Dan Snow explores Kerak Castle, the massive 750 year-old fortress of the crusader era. Built as the eastern stronghold of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, this is the powerful reality of the “Kingdom of Heaven”, expanding the control of the Frankish crusader states across the River Jordan and even challenging Muslim heartlands.

At the heart of the story are two great names of the 1180s: Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, commonly known as Saladin, the great unifier of the Islamic forces; and Reynald de Chatillon, a battle hardened Frankish warrior and constant thorn in the side of his enemies, Christian and Muslim.

It comes to a head in 1183 and ‘84 with two spectacular sieges of Kerak - the first even taking place during a royal wedding! We investigate the defences and the extraordinary events of betrayal, surprise and chivalry that surrounded them, and we ask if ultimately events around Kerak led to the fall of Jerusalem itself.

The film interviews two great experts: Micaela Sinibaldi of the University of Warsaw, an archaeologist surveying Kerak, and Jonathan Phillips of Royal Holloway, University of London, author of ‘The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin’.

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You can find out more about Micaela Sinibaldi’s fascinating work in Jordan here:

1. Sinibaldi, M. (2022). The Crusader Lordship of Transjordan (1100–1189): settlement forms, dynamics and significance. Levant, 54(1), 124–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2033016

Link to the Open Access publication:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00758914.2022.2033016#d1e215

2. Sinibaldi, M., (2019) Karak Castle in the Lordship of Transjordan: Observations on the Chronology of the Crusader-period Fortress, in P. Edbury, D. Pringle and B. Major,“Bridge of Civilisations.” The Near East and Europe c.1100-1300, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2020, 97-114.

Link to academia.edu page for this article:
https://www.academia.edu/41897945/Sinibaldi_M_Karak_Castle_in_the_Lordship_of_Transjordan_Observations_on_the_Chronology_of_the_Crusader_period_Fortress_proofs_