Jalali castle

The Jalali castle is located in Kashan, Iran.

History
The walls around Kashan was built originally by Zobeyde Khatun, Harun al-Rashid's wife. She sponsored many developmental activities in the different cities of Islamic countries. Later in the Seljukid era, Malik-Shah I ordered to repair the walls and fortify two of its castles and besides he ordered to build the Jalali castle in the western part of the city. According to some of historical documents there was a moat around the castle in that time. The castle, tower and rampart around the city of Kashan protected the people of Kashan very well during the centuries. For example in 1138, Malek-Seljuk sieged Kashan for three months, but because of the strong fortification of Kashan, he couldn't capture the city and only destroyed some of the villages around the city. Later in 1198, Miajegh, the khwarazmid commander launched a military campaign to Kashan, but after four months ineffective siege of the city, he could only plunder the villages around the city, like Malek Seljuk. Every time during these sieges the tower and rampart around the city were damaged severely because of throwing stones and fire pots by the mangonels of invaders, but the destruction were 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 to destroy the castle, but because of unknown reasons the order was not executed and even on the contrary a few developmental measurements and repairments were done on the castle and it became stronger and more impermeable. According to the historical documents, the walls of the castle were 4 m thick and 6 m high in that time.

The consequence of impermeability 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 I, was killed by one of the Torkaman's men in Isfahan. After that Abbas I. put on the royal crown, he quelled immediately the rebellion and killed Torkaman and his men. After the obviation of the riot because of peace and stability in the era of Abbas I until the late Safavid age, the inner structures of the castle were destroyed gradually and only thick wall, towers and Yakhchals, which were built with mudbricks, were remained.

The gradual destruction of the castle was not the only historical misfortune of this defense structure. After the Afghans invading, they damaged the castle severely, but in the era of Nader Shah, it was partly repaired.

The horrible earthquake of 1778 in Kashan destroyed the towers and ramparts of Jalali castle even more, but by the order of Karim Khan the castle was repaired again by the governor of Kashan, Abdolrazzagh Khan and two gates were added to the five gates of the castel. The moat, which was digged again around the castle was the most important cause of Agha Mohammad Khan's failure for capturing the city.