Mamlakat Safad was one of six provinces in the Syrian region of the Mamluk Sultanate.
History
editThere is scarce information about the town of Safad prior to the Crusader conquest in 1099.[1] Under Crusader rule, Safad was a major fortress and a large town in the eastern Galilee.[1] During a Mamluk military campaign to subdue Crusader strongholds in Palestine in 1266, Sultan Baybars captured Safad in July, following a failed attempt to capture the Crusaders' coastal stronghold of Acre.[1] Unlike the coastal Crusader fortresses, which were demolished upon their capture by the Mamluks, Baybars spared Safad from destruction.[2] Instead, he appointed a wali (governor) to be in charge of the fortress.[2] Baybars likely preserved Safad because he viewed its fortress to be of high strategic value due to its location on a high mountain and its isolation from other Crusader fortresses.[2] Moreover, Baybars determined that in the event of a renewed Crusader invasion of the coastal region, a strongly fortified Safad could serve as an ideal headquarters to confront the threat.[3] In 1268, he had the fortress repaired, expanded and strengthened.[2] Furthermore, he commissioned numerous building works in the town of Safad, including caravanserai, markets, baths, and converted the town church into a mosque.[4] Thus, by the end of Baybars' reign, Safad had become transformed into a prospering town in addition to its fortress.[4]
The lands around Safad alsod serve as lucrative iqta'at (fiefs) for Baybars' mamluk officers.[5] Upon the Mamluk conquest of eastern Galilee, Baybars allocated its lands to 54 of his mamluks, including several of his emirs, led by Emir Alaa ad-Din Kundughday, who was likely headquartered in Safad.[5] The Mamluk rulers turned Safad into the administrative center of a niyaba (province) and later mamlaka by modeling its executive structure on that of its other Syrian niyaba, i.e. Damascus, Hama and Aleppo.[6] Between 1296 and 1347, there were 16 governors (nuwwab, sing. na'ib) of Safad, but the number of governors increases to over 100 during the time span between 1347 and the sultanate's demise in Syria in 1516, suggesting increasingly shorter terms in the province's executive office.[7] The longest-serving na'ib was Aruqtay al-Qipchaqi (ruled for 18 years during Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad's reign), who is also considered Safad's most eminent governor, similar to Tankiz of Damascus and Sanjar al-Jawli in Gaza.[8] The nuwwab of Safad held the military rank of muqaddam alf or emir of one thousand, the highest Mamluk military rank, which endowed them with command over the hundreds of mamluk mounted troops based in Safad's fortress.[8]