It is considered one of the greatest forts in the Middle East and the best Arab building that shows Islamic architecture. The fort belongs to the Karbala governorate and is located in the district of Ain Tamr, which is 15 km from Baghdad and 50 km southwest of the city of Karbala. Its ancient location was at the crossroads of trade routes and caravans passing between the cities of Kufa, Basra, Mosul, Damascus and the Levant. Al-Ukhaydir fort is considered as the mysterious secret that historians’ studies were unable to determine the date and reason for its construction and the origin of its name, as most of the sayings in this regard do not go beyond the limits of assumptions.
It is said that Al-Ukhaydir fort is called so due to the greenness of its location in the spring and rain, while the famous Iraqi researcher, Mr. Mahmoud Shukri Al-Alusi, said that the name of Al-Ukhaidir was named after (Al-Ukaider), one of the princes of the (Kinda) tribe who converted to Islam in the early days of Islam.
As for the date of its construction, there are two versions: –
The first version assumes that it dates back to the pre-Islamic era. The orientalist Masnion said that it is Al-Sadir Palace, where the Baladri historian confirmed in his book (Futuh Al-Buldan) that this palace existed before the Islamic conquests, and it was called the Palace of King Sabur, and this is evidence that the palace existed before Islam. Note that the Islamic conquest reached this place in the year 15 AH, led by Khaled Ibn Al-Walid, who conquered the area with the famous Battle of Ain Al-Tamr.
While the second version assumes that it dates back to the Islamic era, and they differed in determining the time period to which the palace belongs, where Al-Muhannadi (Crizole) believes that it was built by one of the princes of Banu Abbas: Issa bin Musa, who was the governor of Kufa during the reign of his uncle Al-Mansur, but when the caliphate passed to Al-Mansur, but Issa gave up the caliphate in the face of pressure, so he left the cities and went to live in the desert, where Al-Ukhaydir Palace was built.
As for the researcher (Mussell Bell), she was the first to notice the presence of the mosque in the palace in 1909 AD and believed that it was (Dumat Al-Hira), which was built in the time of the Umayyads, and the last and correct assumption is the one that Crisol went to.
Before entering this majestic edifice, you see a fortified wall surrounding the palace similar to military castles. It is a rectangle measuring 169 * 175 meters and it contains 4 doors placed on the four directions, called the corner towers, each with a diameter of 5 meters, in addition to 44 towers surrounding the outer wall.
The fort is where the Syrian series Al-Mutanabbi were set, produced by Abu Dhabi TV, and the role of Al-Mutanabbi was played by the great Syrian actor Salloum Haddad and the role Al-Mutanabbi when he was young was played by the Iraqi actor Ghalib Jawad.
