Ṣafad had been captured by the Ayyubids in December 1188. It was returned to Christian and Templar control in the summer of 1240 in accordance with a truce between the Barons' Crusade and Emir Ismāʿīl of Damascus. The text of "De constructione" presents the impetus for re-building the castle as coming from Benedict of Alignan, who visited the Holy Land for the first time in 1239–40. It stresses the cost of the re-building and upkeep, the strategic significance of the castle at the time of writing and the protection it provided to the Holy Places. It may have been served as a fundraising pamphlet for the use of preachers.