Al-Qadmus

Al-Qadmus (Arabic: القدموس, also spelled al-Qadmous or Cadmus) is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located northeast of Tartus and 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) southeast of Baniyas. Nearby localities include Kaff al-Jaa and Masyaf to the east, Wadi al-'Uyun and al-Shaykh Badr to the south, Hammam Wasel, al-Qamsiyah and Maten al-Sahel to the southwest, Taanita to the west, al-Annazeh to the northwest and Deir Mama to the northeast. It is situated just east of the Mediterranean coast and its ruined castle stands on a plateau roughly 850 metres (2,790 feet) above sea level and just above the town.

According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Qadmus had a population of 5,551 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the al-Qadmus nahiyah ("sub-district") which contained 25 localities with a collective population of 22,370 in 2004. The inhabitants of the town of al-Qadmus are mostly Ismailis and Alawites, with each community constituting about 50% of the population. By contrast, the villages in the surrounding countryside are predominantly (though not exclusively) inhabited by Alawites alone.

Al-Qadmus is home to an important medieval castle that served as the headquarters of the Isma'ili community in Syria, known as the Assassins during the Crusader era. Today, the castle is largely in ruins and, along with some scattered Ottoman-era houses throughout the town, serves as a tourist site. Al-Qadmus also contains a large mosque with an octagonal minaret. The town is also a center for tobacco production in Syria.

The city is named after Cadmus, who was a Phoenician prince known for introducing the original Alphabet or Phoenician alphabet—Φοινίκων γράμματα Phoinikōn grammata, "Phoenician letters"— to the Greeks.

In Al Qadmus, the climate is warm and temperate. In winter there is much more rainfall in Al Qadmus than in summer. The Köppen-Geiger climate classification is Csa. The average annual temperature in Al Qadmus is 16.2 °C (61.2 °F). About 1,286 mm (50.63 in) of precipitation falls annually.

The fortress of al-Qadmus was captured by Bohemond I of Antioch in 1129. In 1130-1131 it was recaptured by local Muslim forces. The fortress was later sold to the Isma'ili (known then as the Assassins) sect in 1132 by the Muslim emir of al-Kahf, Sayf al-Mulk ibn Amrun. By 1167 the scholar Benjamin of Tudela wrote that al-Qadmus served as the principal seat of the Assassins. Although details are few, al-Qadmus changed hands between the Assassins and the Crusaders a few more times, before being firmly under the control of the former.

Al-Qadmus was captured and annexed to the Mamluk Sultanate by Baibars in 1273. It was still controlled by the Ismailis, albeit as loyal subjects to the sultanate, during the intermittent reign of Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad (1294-1340). When North African scholar Ibn Battuta visited al-Qadmus in 1355, during Mamluk rule, noting that it was part of the niyabah ("governorship") of Masyaf, a dependency of Tripoli. Later this governorship was detached from Tripoli and transferred to Damascus province when it was visited by al-Qalqashandi in 1412. Taxes on cotton cloth and silk were abolished in the district of al-Qadmus by various Mamluk sultans in the late 15th century.

In 1683, during the Ottoman period, Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi visited al-Qadmus and noted the emir of the fortress belonged to the Tanukhi clan, an Arab tribe that originally settled in the Batanea area of southern Syria during Byzantine rule and migrated northwards.