al-Karak (Kerak)

Al-Karak (Kerak), in west-central Jordan, is a hill-town dominated by a great Crusader castle that was later an important Ayyubid and Mamluk stronghold east of the Dead Sea. The physician Ibn al-Quff (d. 1286), a Christian-born convert and author of a notable surgical manual and commentary on Ibn Sina, was born in al-Karak.