Al Karak has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age, and was an important city for the Moabites (who called it Qir of Moab). In the Bible it is called Qer Harreseth, and is identified as having been subject to the Assyrian empire; in the Books of Kings (16:9) and Book of Amos (1:5, 9:7), it is mentioned as the place where the Syrians went before they settled in the regions north of Palestine, and to whichTiglath-Pileser III sent the prisoners after the conquest of Damascus. In 1958 the remains of an inscription was found in wadi al Karak that has been dated to the late ninth century BC. The area eventually fell under the power of the Nabateans. The Romans (with support from the Ghassanids or Ghassasinah) conquered it from them in 105 AD. The Al-Ghassasneh (Ghassanids) tribe is believed to be the first tribe to inhabit the site of modern al-Karak. The tribe consists of the families: Suheimat, Dmour, Mbaydeen, Adaileh, Soub, Karakiyeen. During the late Hellenistic Period, Al Karak became an important town taking its name from theAramaic word for town, Kharkha. Under Roman rule the city was known asAreopolis, and in Late Antiquity as Harreketh. Under the Byzantine Empire it was a bishopric seat, housing the much venerated Church of Nazareth, and remained predominantly Christian under Arab rule.
The Crusaders and Mamlukes
In 1132 King Fulk, the Crusader king of Jerusalem, made Pagan the Butler Lord of Montreal and Oultrejourdain, the lands east of the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. Pagan made his headquarters at al-Karak were he built a castle on a hill called by the crusaders Petra Deserti - The Stone of the Desert. His castle, much modified, dominates the town to this day.
The castle was only in Crusader hands for 46 years. It had been threatened bySaladin's armies several times but finally, surrendered in 1188, after a siege that lasted more than a year. Saladin's younger brother, Al-Adil was governor of the district until becoming
