Mwfeq Al Haddad , Samer Abu Ghazaleh , Diala Atiyat, Salma Egho.
ABSTRACT
Castles have always been considered the preoccupation of most civilizations in history, especially in Jordan, which is characterized by being a bridge linking civilizations. The architectural systems used in the formations and the design of the spaces that make up these castles formed the most important structural features of walls, ceilings, openings, and building materials, which are still standing until today. This makes it an experiment worth studying to deepen understanding and provide an additional benefit in Jordan's cultural heritage field. Castles in Jordan vary according to the era of their construction and expansion, so they can be divided into Islamic castles and Crusader castles, which differ in their characteristics, methods of construction, purpose, and architectural features. For more accurate details and thus the ability to compare these two categories depending on the determinants of the purpose of the castle building, the location, and the method of construction, this paper adopts the descriptive analytical method in addition to the comparative method. Ajloun Castle, Shobak Castle, Karak Castle, and Aqaba Castle were selected as case studies. The paper reviews a set of previous studies that contributed to documenting these castles, but none of them went into detail and provided a clear architectural comparison between these two types of castles, and here comes the importance of the paper. The study concludes with a set of differences between the castles in addition to a set of similarities. Despite the difference between these castles in some functional spaces, as the Islamic castles contain a chapel and the Crusader castles contain churches, many similarities were observed, which include the use of local building materials and the need for wells and fortified walls. These results contribute to increasing an understanding of the nature of castles in Jordan. This, therefore, helps decision-makers and designers to conserve and preserve the castles in Jordan by determining the main features and characteristics of the Islamic and the Crusader castles based on the function and the nature of their uses.