Al-Rusafa ( ar, الرصافة ''Ruṣāfa'', also spelled ''Rassafah'', ''Rosafah'' or ''Resafi'') is a Syrian village located in the Masyaf Subdistrict in

Masyaf District Masyaf District ( ar, مصياف ') is a district ( mantiqah) administratively belonging to Hama Governorate, Syria. At the 2004 Census it had a population of 169,341. Its administrative centre is the city of Masyaf. Sub-districts The district of ...

, located west of Hama and about 10 kilometers southwest of

Masyaf Masyaf ( ar, مصياف ') is a city in northwestern Syria. It is the center of the Masyaf District in the Hama Governorate. As of 2004, Masyaf had a religiously diverse population of approximately 22,000 Ismailis, Alawites and Christians. The c ...

.Willey, 2005, p. 228. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Rusafa had a population of 1,608 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants are predominantly

Alawites 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 Isl ...

.Honigman, p. 791. It is the site of a former Ismaili fortress.

Fortress

At the northern edge of the village is the fortress of al-Rusafa, which is situated on a hill 60 meters higher than the village itself. The fortress is largely preserved, although it is mostly covered by trees and vegetation. In the medieval period, it acted as a subsidiary fortress for the main Ismaili fortress of

. At its largest extent, it measures roughly 75 meters by 30 meters and is oval-shaped. The fortress was constructed from stone from local quarries and it consists of three stories. The entrance in the northwestern section of the fortress is guarded by a tower. The outer walls are dominated by galleries and chambers, which presumably played the role of battlements. The lowest floor contains several storage rooms, a number of which were built 20 meters deep into the ground. The middle area of al-Rusafa is marked by the extensive presence of vaulted rooms. Although ruined, the central towers "are still high" according to Peter Willey, an authority on Ismaili castles.

History

Al-Rusafa was taken over by the

Nizari Ismaili The Nizaris ( ar, النزاريون, al-Nizāriyyūn, fa, نزاریان, Nezāriyān) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers. Nizari teachings emphasize independent ...

s around 1140 CE along with other fortresses in the vicinity, namely Masyaf,

Khawabi Khawabi ( ar, الخوابي), also spelled Qala'at al-Khawabi ( ar, قلعة الخوابي) is a village and medieval citadel in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located 20 kilometers northeast of Tartus and 1 ...

, al-Maniqa and Qulay'a. The fortress was rebuilt by the Ismaili '' da'i'' (chief)

Rashid ad-Din Sinan Rashid al-Din Sinan ( ar, رشيد الدين سنان ''Rashīd ad-Dīn Sinān''; 1131/1135 – 1193) also known as the Old Man of the Mountain ( ar, شيخ الجبل ''Shaykh al-Jabal'', la, Vetulus de Montanis), was a ''da'i'' (missionary) a ...

in the 1160s. It is possible that another fortress stood in its place prior to the Ismaili conquest. In May 1271, the Bahri Mamluk sultan Baibars besieged and captured al-Rusafa from the Ismailis. In the mid-1960s, al-Rusafa was a small village that contained an old ''khan'' ( caravanserai) in addition to its partially ruined fortress.Boulanger, 1966, p. 349.

Gallery

File:Al-Rusafa, Syria 01.jpg File:Al-Rusafa, Syria 02.jpg File:Al-Rusafa, Syria 03.jpg File:Fortress Al-Rusafa.jpg

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rusafa Populated places in Masyaf District Castles of the Nizari Ismaili state Alawite communities in Syria