Crusader Castle in the village of Tebnine
View from the Toron castle
, now
Tibnin or
Tebnine in
southern Lebanon, was a major
Crusader
castle, built in the
Lebanon mountains on the road from
Tyre to
Damascus.
It was the centre of the Lordship of Toron, a seigneury within the
Kingdom of Jerusalem, actually a
rear-vassalage of the
Principality of Galilee. The castle was built by
Hugh of Falkenberg, second prince of Galilee, in
1105 to help capture Tyre. After Hugh's death it was made an independent seigneury, given to
Humphrey I before
1109.
After
Humphrey I of Toron, the castle and
lordship of Toron successively passed to his descendants
Humphrey II and
Humphrey IV.
Banias, which had been given to
Baldwin II by the
Assassins in
1128, was inherited by Toron around
1148 when
Humphrey II married the daughter of Renier Brus, lord of Banias and Assebebe. Humphrey II sold parts of Banias and Chastel Neuf to the
Knights Hospitaller in
1157. Banias was merged with Toron until it fell to
Nur ad-Din on 18 November
1164, and when it was recovered it became part of the Seigneury of Joscelin III of Edessa (see below).
Humphrey IV was also prince of
Oultrejourdain. Toron remained in Crusader possession until
1187 when it fell to the forces of
Saladin after the
Battle of Hattin when Saladin all but destroyed the
Crusader states. Ten years later, in November,
1197, Toron was besieged by the German contingent of the
Third Crusade and would have fallen; but the Muslim garrison by the Tribesman of El-Seid and Fawza held out until relief arrived from
Egypt.
In
1219 Sultan
al-Mu'azzam secretly had the defenses of Toron as well as those of
Jerusalem and the castles of
Safed and
Banyas dismantled. This was done because the Sultan foresaw the necessity of exchanging them for the more crucial defenses at
Damietta on the
Nile Delta, which had been captured by the forces of the
Fifth Crusade who were now threatening
Cairo. Additionally, al-Mu'azzam was not prepared to give strong defendable cities to the Crusaders if he could avoid it. Although the exchange proved unnecessary, the geographical position of the sites remained important for the Crusaders who were interested in recovering Jerusalem from Muslim control.
Indeed, despite their destruction, Toron, Safed and Banyas were recovered through treaty in
1229, just two years after al-Mu'azzam's death on
November 11,
1227, by
Frederick II from Sultan
al-Kamil. As Toron was sold in 1220 to the
Teutonic Knights together with the territories called the
Seigneury de Joscelin, it came to a dispute between them and Alice of Armenia, the niece of Humphrey IV and heiress of the lordship of Toron. Alice successfully claimed her rights before the High Court and Frederick II assigned the lordship to her. In 1239, when the treaty ended, Toron fell back to the Ayyubids. Two years later, in 1241, it was restored to the Crusaders due to a treaty between Richard of Cornwall and Sultan as-Salih from Egypt.
In 1244, the castles held out against the Khwarezmian army and accomplished their objective of disrupting the Muslim attack on Jerusalem. Nonetheless, Jerusalem eventually fell to the overwhelming number of the Khwarezmian and the primary mission of the castles became obsolete. However, Toron tenuously remained in Crusader hands and was periodically under siege by the Mamluks until the
jihad of
Baibars further isolated it. Following a brief siege, Baibars in a rare display of mercy allowed the small crusader contingent to evacuate in exchange for surrender which they accepted.
The lords of Toron tended to be very influential in the kingdom; Humphrey II was constable of Jerusalem. Humphrey IV was married to
Isabella,
King Amalric I's daughter (Toron passed into the
royal domain during their marriage but its title was returned to Humphrey IV after their divorce). It was also one of the few to have a straight hereditary succession in the male line, at least for a few generations. The lords of Toron were also connected to the Lordship of Oultrejourdain by the marriage of Humphrey III and the maternal inheritance of Humphrey IV. Toron was later merged with the royal domain of Tyre, which went to a branch of Antioch, then their heirs from Montfort.
Lords of Toron
- *occupied by Muslims until 1229 and the title not used
- Alice of Armenia (1229– after 1236), granddaughter of Humphrey III
- *occupied by Muslims from 1239 until 1241
- John of Montfort (before 1257–1283), Lord of Tyre. It was lost again in 1266
Toron had two vassals of its own, the Lordship of Chastel Neuf and the Lordship of Maron. Chastel Neuf was built by Hugh of Falkenberg around
1105 but was later given to the Hospitallers, until it fell to Nur ad-Din in
1167. Maron was given in 1229 to the
Teutonic Knights in exchange for their claims on Toron.
The Castle
The castle of Toron occupies a steep hill, in fact a Bronze Age tell, north to the village of Tibnin, at a height of 725 m above sea level. It is oval in shape with its outline following the contours of the tell. It once had twelve rectangular towers with one of them - to the south - having been the donjon. The castle, razed in 1266 by the Mamluks was rebuilt 500 years later in the mid-18th century by a local Shiite sheik during his struggle against the Ottoman rule. He used the ruins of the medieval walls as a basis for his rebuilding campaign and thus the castle today mainly appears as an Ottoman construction.
Category:Crusader castlesCategory:Hill fortsCategory:Kingdom of JerusalemCategory:Archaeological sites in LebanonCategory:History of LebanonCategory:Articles lacking sources (Erik9bot)cs:Toron des Chevaliersde:Torones:Torónfr:Toron des chevaliersit:Toronnl:Toronru:Замок Торон
