Structural measures undertaken during Mamluk rule
[Picture source: © 1990 Jean-Claude David ] [Picture source: © 1990 Jean-Claude David ] Under the rule of the Mamluks, Aleppo lost its status as a capital of a sovereign state. Thus the citadel was no longer a royal residence but rather a functional building for military purposes (as it had been under the Hamdanids). For the most part, the efforts to fix the damage done by the Mongols were limited on the city that has become a trading center and growing in an eastern direction. It was now surrounded by new city walls. The citadel was no longer located on the edge of the city but rather in the midst of it. Renovations were made on the citadel as well, as proven by three building inscriptions (1292, 1290-93, 1384)[1].
The Central Asian military leader Timur (also called Tamerlan †1405) once again destroyed Aleppo in 1400. As a consequence of the destruction, three new constructions and renovations were planned around the beginning of the 15th century to upgrade the city’s defenses. Among the renovations was the reduction in size of the walls’ old rectangular towers: the foundations were adjusted to the smaller shaft of the tower by the chamfering of the edges. At the same time, the wall was supplemented by two-storey casemates (military warehouses) (Fig. 11 & 12) with barrel vaults in order to strengthen it throughout. In addition, in the south a tower (=southern tower) (Fig. 13) was built. An inscription from 1406 informs us that it was supposedly similar to the Ayyubid northern tower. But why was the southern tower renovated after only 100 years (its renovation inscription dated 1508)? Though the northern tower (13 m x 18 m) faced the main thrust of an attack with its broad side and the southern tower with its narrow side, both seem to be rather similar, with their three stories and several niches. The important difference is that the arrow slits of the southern tower (Fig. 14) are in the strong outer walls, which are built around a small inner courtyard, and that there is no platform that allows the positioning of trebuchets. Cannons replaced trebuchets at the time, as can be seen from the shape of the arrow slits – for proper exhaustion an open courtyard was necessary.
In his new workshop in Cairo, Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri (1500-1516) started to continuously cast cannons, needed to defeat Portuguese and Ottoman naval forces[2]. As he recognized the future of warfare, he started to strengthen the southern tower to equip it with cannons and arquebus (a predecessor of heavy rifles). The southern tower of the citadel is a significant early example of fortifications that used firearms.
Even the Ayyubid lower gate (Fig. 15) was renovated functionally and formally: Rectangular and hexagonal arrow slits and platforms for cannons were built and on the edge of the building even more chamfered as was done at the southern tower (Fig. 16).
An ambitious construction program was realized by the Mamluk governor Gakam ibn Iwad. (Fig. 17 & 18) He covered the entire throne room (26.5 m x 23.5 m) by putting 1 ½ storeys on top of the Ayyubid entrance hall. This results in a building with a well-proportioned façade that is rarely found anywhere else. Unfortunately, there were problems with the roof, which collapse several times and had to be rebuilt. The last reconstruction dates from 1974.
