Qalat (fortress)

Qal'at as-Subeiba, Golan Heights
Qalʻat ar-Rabad (12th-13th century) in Jordan
These two qalats were built by the Ayyubids and expanded by the Mamluks to help in the fight against the Crusaders, to subdue local tribes, and to control rival emirs.

Qalat[citation needed] or kalata (قلعه) in Persian,[1] and qal'a(-t) or qil'a(-t) (قلعہ‎, قلعة) in Arabic, means 'fortress', 'fortification', 'castle',[2] or simply 'fortified place'.[3] The common English plural is "qalats".[Note 1][dubiousdiscuss]

Qalats can range from forts like Rumkale to the mud-brick compound common throughout southwest Asia. The term is used in the entire Muslim world to indicate a defensive fortress.[4] The term took various forms in different languages, such as qala/qal'a and qalat/qal'at (Persian and Arabic), kale (Turkish),[3] kaleh and kalleh (Persian), qila (Urdu and Hindi), and often became part of place-names. It is even preserved in toponyms in places such as Sicily, which was occupied by the Aghlabid dynasty and then the Fatimids from the ninth to the twelfth centuries.[5]

The word is used an various Arabic placenames.

  1. ^ For the derivation of the Arabic term from the Persian, see Leslau (1987) p. 426, citing Fraenkel (1886) p. 237 and Belardi (1959) pp. 147-150.
    • Leslau, Wolf (1987). Comparative dictionary of Geʻez (Classical Ethiopic): Geʻez-English, English-Geʻez, with an index of the Semitic roots. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, page 426, ISBN 978-3-447-02592-8
    • Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886). Die Aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (The Aramaic Loanwords in Arabic). Brill Publishers, page 237, OCLC 750560476, in German, reproduced from original in 1962 by Georg Olms Publ., Hildesheim, OCLC 476894716, and again in 1982, ISBN 978-3-487-00319-1
    • Belardi, Walter (1959). "Arabo قلعة qal‘a". AION Linguistica 1: pp. 147—150
  2. ^ Steingass, F. J. (1993) [1884]. The Student's Arabic-English Dictionary. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. p. 853. ISBN 978-81-206-0855-9. Retrieved 1 June 2021. Reprint of first edition.
  3. ^ a b "kale". Nişanyan Sözlük. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  4. ^ Belardi, Walter (1959)
  5. ^ Influsso arabo: L’elemento arabo è ben attestato, soprattutto in Sicilia, a testimonianza di un dominio, quello saraceno, che durò dall’inizio del IX fino alle soglie del XII secolo. Con il toponimo generico qal‘a (‘cittadella’, ‘fortezza’) abbiamo per esempio Calatafimi, Calatamauro (ovvero ‘la rocca del Moro’), Calatrasi (‘la rocca del tessitore’), Caltabellotta (‘la rocca delle querce’). (Arab influence: The Arab element is well attested, especially in Sicily, evidence of the Saracen rule beginning in the ninth and lasting until the beginning of the twelfth century. From the generic name Qal'a ('citadel', 'fortress') we have, for example: Calatafimi, Calatamauro (i.e. 'the stronghold of the Moor'), Calatrasi ('the fortress of the weaver'), Caltabellotta ('the fortress of the oak trees').) Bentsik, R. "Tracce" ("Traces") "Intercultural Dialogue European Radio Campaign" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine page 61, www.tatapume.org; see also Pellegrini, Giovan Battista (1974) "Attraverso la toponomastica urbana medievale in Italia" ("Through the medieval urban toponymy in Italy") pp. 401–499 In Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo (1974) Topografia urbana e vita cittadina nell'alto Medioevo in Occidente, 26 aprile-1 maggio 1973 (Conference publication) Presso la sede del Centro, Spoleto, Italy, volume 2, page 415, OCLC 1857092


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