History
The castle probably stood on the location of an earlier Roman site, the name of which has not yet been identified, although Caeciliana has been suggested. The oldest reference to Qal'at Najm in Arabic texts is Djisr Manbidj, while the current name came only into popular use in the 12th century CE. According to one text, Caliph Uthman had a bridge constructed over the Euphrates at Djisr Manbidj. Following the conquest of the region by the Umayyads, the castle was controlled by the Hamdanids and the Mirdasid dynasty, before passing into the hands of the nomadic tribe of the Banu Numayr. The castle served as a stronghold for the Banu Numayr, who also controlled Qal'at Ja'bar. Control then shifted to the Zengid dynasty under Nur ad-Din, ruler of Aleppo and the son of Zengi. Nur ad-Din had the castle restored. In 1202, Az-Zahir Ghazi, the Ayyubid governor of Aleppo from 1186 to 1216, attacked the Jezirah and conquered Manbij, Qal'at Najm and Qal'at Ja'bar, pushing on to Ra's al-'Ayn on the Khabur in northeast Syria. After this campaign, Az-Zahir refortified many of the places he had conquered, including Qal'at Najm. In 1820, an Arab warlord sought refuge in the castle, which was subsequently besieged and damaged by Ottoman forces.
Read more about this topic: Qal'at Najm
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)