Jalali Castle

The Jalali Castle (Persian: قلعه جلالی) is located in Kashan, Iran.

The walls around Kashan were built originally by Zobeyde Khatun, Harun al-Rashid's wife. She sponsored many developmental activities in the different cities of Islamic countries. In the early Seljuk era, Malik-Shah I ordered the repair of the walls and the strengthening of two of its castles and that the Jalali castle be built in the western part of the city. According to some historical documents there was a moat around the castle in that time.

The castle, tower and ramparts around the city of Kashan have protected its people very well down the centuries. For example, in 1138, Malek-Seljuk sieged Kashan for three months, but because of the strong fortification of Kashan, he could not capture the city and only destroyed some of the neighbouring villages. In 1198, Miajegh, the khwarazmid commander launched a military campaign against Kashan, but after four months ineffective siege of the city, he could only plunder the nearby villages, as Malek Seljuk had done. During these sieges the tower and ramparts were damaged severely because of stones and fire pots thrown by the mangonels of the invaders, but the destruction was repaired each time.

In the early Safavid era, the castle was used by outlaws and bandits as their cover and base. Therefore, Ismail I ordered the destruction of the castle, but for unknown reasons the order was not executed, instead a few developmental measures were taken and repairs to the castle were carried out making it stronger and more impregnable. According to the historical documents, the walls of the castle were 4 m thick and 6 m high at that time.

The consequence of the impregnability of the walls was the riot of Mohammad Khan Torkaman in the Safavid era, who misused the weakness of then-government in the time of Mohammad Khodabanda and rebelled and used this strong shelter as his base. Under the cover of the castle, Mohammad Khan Torkaman was a nightmare for the defenseless people of Kashan and the villages around it for 12 years. Torkaman's wickedness even reached the Safavid house and Khayr al-Nisa Begum, the mother of Abbas the Great, was killed by one of the Torkaman's men in Isfahan. When Abbas I ascended the throne, he immediately suppressed the rebellion and killed Torkaman and his men.

Text adapted from “Jalali Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Jalali Castle ranks #4,941 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #49 of the 170 mapped in Iran. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Iran compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