The Umayyad desert castles, of which the desert castles of Jordan represent a prominent part, are fortified palaces or castles in what was the then Umayyad province of Bilad al-Sham. Most Umayyad "desert castles" are scattered over the semi-arid regions of north-eastern Jordan, with several more in Syria, Israel and the West Bank (Palestine).
Name
What is known in English as a "desert castle" is known in Arabic as qaṣr (singular), quṣur being the plural. However, qasr is a widely-used Arabic word for palace, castle or fortress, so only a few of the buildings called quṣur are "desert castles".
Brief description
The Umayyads erected a number of characteristic palaces, some in the cities, but mostly in the semi-arid regions, and some along important trading routes. The castles were built roughly between 660 and 750 under the Umayyad Caliphate, which had made Damascus, now in Syria, their new capital in 661. After the Abbasid Revolution of 750, the capital moved to the newly-built Baghdad and some of the buildings were never completed.
The typical desert castle is more than a single residence; rather it is a compound of various building including a substantial main residence along with other buildings such as a hammam (bath-house), storage areas and other agrarian structures and possibly a mosque, all within a large enclosure. Desert castles are typically situated near a wadi or seasonal water course.
The inner part of the main residence typically consists of two-storeys, arranged around a central courtyard. The main residence is often richly ornamented with mosaics, frescoes and stucco reliefs.
Archaeologists have investigated the role of these desert castles, with the traditional view that they served as country estates or hunting lodges for the use of aristocratic families during the winter season. However, recent scholarship has suggested a much greater diversity of roles, including as agricultural estates or military forts. The complex at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (Syria), for example, sits within a vast agricultural estate and the buildings include structures associated with the production of olive oil.
Layout and decoration
With a few exceptions, the desert castles conform to a common template consisting of a square structure similar to Roman forts ("castra") as their main building, typically boasting an elaborate entrance. Other buildings in the complex would include a hammam (bath house), a mosque, and often an agricultural enclosure (walled areas for animals, dedicated buildings for processing produce such as olive oil), and a water reservoir or dam. The interior rooms of the main structure were ornately decorated with floor-mosaics, and wall paintings featuring designs that exhibit both eastern and western influences.
Some of the desert castles, for example Qasr Hallabat or Qasr Burqu', are rebuilt from remains of earlier Roman or Ghassanid structures; others are new constructions.
Purpose
The function and use of the buildings are today not entirely clear, and scholarship has suggested that they might have served a variety of defensive, agricultural, residential, recreational and commercial purposes. The earliest researchers, such as Musil and Lammens, suggested that desert castles were primarily used for recreational purposes: to escape bad air associated with city living to escape epidemic outbreaks; to indulge hedonic pleasures or for use as hunting lodges.<ref>Genequand. D., “Ummayid Castles: The Shift from Late Antique Military Architecture to Early Islamic Palatial Building” in: Hugh N.Kennedy (ed),Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria: From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Period, Brill, 2006, pp 3 -13; The Articulation of Early Islamic State Structures, Routledge, 2012; Genequant, D., “Desert castles, Umayyad,” in: The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Wiley, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah12066.pub2; The Lineaments of Islam: Studies in Honor of Fred McGraw Donner, BRILL, 2012, p. 430</ref> Yet other scholars, investigating the geographic distribution of desert castles have noted that they are principally situated along the silk road or pilgrimage routes and may have operated as a type of caravanserai.