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A city of northwest Syria near the Turkish border. Inhabited perhaps as early as the sixth millennium B.C., Aleppo was a key point on the caravan route across Syria to Baghdad and later a major center of Christianity in the Middle East. It is now the country's largest city. Population: 2,130,000.
For more information on Aleppo, visit Britannica.com.
The principal city of northern Syria.
Syria's second-largest metropolis after Damascus, Aleppo has long been a prominent economic, cultural, and political center, and, with a population of 4.2 million (2002 estimate), it ranks among the leading cities of the Middle East. Located about 70 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea, at an elevation of 1,280 feet (390 m), Aleppo has a moderate climate, with short, cool, wet winters and long, dry, hot summers. Its surrounding region, parts of which are semiarid, supports extensive agriculture as well as the raising of livestock.
The majority of Aleppo's townspeople are Sunni Muslims, but they live alongside substantial numbers of Christians affiliated with various churches. Tens of thousands of Armenian refugees from Anatolia settled in Aleppo during World War I and strengthened the traditionally prominent Christian presence. The local Jewish community, whose roots went back to pre-Islamic times, also grew during the modern period, but the Arab - Israeli hostilities caused most of its members to leave the country around 1948. The remaining Jewish presence, which continued to dwindle thereafter, came to a historic end with the departure of the last Jews in 1994.
During the period of Ottoman rule in Syria (1516 - 1918), Aleppo served as the administrative capital of a large province that extended over much of northern Syria as well as parts of southern Anatolia. Ottoman governors dispatched from Istanbul administered the affairs of the area with the cooperation of Aleppo's local Muslim elite. The city's politics were characterized by the competition for influence among local powerful figures and by periodic local clashes with the Ottoman authorities. The unusually troubled years from 1770 to 1850 witnessed violent factional strife, popular unrest, and occupation by the Egyptian army (1832 - 1840). In the calmer period that followed, more orderly Ottoman control was restored, and the community began to experience the benefits of European-inspired innovations, including modern schools, improved sanitation and health care, street lighting, printing, newspapers, and wheeled transport. The local notable families integrated themselves more fully into the Ottoman provincial administration at this time and strengthened their power by acquiring large amounts of rural land.
With the establishment of modern Syria in 1920, Aleppo continued to serve as the seat of government for the surrounding region. Its Sunni landowning families, with their counterparts from Damascus, dominated national politics during the French mandate (1920 - 1946) and the first two decades of independence. As of the 1960s, however, the old landed notables began to be displaced by a new political elite composed of men of provincial and minority origins (particularly Alawi). Land-reform measures resulted in the expropriation of the great agricultural estates and helped to break the political back of the Sunni elite. In the 1970s and 1980s, opposition in Aleppo and other Sunni centers to the new political structure gave rise to clashes of Muslim organizations with Hafiz al-Asad's regime.
The modern period also transformed Aleppo's commercial role. Since the sixteenth century, the city had been a leading center of regional and international trade, with a network of markets that included cities in Anatolia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Europe, and Asia. In the nineteenth century, however, much of the region's external trade, now oriented increasingly toward Europe, shifted from inland cities such as Aleppo to the Mediterranean coastal towns. The end of the Ottoman Empire (1918) cut Aleppo off from some of its traditional markets in the region and narrowed still further its commercial horizons. The city's manufacturing sector, however, remained strong, and today, as a major industrial center, Aleppo produces fine silk and cotton fabric, soaps and dyes, processed foods, leather goods, and articles of gold and silver.
Like other major Middle Eastern cities, Aleppo grew dramatically during the modern period, especially since around 1950, when the migration from rural regions to urban centers began to assume massive proportions. Its population, about 90,000 in 1800, had risen modestly to 110,000 in 1900 and to 320,000 in 1950, but it then increased sharply by 1.5 million in the next forty-five years.
With this population growth came a corresponding physical expansion. Beginning in the 1870s, vast new areas developed all around the old historic city, thereby giving birth to modern Aleppo. The new districts, built on a European model of apartment buildings and wide streets laid out in a regular grid pattern, contrasted sharply with the dense environment of courtyard houses and narrow, winding alleyways in the old parts. As the better-off townspeople gradually moved out of the old city, it deteriorated into an overcrowded habitat for the urban poor and for rural migrants. This exodus represented the rejection of an environment that had come to be regarded as backward and unsuited to modern living. The old city has nevertheless remained among the best preserved and most handsome of the traditional Middle Eastern cities, and since the 1970s a movement to conserve its historic monuments and urban fabric has taken hold, although with still unresolved debates over proposed rehabilitation plans.
