Note 9 — Chapter IV · DOWN THE TIGRIS TO MOSUL
Reading edition
The old Arab name of the place was Ras ul Qawl, and it was in the 11th and 12th centuries under the government of Mardin. It was ceded in A.D. 1263 to one of the Kurdish tribe of Al-i-Ayub (the tribe of Saladin, famous in the Crusades), which was itself related to the great Hakkari tribe residing in these districts. The place has been in the hands of this family and its descendants ever since. Apparently the castle is of a much earlier date, though we are told that the Al-i-Ayub tribe rebuilt it.