Editing Safed (section)

===Crusader era===
====Pre-Crusader village and tower====
There is scarce information about Safed before the [[Crusaders|Crusader]] conquest.<ref name="Drory163">Drory 2004, p. 163.</ref><ref>Luz 2014, p. 33.</ref> A document from the [[Cairo Geniza]], composed in 1034, mentions a transaction made in Tiberias in 1023 by a certain Jew, Musa ben Hiba ben Salmun with the ''[[nisba (onomastics)|nisba]]'' (Arabic descriptive suffix) "al-Safati" (of Safed),<ref name="Drory163"/> indicating the presence of a Jewish community living alongside Muslims in Safed in the 11th century.<ref name="Barbé 2016, p. 63">Barbé 2016, p. 63.</ref> According to the Muslim historian [[Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad|Ibn Shaddad]] (d. 1285), at the beginning of the 12th century, a "flourishing village" beneath a tower called Burj Yatim had existed at the site of Safed on the eve of the Crusaders' capture of the area in 1101–1102 and that "nothing" about the village was mentioned in "the early Islamic history books".<ref name="Ellenblum179n15">Ellenblum 2007, p. 179, note 15.</ref> Although Ibn Shaddad mistakenly attributes the tower's construction to the [[Knights Templar]], the modern historian [[Ronnie Ellenblum]] asserts that the tower was likely built during the early Muslim period (mid-7th–11th centuries).<ref name="Ellenblum179n15"/>

====First Crusader period====
The Frankish chronicler [[William of Tyre]] noted the presence of a ''[[burgus]]'' (tower) in Safed, which he called "Castrum Saphet" or "Sephet", in 1157.<ref name="Ellenblum179n16">Ellenblum 2007, p. 179, note 16.</ref> Safed was the seat of a ''[[castellan]]y'' (area governed by a castle) by at least 1165, when its ''castellan'' (appointed castle governor) was Fulk, constable of [[Tiberias]].<ref>Barbé 2016, p. 58.</ref> The castle of Safed was purchased from Fulk by King [[Amalric of Jerusalem]] in 1168.<ref name="Ellenblum179n16"/> He subsequently reinforced the castle and transferred it to the Templars in the same year.<ref name="Ellenblum179n16"/> [[Libellus de locis sanctis|Theoderich the Monk]], describing his visit to the area in 1172, noted that the expanded fortification of the castle of Safed was meant to check the raids of the Turks (the Turkic [[Zengid dynasty]] ruled the area east of the Kingdom).<ref>Ellenblum 2007, p. 179.</ref> Testifying to the considerable expansion of the castle, the chronicler [[Jacques de Vitry]] (d. 1240) wrote that it was practically built anew.<ref>Ellenblum 2007, p. 180.</ref> The remains of Fulk's castle can now be found under the citadel excavations, on a hill above the old city.<ref name="Sachar190">Howard M. Sachar,[https://books.google.com/books?id=2RowAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT190 ''Farewell Espana: The World of the Sephardim Remembered,''] Random House, 2013 p. 190.</ref>

In the estimation of modern historian Havré Barbé, the ''castellany'' of Safed comprised approximately {{convert|376|km2|mi2|sp=us}}.<ref name="Barbé 2016, p. 63"/> According to Barbé, its western boundary straddled the domains of Acre, including the fief of [[Deir al-Asad#Crusader era|St. George de la Beyne]], which included [[Sajur]] and [[Beit Jann]], and the fief of Geoffrey le Tor, which included [[Akbara]] and [[Hurfeish]], and in the southwest ran north of [[Maghar, Israel|Maghar]] and [[Sallama]].<ref>Barbé 2016, pp. 56, 59.</ref> Its northern boundary was marked by the [[Nahal Dishon]] (Wadi al-Hindaj) stream,<ref>Barbé 2016, p. 56.</ref> its southern boundary was likely formed near Wadi al-Amud, separating it from the fief of Tiberias,<ref>Barbé 2016, p. 59.</ref> while its eastern limits were the marshes of the [[Hula Valley]] and upper [[Jordan Valley]].<ref>Barbé 2016, p. 57.</ref> There were several Jewish communities in the ''castellany'' of Safed, as testified in the accounts of Jewish pilgrims and chroniclers between 1120 and 1293.<ref>Barbé 2016, pp. 63, 59.</ref> [[Benjamin of Tudela]], who visited the town in 1170, does not record any Jews living in Safed proper.<ref>Sachar 1994, p. 120.</ref>