Aleppo, which has remained one of Syria's leading centers of cultural life, is particularly renowned, in the country and wider region, for its role as a creative center of traditional music. The muwashshah, a song traced back to Muslim Spain, has been a local specialty; hundreds of these vocal pieces - now known as muwashshahat halabiyya - were composed or preserved in the city and diffused from there throughout the region. Ottoman music has also been popular, and Turkish influences continue to distinguish local approaches to music theory. Many accomplished Arab musicians have hailed from Aleppo, among them the violin virtuosos Sami al-Shawwa (1887 - 1960) and Tawfiq al-Sabbagh (1890 - 1955) and the popular singer Sabah Fakhri (1933 - ). The most influential figure was Ali alDarwish (1884 - 1952), whose encyclopedic knowledge of the Arab and Ottoman musical systems and repertoires, derived from thirty years of travel in the Middle East and North Africa, has profoundly marked the region's musical scene and scholarship.
Bibliography
Gaube, Heinz, and Wirth, Eugen. Aleppo. Wiesbaden, Germany: L. Reichert, 1984.
Marcus, Abraham. The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity: Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
— ABRAHAM MARCUS
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| مدينة حلب City of Aleppo |
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| Citadel of Aleppo | |
| General Information | |
| Country: | Syria |
| Governorate: | Aleppo |
| Area code: | 21 |
| Website: | |
| Aleppo in Syria | |
 
Aleppo
Aleppo (Syria )
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| Governor | Tamer Alhajeh |
| Population | |
| Population: | 1,700,000 |
| Geography | |
| Location: | 36° 12' N, 37° 9'E |
| Elevation: | 390 m |
| Ancient City of Aleppo* | |
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| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
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| State Party |  |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iii, iv |
| Reference | 21 |
| Region† | Arab States |
| Inscription History | |
| Inscription | 1986 (10th Session) |
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* Name as
inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO. |
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Aleppo (Arabic: حلب ['ḥalab], ) is a city in northern Syria, capital of the Aleppo Governorate. The city has a population of around 1.9 million, making it the second largest city in Syria after Damascus. Aleppo is one of the oldest inhabited cities in history. It knew human settlement since the eleventh millennium B.C. through the residential houses which were discovered in Al-Qaramel Hill. It was known to antiquity as Khalpe, Khalibon, to the Greeks as Beroea (Veroea), and to the Turks as Halep; during the French Mandate, Alep was used. It occupies a strategic trading point midway between the sea and the Euphrates; initially, it was built on a small group of hills in a wide fertile valley on both sides of the river Quweiq (قويق). The province or governorate extends around the city for over 16,000 km² and has around 3.7 million inhabitants.
The main role of the city was as a trading place, as it sat at the crossroads of two trade routes and mediated the trade from
India, the Tigris and Euphrates regions and the route coming from Damascus in the South, which
traced the base of the mountains rather than the rugged seacoast. Although trade was often directed away from the city for
political reasons, it continued to thrive until the Europeans began to use the Cape
route to India and later to utilise the route through Egypt to the Red Sea. Since then the city has declined and its chief exports now
are the agricultural products of the surrounding region, mainly wheat and cotton, pistachios,
The name Halab is of obscure origins. Some proposed that Halab means the metals of iron or copper in Amorite languages since it was a major source of these metals in antiquity. Halaba in Aramaic means white, referring to the color of soil and marble abundant in the area. Another proposed etymology is that the name Halab means "gave out milk," coming from the ancient tradition that Abraham gave milk to travelers as they moved throughout the region. The colour of his cows was ashen (Arab. shaheb), therefore the city is also called "Halab ash-Shahba'" (he milked the ash-coloured).
Because the modern city occupies its ancient site, Aleppo has scarcely been touched by archaeologists. The site has been occupied from around 5000 BC, as excavations in Tallet Alsauda show. It grew as the capital of the kingdom of Yamkhad until the ruling Amorite Dynasty was overthrown around 1600 BC. The city remained under Hittite control until perhaps 800 BC before passing through the hands of the Assyrians and the Persian Empire and being captured by the Greeks in 333 BC, when Seleucus Nicator renamed the settlement Beroea, after Beroea in Macedon. The city remained in Greek or Seleucid hands until 64 BC, when Syria was conquered by the Romans.
The city remained part of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire before falling to Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid in 637; in the 10th century a resurgent Byzantine Empire briefly regained control from 974 to 987. The city was twice besieged by Crusaders—in 1098 and in 1124—but was not conquered.
On August 9, 1138, a deadly earthquake ravaged the city and the surrounding area. Although estimates from this time are very unreliable, it is believed that 230,000 people died, making it the fourth deadliest earthquake in recorded history.
The city came under the control of Saladin and then the Ayyubid Dynasty from 1183.
