Jordan - Shaubak Castle (Montreal)

The site is situated to the south of Kerak, and about 25 km .north of Petra.The castle of Shaubak was built on a summit of a conical hill by Crusader king Baldwin the First in AD.1115 with the dual purpose of extending the area of Frankish settlement east of the Dead sea and of controlling the desert road , by which caravans moved between Syria in the north and the Red Sea and Egypt in the . The first crusader castle to occupy the site took only eighteen days to build and to commemorate the king’s personal involvement in its constructions .It was given the name “Mount Royal” Baldwin was implementing here a deliberate policy of settling Franks of all classes , knights, sergeants and paid villeins’ as the old French translation of William of Tyre puts it , in newly won territory . It is no surprise therefore to find Montreal at a later date processing its own court of burgesses. Besides Frankish settlers Shaubak in the Crusader period was also home to a significant population of indigenous Christians and possibly some Muslims. The pilgrim Thietmar found there in 1217a mixed population of Muslims and Christians , including a French widow .