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===Mamluk period=== [[File:Safed-83-n.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Red Mosque in Safed, 2001. It was originally built by the Mamluk sultan [[Baybars]] in 1275, and renovated or expanded by the Ottomans in 1671/72]] The Ayyubids of Egypt had been supplanted by the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluks]] in 1250 and the Mamluk sultan [[Baybars]] entered [[Syria (region)|Syria]] with his army in 1261. Thereafter, he led a series of campaigns over several years against Crusader strongholds across the Syrian coastal mountains.<ref>Holt 1995, p. 11.</ref> Safed, with its position overlooking the Jordan River and allowing the Crusaders early warnings of Muslim troop movements in the area, had been a consistent aggravation for the Muslim regional powers.<ref>Amitai-Preiss 1995, pp. 757–758.</ref> After a six-week siege,<ref name="Luz35">Luz 2014, p. 35.</ref> Baybars [[Siege of Safed (1266)|captured Safed]] in July 1266,<ref name="Drory163"/> after which he had nearly the entire garrison killed.<ref name="AmitaiPreiss758">Amitai-Preiss 1995, p. 758.</ref> The siege occurred during a Mamluk military campaign to subdue Crusader strongholds in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and followed a failed attempt to capture the Crusaders' coastal stronghold of Acre.<ref name="Drory163"/> Unlike the Crusader fortresses along the coastline, which were demolished upon their capture by the Mamluks, Baybars spared the fortress of Safed.<ref name="Drory165">Drory 2004, p. 165.</ref> He likely preserved it because of the strategic value stemming from its location on a high mountain and its isolation from other Crusader fortresses.<ref name="Drory165"/> Moreover, Baybars determined that in the event of a renewed Crusader invasion of the coastal region, a strongly fortified Safed could serve as an ideal headquarters to confront the Crusader threat.<ref>Drory 2004, pp. 166–167.</ref> In 1268, he had the fortress repaired, expanded and strengthened.<ref name="Drory165"/> He commissioned numerous building works in the town of Safed, including [[caravanserai]]s, [[bazaar|markets]] and baths, and converted the town's church into a mosque.<ref name="Drory166">Drory 2004, p. 166.</ref> The mosque, called Jami al-Ahmar (the Red Mosque), was completed in 1275.<ref>Petersen, p. 73.</ref> By the end of Baybars's reign, Safed had developed into a prosperous town and fortress.<ref name="Drory166"/> Baybars assigned fifty-four [[mamluk]]s, at the head of whom was Emir Ala al-Din Kandaghani, to oversee the management of Safed and its dependencies.<ref name="Barbé71-2">Barbé 2016, pp. 71–72.</ref> From the time of its capture, the city was made the administrative center of Mamlakat Safad,<ref name=Sharonxii>Sharon, 1997, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=j1rSzWgHMjoC&pg=PR12 xii]</ref> one of seven ''mamlakas'' (provinces), whose governors were typically appointed from [[Cairo]], which made up [[Bilad al-Sham|Mamluk Syria]].<ref>Rhode 1979, pp. 16–17.</ref> Initially, its jurisdiction corresponded roughly with the Crusader ''castellany''.<ref name="Barbé71-2"/> After the fall of the [[Montfort Castle]] to the Mamluks in 1271, the castle and its dependency, the [[Beit HaKerem Valley|Shaghur]] district, were incorporated into Mamlakat Safad.<ref>Barbé 2016, pp. 72.</ref> The territorial jurisdiction of the ''mamlaka'' eventually spanned the entire Galilee and the lands further south down to [[Jenin]].<ref name=Sharonxii/> [[File:Safed-73-n.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|The Mamluk mausoleum of Zawiyat Banat Hamid, originally built in 1372]] The geographer [[Shams al-Din al-Ansari al-Dimashqi|al-Dimashqi]], who died in Safed in 1327, wrote around 1300 that Baybars built a "round tower and called it Kullah ..." after leveling the old fortress. The tower was built in three stories, and provided with provisions, halls, and [[magazine (artillery)|magazine]]s. Under the structure, a [[cistern]] collected enough rainwater to regularly supply the garrison.<ref>Al-Dimashqi, p. 210, quoted in le Strange, p. 524</ref> The governor of Safed, Emir Baktamur al-Jukandar (the Polomaster; {{reign|1309|1311}}), built a mosque later called after him in the northeastern section of the city.<ref>Petersen, pp. 260–261.</ref> The geographer [[Abu'l Fida]] (1273–1331), the ruler of [[Hama]], described Safed as follows:<blockquote>[Safed] was a town of medium size. It has a very strongly built castle, which dominates the [[Lake of Tabariyyah]] [Sea of Galilee]. There are underground watercourses, which bring drinking-water up to the castle-gate...Its suburbs cover three hills... Since the place was conquered by Al Malik Adh Dhahir [Baybars] from the Franks [Crusaders], it has been made the central station for the troops who guard all the coast-towns of that district."<ref>Abu'l Fida, p. 243, quoted in le Strange, p. 525</ref></blockquote> The native ''[[qadi]]'' (Islamic head judge) of Safed, Shams al-Din al-Uthmani, composed a text about Safed called ''Ta'rikh Safad'' (the History of Safed) during the rule of its governor Emir Alamdar ({{reign|1372|1376}}).<ref>Luz 2014, pp. 178–180.</ref> The extant parts of the work consisted of ten folios largely devoted to Safed's distinguishing qualities, its dependent villages, agriculture, trade and geography, with no information about its history.<ref>Luz 2014, p. 178.</ref> His account reveals the city's dominant features were its citadel, the Red Mosque and its towering position over the surrounding landscape.<ref>Luz 2014, pp. 178–179.</ref> He noted Safed lacked "regular urban planning", ''[[madrasa]]s'' (schools of Islamic law), ''[[ribat]]s'' (hostels for military volunteers) and defensive walls, and that its houses were clustered in disarray and its streets were not distinguishable from its squares.<ref>Luz 2014, pp. 179–180.</ref> He attributed the city's shortcomings to the dearth of generous patrons.<ref name="Luz180">Luz 2014, p. 180.</ref> A device for transporting buckets of water called the ''satura'' existed in the city mainly to supply the soldiers of the citadel; surplus water was distributed to the city's residents.<ref>Luz 2014, p. 179.</ref> Al-Uthmani praised the natural beauty of Safed, its therapeutic air, and noted that its residents took strolls in the surrounding gorges and ravines.<ref name="Luz180"/> The [[Black Death]] brought about a decline in the population in Safed from 1348 onward.<ref name="AmitaiPreiss758"/> There is little available information about the city and its dependencies during the last century of Mamluk rule ({{circa|1418|1516}}), though travelers' accounts describe a general decline precipitated by famine, plagues, natural disasters and political instability.<ref>Rhode 1979, p. 17.</ref>
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