Cave de Sueth (medieval French name; in modern French: Cave de SuètePringle (2006), p. 233), known from medieval Latin sources as Cava de Suet, as Habis Jaldak in medieval Arabic and as 'Ain al-Habis ( ar, عين الحبيس, Spring of the Hermit's retreat)Nicolle (1988), p. 113 in modern Arabic, was a 12th-century

cave castle A cave castle (german: Höhlenburg) or grotto castle (German: ''Grottenburg'') is a residential or refuge castle that has been built into a natural cave. It falls within the category of hill castles. Unlike other types (such as water castles), s ...

built into the southern cliffs of the

Yarmouk River The Yarmuk River ( ar, نهر اليرموك, translit=Nahr al-Yarmūk, ; Greek: Ἱερομύκης, ; la, Hieromyces or ''Heromicas''; sometimes spelled Yarmouk), is the largest tributary of the Jordan River. It runs in Jordan, Syria and Israel ...

gorge in modern-day

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, across from the southern foothills of the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

.Devais (2013) It was located at the edge of the Terre de Suète region (al-Sawad, "the black" in Arabic).

History

The fortress was established by 1109 among the ruins of a Byzantine monastic laura.Pringle (1997), p. 18 (Oct 2021: page not accessible on Google Books)

Hugh Kennedy Hugh Edward Kennedy (11 July 1879 – 1 December 1936) was an Irish Cumann na nGaedheal politician, barrister and judge who served as Chief Justice of Ireland from 1924 to 1936, a judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland, Supreme Court from 1924 t ...

accepts

Ibn al-Qalanisi Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamzah ibn al-Asad ibn al-Qalānisī ( ar, ابو يعلى حمزة ابن الاسد ابن القلانسي; c. 1071 – 18 March 1160) was an Arab politician and chronicler in 12th-century Damascus. Biography Abu Ya‘la ('father ...

's description of the destruction by

Toghtekin Toghtekin or Tughtekin (Modern tr, Tuğtekin; Arabicised epithet: ''Zahir ad-Din Tughtikin''; died February 12, 1128), also spelled Tughtegin, was a Turkic military leader, who was ''atabeg'' of Damascus from 1104 to 1128. He was the founder o ...

atabeg Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the title's use was wit ...

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

, of the Castle of al-Al in the western

in 1105, whose remains are yet to be identified, and presents the Crusader presence at the Cave de Sueth as the "more circumspect" position adopted after the loss of that advanced outpost. In 1109, a truce was declared between Baldwin I and Toghtekin, and the surrounding area, Terre de Suète, was supposed to be ruled as a

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

by Jerusalem and Damascus. Nevertheless, the castle was attacked by Toghtekin in 1111, killing its Frankish garrison, but was retaken by the Franks two years later. The Muslims captured the castle in 1118 only to lose it in the campaign of Baldwin II that resulted in capture of the entire Yarmouk valley. Nur ad-Din besieged Cave de Sueth in 1158, but retreated with the approach of Baldwin III.Baldwin & Setton (eds; 1969), pp. 522, 542 In 1182 the castle was captured by

Farrukh Shah Al-Malik al-Mansur Izz ad-Din Abu Sa'id Farrukhshah Dawud was the Ayyubid Emir of Baalbek between 1179 and 1182 and ''Na'ib'' (Viceroy) of Damascus. Biography Farrukh was the son of Saladin's brother Nur ad-Din Shahanshah and the older brother ...

, the nephew of

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 ...

, only to return to Frankish control later that year, where it remained until shortly before the conquests of Saladin in 1187.

References

Bibliography

* Also a
Wisconsin U. Library
* * * Kennedy, Hugh (2001). ''Crusader Castles''. Cambridge University Press, pp. 40, 52-53. * ** ** * Nicolle, David (1988)
"Ain al-Habis: The Cave de Sueth"
''Archéologie médiévale'' 18, pp. 113-140. Full article online at persee.fr, with plans, photos, and William of Tyre's description of the second siege of 1182. * Oct 2021: page not accessible on Google Books. * Runciman, Steven (1952). ''A History of the Crusades, Volume Two: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187''. Cambridge University Press, London, pp. 95-96. Oct 2021: no access via Google Books. * {{coord, 32, 43, 11, N, 35, 50, 14, E, display=title Castles and fortifications of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Archaeological sites in Jordan Principality of Galilee