a sudden enemy attack when there was no one to repel it. They called the Syrian frontier districts “al-ʿAwāsim” (the protective districts), namely Qinnasrīn and Aleppo.
“Colleges” were established for scholars, and “lodges and Sufi hospices” for those devoted to worship. I believe these began to spread under “Seljuk rule.” The construction of colleges and lodges for the poor, with endowments assigned to support their residents, first began during the vizierate of “Nizām al-Mulk.” Before that, colleges and lodges are indeed mentioned, but I do not think endowments had been assigned to maintain their residents; they were simply residences set aside for them.
Imam Maʿmar ibn Ziyād, one of al-Wāhidī’s associates, mentioned in “Accounts of the Sufis” that the first small lodge built for them was in Basra. As for “colleges,” I have seen references to them before Seljuk rule, during the fourth century, whereas their rule began only in the fifth century.
Likewise, most of these “citadels and fortresses” in Syria are of later construction, such as the citadels of Damascus, Bosra, and Harrān built by al-Malik al-ʿĀdil. This was because the Christians frequently raided their lands. After the third century, the people had become too weak to defend the coasts against the Christians, until the latter gained control over many of Syria’s coastal frontier strongholds.