[6] Following the Crusader conquest of the coastal Levant in 1099, the Fatimid commander Iftikhar ad-Daula left his post in Jerusalem and moved to Abu Qubays of which he became lord,[7] along with the castles of al-Qadmus and al-Kahf.

[11] The Isma'ilis of Abu Qubays paid a yearly tribute to the Knights Hospitallers of Margat (Qal'at Marqab in Arabic),[1] a prominent Catholic military order, consisting of 800 gold pieces and a fixed number of bushels of barley and wheat.

[13][14] In 1176 Sabiq al-Din was allotted Abu Qubays and Shaizar by Saladin 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.

[18] Damascus-born Arab geographer al-Dimashqi noted in 1300, during Mamluk rule, that Abu Qubays was one of several fortresses held by the Ismailis and that it was part of the Province of Tripoli.

"[3] In 1785 Abu Qubays's inhabitants were unable to pay their land tax and as a result, sold one-third of their farmland to a Christian moneylender based in Hama, meeting the amount owed to the state treasury.

[4] The castle at Abu Qubays is currently in a ruinous state, but most of its remains strongly indicate the architectural features typical of Isma'ili fortresses, namely small-sized and irregular masonry.