to the estate as "Puy du Connétable" (Hill of the Constable), "Puy Guillaume:, and the mountain pass as "Passe Saint-Guillaume", all of which, according to Goepp likely also refer to the Mseilha fort. In a 1109 document, Bertrand, Count of Saint-Gilles, gifted the Church of St. Lawrence of Genoa full control over the Castle of the Constabulary (Latin: Castrum Constabularii) Gibellum, and one-third of Tripoli's territory. This lordship would be maintained until 1278, with the lords of Le Puy appearing as constables of the County up to that date. The agreement read:

1109, June 26, indiction II. — Bertrand, Count of Saint-Gilles, in the presence of Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, grants to the Church of St. Lawrence of Genoa, through the hands of William Embriaco, Oberto Ussumaris, Ingo Pedegola, Ansald Caput de Burgo, the entirety of Gibellum with its appurtenances, the Castle of the Constabulary, and also a third part of Tripoli from one sea up to another, as defined by the king's standard. Furthermore, it is promised to protect the islands of the city itself and the port, as well as their commerce and freedoms.

Around 1276, the vicinity of the Puy du Connétable was the site of a battle during the conflict between Guy II Embriaco of Gibelet and the Knights Templar against Bohemond VII, Count of Tripoli.

The exact location of the Puy remains uncertain, historians like Emmanuel-Guillaume Rey (1837-1916), and Henri Lammens (1862–1937), suggest that the Puy du Connétable likely referred to the estate located north of the promontory in al-Heri (Obreh in Rey), or to a previous structure at the location of the Mseilha Fort respectively.

Early historical mentions and construction

A lateral view of the Mseilha fort, Lebanon

French traveler Jean de La Roque (1661–1743) passed near the Mseilha Fort in late 1689 on his route from Tripoli to Batroun. He recorded a local account attributing the fort's construction to Emir Fakhr al-Din II, the Druze former ruler of Lebanon. Nineteenth century Lebanese scholar Father Mansur Tannus al-Hattuni (1823–1910), recounting events of 1624, noted that Emir Fakhr al-Din II "ordered Sheikh Abu Nadir al-Khazin to construct the Mseilha Fort north of Batroun". Tannus al-Shidyaq (1794–1861), his source mentions that the fort was built by Fakhr al-Din II and added in his account of 1631—six years after the fort's construction—that Abu Nadir al-Khazin conducted restoration work on the fort. The year 1624 is accepted as the date of the fort's construction, this date is further corroborated by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784–1817), a Swiss traveler who visited the area in the early 19th century and confirmed that Mseilha Fort was of relatively recent origin. English traveler and clergyman Henry Maundrell (1665–1701), writing in 1697, referred to Mseilha Fort as 'Temseida,' likely a corruption of the local name due to Maundrell's limited familiarity with the language. He described it as a small fort perched upon a steep, perpendicular rock, with walls conforming to the rock's natural shape, commanding the passage into a narrow valley.

The Mseilha Fort floor plan

Connection to the Puy du Connétable

A number of scholars have studied the history and architecture of Mseilha. Some assume that the rock on which the fort stands was used since ancient times as a military position. However, the fort does not include in its current construction any element related to an earlier period, even the Crusades. The construction techniques, cutting methods, stone block sizes, and low arched doors and windows, among other elements, suggest that the current structure was built in the 17th century at the earliest. Nineteenth-century French historian Ernest Renan could not relate the architectural elements in Mseilha to anything earlier than the Middle Age. Paul Deschamps, a 20th-century historian of Crusader architecture, confirmed the lack of any Crusader-era features in the current fort but did not rule out the possibility that it replaced earlier Crusader constructions, as surviving Frankish literature indicates the Crusaders had fortified the strategic pass between Ras ash-Shaq'a and the foothills of Mount Lebanon. Deschamps further posits, that the tower described by Albert of Aix (5) during the march of the First Crusade in 1099 was located on the Mseilha rock, a theory echoed by French historians René Grousset and Jean Richard.

Modern scholars Davie and Salame-Sarkis don't conflate the Puy du Connétable with the Mseilha fort. According to them, the entire promontory of Ras ash-Shaq'a was known from 1109 to 1282 in Crusader-era texts as Puy du Connétable. The estate was defended by a fortification known as Castrum Constabularii. This fortification, mentioned in a document from 1109, likely replaced an earlier tower described by Albert of Aix. It may have been situated at the summit of Jabal an-Nuriyya, positioned to monitor both the mountain pass and the Bay of Heri.

21st century

In 2007, restoration works were undertaken to make the site safe for visitors. Funded by USAID, these works are a continuation of a project conducted by SRI International-INMA to rehabilitate the fort, in cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Culture - Directorate General of Antiquities.

The Mseilha inscription

A Roman inscriptions, said to have been discovered in the Mseilha Fort by townspeople of Abrin who brought it back to their town, was described by German classical scholar Theodor Mommsen in 1873.

Latin Inscription	Translation
FINES·POSITI·INTER CAESARENS·AD LIBANVM·ET·GIGARTE NOS·DE·VICO·SIDONIOR IVSSV ⬛⬛⬛ PRO ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ PER·DOM⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛	Boundaries placed between Caesarea-ad- Libanum and Gigarta, we, the people of the Sidonian quarter, by order of the (governor/legate) through the lord (emperor?)...

According to Renan, the inscription discusses the boundaries between Caesareae-ad-Libanum (modern Arqa) and Gigarta, assumed by Renan to refer to modern-day Gharzouz, and which is approximately 45 kilometers away. This spatial arrangement suggests that the territories of Caesarea and Gigarta could not have been contiguous. Mommsen proposed that the inscription likely refers to enclaves situated outside the primary territory of the Caesarea-ad-Libanum, which bordered lands belonging to the Gigartenians. Starting from the fifth line, personal names appear to have been carefully chiseled out, erasing the identity of the magistrate to whom the inscription referred.

References

Sources

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