The title “Citadels Between East and West” was chosen not only to highlight the architecture of the three grand Syrian castles which constitute the main subject of this book, but also because it hints at the various currents of cultural history that fluctuated through the Near East and out of which these buildings have emerged. Acknowledging the complexity of the matter, the three citadels are presented from several points of view, including historical background, cultural implications, site conditions, architectural evolution and rehabilitation measures. Casting the net as wide meant engaging in a multicultural discourse, particularly since the three sites stand at the geographic centre of the Islamic world and have been built (or occupied) at the peak, as it were, of the medieval history of Islam and Christian Europe. Hence it was unavoidable to raise issues related to other cultural regions – within and outside the Islamic domain – and to focus on both earlier historical precedents and later architectural offshoots.

The reader of this book will therefore find himself immersed in a widespread fabric of cultural development trends reaching out in space and time. He will realise that Syria is a nodal point where various threads of Islamic cultural history come together; he will also discover that the period of hostile clashes between East and West that is conventionally identified with these citadels was also a period of most fertile cultural encounters – and, moreover, that cultural interchange was a recurrent leitmotif in the long history of the Bilad al-Sham, as the greater Syrian region was traditionally called in Arabic.

This book includes a series of essays on the historical origins and evolution of three citadels in Syria: Aleppo, Masyaf, and Salah al-Din. Conservation efforts at the three sites, undertaken under the auspices of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, are also documented. The book includes the following chapters and authors:

Stefano Bianca

Introduction: A Millenary Tradition Of Cultural Interaction Around The Mediterranean

Marianne Barrucand

Medieval Syria: At The Crossroads Of Cultural Exchange

And Architectural Development

Farhad Daftary and Azim Nanji

The Ismailis And Their Role In The History Of Medieval Syria And The Near East

Jean-Claude David

Ayyubid Palace Architecture In Syria

Heinz Gaube

A History Of The City Of Aleppo

Julia Gonnella

Introduction To The Citadel Of Aleppo

Thierry Grandin

Introduction To The Citadel Of Salah Al-Din

Haytham Hasan

Introduction To The Citadel Of Masyaf

Leo Schubert and Cristophe Bouleau

Recording A Unique Built Heritage

Stephen Battle and Tony Steel

The Conservation Works On The Three Citadels

Knut Lohrer and Anette Gangler

Implementing New Visitor Facilities At Aleppo Citadel

Adli Qudsi

Changing Paradigms In Urban Conservation In Syria

Anette Gangler and Jörg Esefeld

Designing Public Open Spaces Around Aleppo Citadel