====Ayyubid interregnum====
Safed was captured by the [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubids]] led by Sultan [[Saladin]] in 1188 after [[Siege of Safed (1188)|a month-long siege]], following the [[Battle of Hattin]] in 1187.<ref name="Sharon152">Sharon 2007, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1d8xHcor0psC&pg=PA152 152]</ref> Saladin ultimately allowed its residents to relocate to [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]].<ref name="Sharon152"/> He granted Safed and Tiberias as an ''[[iqta]]'' (akin to a fief) to Sa'd al-Din Mas'ud ibn Mubarak (d. 1211), the son of his niece, after which it was bequeathed to Sa'd al-Din's son Ahmad.<ref name="Drory164">Drory 2004, p. 164.</ref> [[Samuel ben Samson]], who visited the town in 1210, mentions the existence of a Jewish community of at least fifty there.<ref>Schechter, Solomon. ''Studies in Judaism: Second Series (Jewish Studies Classics 3)'', p. 206. Gorgias Press LLC, 2003. {{ISBN|1-59333-039-1}}</ref> He also noted that two Muslims guarded and maintained the cave tomb of a rabbi, Hanina ben Horqano, in Safed.<ref>Barbé 2016, p. 68.</ref> The ''iqta'' of Safed was taken from the family of Sa'd al-Din by the Ayyubid emir of [[Damascus]], [[al-Mu'azzam Isa]], in 1217.<ref name="Luz34">Luz 2014, p. 34.</ref> Two years later, during the Crusader [[siege of Damietta (1218–1219)|siege of Damietta]], al-Mu'azzam Isa had the Safed castle demolished to prevent its capture and reuse by potential future Crusaders.<ref name="Luz34"/>

====Second Crusader period====
{{multiple image
| image1   = Safedcitadel.jpg
| caption1 = Ruins of the [[Citadel of Safed]]
| width1   = 200
| image2   = Kulat Safed from the 1871-77 Palestine Exploration Fund Survey of Palestine.jpg
| caption2 = 1871–1877 [[PEF Survey of Palestine]] map
| width2   = 100
| footer   = The [[Crusades|Crusader]]-[[Mamluk Egypt|Mamluk]]-era fortress of Safed
}}

As an outcome of the treaty negotiations between the Crusader leader [[Theobald I of Navarre]] and the Ayyubid [[al-Salih Ismail, Emir of Damascus]], in 1240 Safed once again passed to Crusader control.<ref name="Luz34" /> Afterward, the Templars were tasked with rebuilding the [[Citadel of Safed]], with efforts spearheaded by [[Benedict of Alignan]], [[Bishop of Marseille]].<ref name="Luz34" /> The rebuilding is recorded in a short treatise, ''[[De constructione castri Saphet]]'', from the early 1260s.<ref>Pringle 1985, p. 139.</ref> The reconstruction was completed at the considerable expense of 40,000 [[bezant]]s in 1243.<ref name="Luz34" /><ref name="AmitaiPreiss757">Amitai-Preiss 1995, p. 757.</ref> The new fortress was larger than the original, with a capacity for 2,200 soldiers in time of war, and with a resident force of 1,700 in peacetime.<ref name="AmitaiPreiss757" /><ref>Luz 2014, pp. 34–35.</ref> The garrison's goods and services were provided by the town or large village growing rapidly beneath the fortress, which, according to Benoit's account, contained a market, "numerous inhabitants" and was protected by the fortress.<ref name="Luz35" /> The settlement also benefited from trade with travelers on the route between [[Acre, Israel|Acre]] and the Jordan Valley, which passed through Safed.<ref name="Luz34" />