 A few buildings dating from the Mamluk era contained arches with the "ablaq" architectural style.During the Franco-Syrian War, ar-Rastan served as one of the bases for Saleh al-Ali and his local allies and was shelled by French forces in early 1920.Two Sunni Muslim agricultural clans, the Firzat and the Hamdan, dominated ar-Rastan in the 19th and early 20th centuries.