Maṣyāf

Masyaf stands below a castle on a rocky spur in the mountains west of Hama. The fortress was the most important Syrian stronghold of the Nizari Ismailis, whose mountain castles formed a network of defended communities. From these bases their leaders negotiated and fought with neighbouring powers, including the Crusaders and the rulers of Syria. The castle's walls dominate the town and the routes between the Orontes valley and the coast.

Mamluk sultan Baybars brought the Syrian Nizari fortresses under his authority in the thirteenth century, and the Ismaili community continued under later Mamluk and Ottoman rule. In 1808 an attack on Masyaf killed its Ismaili emir and brought the castle into the hands of his opponents; the Ismailis subsequently recovered it with Ottoman assistance. During the 1830s Egyptian troops damaged the fortress while suppressing resistance to Ibrahim Pasha. Its battered walls preserved the memory of centuries of mountain politics.