The citadel under the rule of the Hamdanids and the nomad dynasties of the Mirdasids and Uqaylids

[Picture source: © 2007 Rami Alafandi]

Aleppo only gained importance in world history[1] when the Hamdanid ruler Sayf ad-Dawla (†967) and his court were successful in their fight against Byzantium. His palace was located outside of the city on the banks of the river Quwaiq. In the winter of 962 troops of the emperor Nikephorus Phokas unexpectedly destroyed the palace and the city, which caused the population to once again flee to the citadel. In response, his son S’ad ad-Dawla moved his residence into the citadel. From this time until the onset of Mamluk rule, the citadel was the royal upper city. As the city grew to the north, south and especially toward the river in the east, it was protected by the citadel, traditionally situated on the western edge of the city.

Aleppo saw little prosperity for more than a century. Byzantine aggression and periodic raids from local Bedouin tribes hindered renovation work on the Citadel's defences. The city came to be ruled by the Mirdasid and later the Uqaylid, originally nomadic dynasties that also built palaces on the citadel. The oldest of 31 inscriptions[2] on the citadel stems from the Mirdasid ruler Mahmud ibn Nasr ibn Salih, dating from 1073, but cannot securely be attributed to a specific building. The inscription confirms a statement that was passed on though Ibn ash-Shihna (†1485), claiming that the Mirdasids erected their palaces on the citadel and converted two churches into mosques. In 1103, Crusaders took the Seljuq port city of Antioch (today Antakiya). This made Aleppo of interest to the Crusaders, due to its location between Antioch and Damascus on a trade route that led to Jerusalem. Several Crusader attempts to take Aleppo failed at the citadel, the elevation of which placed it beyond the range of Crusader weapons. The height caused problems for the defenders too: The distance from the citadel’s towers to the ground measured more than one hundred meters. While it’s said the Muslim archers could shoot three arrows in 1 ½ seconds, their maximum range was 70 meters,[3] posing little danger to the besiegers.