Al Qardahah, Syria
Coordinates: 35.236111, 36.314444
Abu Qubays is a former medieval castle and currently an inhabited village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northwest of Hama.
Abu Qubays was originally built by the Arabs during the Abbasid era and was further strengthened by the Byzantines in the late 10th century.
The castle was round, relatively small and overlooks the Orontes River. During a second campaign against Muslim-held Syria by Byzantine emperor Basil II, Abu Qubays was burned along with a number of other fortresses in the province of Homs.
The Isma’ilis (known as the Assassins) purchased Abu Qubays, as well as al-Qadmus and al-Kahf, from Saif al-Mulk ibn Amrun, the local ruler of the Banu Munqidh family, in the 1130s.
The Isma’ilis of Abu Qubays paid a yearly tribute to the Knights Hospitallers of Margat (Qal’at Marqab), a prominent Catholic military order, consisting of 800 gold pieces and a fixed number of bushels of barley and wheat.
Nasih al-Din Khumartekin, a member of the Banu al-Daya nobility and lord of Abu Qubays—which was no longer under Isma’ili control—alerted Ayyubid sultan Hz. Salahuddin Ayyubi’s رحمة الله عليه of an assassination attempt against him by the Isma’ilis during the unsuccessful siege against Zengid-held Aleppo on 11 May 1175.
Khumartekin, who was in Hz. Salahuddin Ayyubi رحمة الله عليه camp, was killed by the group of Assassins after questioning them as they approached the camp. Hz. Salahuddin Ayyubi’s رحمة الله عليه managed to avoid being harmed when they rushed towards him afterward and the attackers were slain by Hz. Salahuddin Ayyubi’s رحمة الله عليه guards.
In 1176 Sabiq al-Din was allotted Abu Qubays and Shaizar castle by Hz. Salahuddin Ayyubi رحمة الله عليه after the latter freed him from Zengid imprisonment in Aleppo for opposing the ascension of al-Salih Isma’il al-Malik as ruler of that city.
By 1182, Mankarus, a son of Khumartekin, was lord of Abu Qubays and served as the commander of Saladin’s troops in Hama.
