Barbican

Europe

Medieval Europeans typically built barbicans outside, or at the edge of, a main line of defenses, and connected them to defensive walls with a walled road called the neck. "II.5.c. † Fortification. The narrow part of a bastion or embrasure. Obsolete." Barbicans would thus control the entrance to a city or castle at the "choke point". In the 15th century, as siege tactics and artillery developed, barbicans began to lose their significance, but new barbicans were built well into the 16th century. Fortified or mock-fortified gatehouses remained a feature of ambitious French and English residences well into the 17th century. Portuguese medieval fortification nomenclature uses the term "barbican" ("barbacã") for any wall outside of and lower than the main defensive wall that forms a second barrier. The barrier may be complete, extensive or only protect particularly weak areas. The more restrictive term gate barbican refers to structures protecting gates.

Arab world

The origin of the English word barbican is thought to be found in either Persian or Arabic (see here or here).

Paul Deschamps (1888–1974) interpreted the Arabic word 'bashura[h]' as used in 13th-century chronicles to mean barbican, a defensive structure placed ahead of a gate but this has been debunked, 'bashura' denoting rather an entire section of the outer fortifications, which may include a barbican but also a bastion, gate, tower or all of these.

South Asia

Barbicans were also used in South Asian fortifications where some of their purposes were to protect the main gate from being rammed by war elephants.

East Asia

Fortifications in East Asia also feature similar high structures. In particular, gates in Chinese city walls were often defended by an additional "archery tower" in front of the main gatehouse, with the two towers connected by walls extending out from the main fortification. Literally called "jar walls", they are often referred to as "barbicans" in English.

References

References

1. "Castle Barbican". medievalchronicles.
2. "Castle Architecture - Gateways & Barbicans".
3. Fulton, Michael S.. (2016). "Artillery in and around the Latin East (1097-1291)".
4. Raphael, Kate. (2010). "Muslim Fortresses in the Levant: Between Crusaders and Mongols". Routledge.
5. Nossov, Konstantin. (2006). "Indian Castles, 1206–1526: The Rise and the Fall of the Delhi Sultanate". Osprey.
6. Quan, Yuan. "New realities 'rebuild' Beijing's lost city gates". [[China Daily]].