Tell Sultan

Tell Sultan is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate, located southeast of Idlib and 37 kilometers southwest of Aleppo. Nearby localities include Abu al-Thuhur to the southeast, Tell Mardikh to the southwest, Saraqib to the west and Tell Touqan to the northwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Tell Sultan had a population of 2,389 in the 2004 census.

History

Tell as-Sultan translates as the 'Sultan's Hill'. It received this name after Alp Arslan, the sultan of the Seljuk Empire, encamped at the hill during his Siege of [Aleppo (1070)|siege] of Aleppo in 1070 CE. Saladin and his Ayyubid army decisively defeated the Zengid army led by Ghazi II Saif ud-Din in a battle on the site of Tell Sultan in 1176.
The town was visited in the early 13th century by the geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi who noted it was a "day's march from Halab towards Damascus" and that it contained "a caravanserai and a rest-house for travelers". Later, in 1232, the regent queen of Aleppo, Dayfa Khatun received Fatima Khatun, the daughter of Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil, and Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad at a ceremony in Tell Sultan.