Qalat (fortress)

[Note 1][dubious – discuss] Qalats can range from forts like Rumkale to the mud-brick compound common throughout southwest Asia.

It is even preserved in toponyms in places such as Sicily, which was occupied by the Aghlabid dynasty and then the Fatimids from the ninth to the twelfth centuries.

Wolf Leslau (1987), citing Siegmund Fraenkel [de] (1886) and Walter Belardi (1959), offers that the Arabic word has been adopted from the Iranian (Persian) kalata.

The Arabic word takes the forms qal'a(-t) and qil'a(-t), plural qilâ' and qulû' , meaning fortress, fortification, or castle.

A typical qala in Central Asia consisted of a tripartite city model: kuhandiz (citadel), shahristan (residential area), and rabad (faubourg, suburb; the regional variant for rabat).

Middle Eastern Islamic geographers use the word kuhandiz for the oldest part of the settlements in the town centers.

But the word kuhandiz can't be applied to solitary fortresses which were independent of towns, as it would cause conceptual confusion.

ج - حص)[clarification needed] was used to indicate fortresses which were located off towns, since Arabic terms did not have proper meaning to describe those structures, they borrowed the word kuhandiz during the Islamic conquest of Iran.

Before the Islamic conquest of Central Asia, castle-style settlements were common rather than large political and economic centers.

[citation needed] While the foundation of a qala compound may be stone or fired brick, the walls are typically dried mud.

By the time that the mason returns to the point of origin, the mortar is dry and the next row can be added on top of the old.

The definition of the term hisar is similar to that of castle, a fortified structure that acts as a residence, such as Rumelihisarı or Anadoluhisarı.