On January 24,[1] 1260 the city was taken by the Mongols under Hulagu in alliance with their vassals the Frank knights of the ruler of Antioch Bohemond VI and his father-in-law the Armenian ruler Hetoum I.[2] The city was bravely defended by Turanshah, but the walls fell after six days of bombardment, and the citadel fell four weeks later. The Muslim population was massacred, though the Christians were spared. Turanshah was shown unusual respect by the Mongols, and was allowed to live because of his age and bravery. The city was then given to the former Emir of Homs, al-Ashraf, and a Mongol garrison was established in the city. Some of the spoils were also given to Hethoum I for his assistance in the attack. The Mongol Army then continued on to Damascus, which surrendered, and the Mongols entered the city on March 1, 1260.
In September, the Egyptian Mamluks negotiated a treaty with the Franks of Acre which allowed them to pass through Crusader territory unmolested, and engaged the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut on September 3, 1260. The Mamluks won a decisive victory, killing the Mongols' Nestorian Christian general Kitbuqa, and five days later they had re-taken Damascus. Aleppo was recovered by the Muslims within a month, and a Mamluk governor placed to govern the city. Hulagu sent troops to try and recover Aleppo in December. They were able to massacre a large number of Muslims in retaliation for the death of Kitbuqa, but after a fortnight could make no other progress and had to retreat.[3]
The Mamluk governor of the city became insubordinate to the central Mamluk authority in Cairo, and in Autumn 1261 the Mamluk leader Baibars send an army to reclaim the city. In October 1271, the Mongols took the city again, attacking with 10,000 horsemen from Anatolia, and defeating the Turcoman troops who were defending Aleppo. The Mamluk garrisons fled to Hama, until Baibars came north again with his main army, and the Mongols retreated.[4]
On October 20, 1280, the Mongols took the city again, pillaging the markets and burning the mosques. The Muslim inhabitants fled for Damascus, where the Mamluk leader Qalawun assembled his forces. When his army advanced, the Mongols again retreated, back across the Euphrates. Aleppo returned to native control in 1317,[citation needed].
In 1400, the Mongol leader Tamerlane captured the city again from the Mamluks.[5]. He massacred many of the inhabitants, infamously ordering the building of a tower of 20,000 skulls outside the city.[6]
The city became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, when the city had around 50,000 inhabitants.
The city remained Ottoman until the empire's collapse, but was occasionally riven with internal feuds as well as attacks of the plague and later cholera from 1823. By 1901 its population was around 125,000. The city revived when it came under French colonial rule but slumped again following the decision to give Antioch to Turkey in 1938-1939.
Aleppo was named by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) as the capital of Islamic culture in 2006.[1]
There is a relatively clear division between old and new Aleppo. The older portions were contained within a wall, 3 miles in circuit with seven gates. The medieval castle in the city -- known as the Citadel of Aleppo -- is built atop a huge, partially artificial mound rising 50 m above the city. The current structure dates from the 13th century and had been extensively damaged by earthquakes, notably in 1822.
As an ancient trading centre, Aleppo also has impressive suqs (shopping streets) and khan (commercial courtyards). The city was significantly redesigned after World War II; in 1952 the French architect Andre Gutton had a number of wide new roads cut through the city to allow easier passage for modern traffic. In the 1970s, large parts of the older city were demolished to allow for the construction of modern flat blocks.
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While more than 70% of Aleppo's inhabitants are Sunni Muslims (mainly Arabs, but also Kurds, and other diverse ethnicities relocated there during the Ottoman period, most notably Circassians, Adyghe, Albanians, Bosnians, Bulgars, Turks, Kabardins, Chechens, and others), Aleppo is home to one of the richest and most diversified Christian communities of the Orient. Christians belonging to a dozen different congregations (with prevalence of the Armenian and Syriac Orthodox Church and other Orthodox denominations) represent between 15% and 20% of its population, making it the city with the second biggest Christian community in the Middle East after Beirut, Lebanon.
The city had a large Jewish population in ancient times, traditionally since the period of King David. The great synagogue housed the famous Aleppo codex, dating back to the ninth century. The codex is now housed in Jerusalem. The vast majority of Aleppo's 10,000 Jewish residents moved abroad after the creation of the state of Israel due to various social and political pressures.
There are no more Jewish families who still live in Aleppo today, and the synagogue remains virtually empty.[citation needed] At one point it was a thriving Jewish community, especially under the guidance of the Chief Rabbi Jacob Dwek and his brother in law Rabbi Ezra Soued. Their offspring have since settled around the world in such places as the United States (Syrian Jews mostly moved to Brooklyn, New York, where there is still an ethnic community called Little Syria), Mexico, Brazil and other countries, by dint of the efforts of the Canadian musician Judy Feld Carr, which secured the rescue of almost all Syrian Jews from the pressures of the Syrian government and population.[citation needed] Currently hundreds of buildings, many of beautiful late Ottoman style stand empty and deteriorating in many sections of town, chained symbolically against repossession by Christians or Muslims.
The city has many mosques including the Madrasa Halawiya. A temple that once stood on the site was rebuilt as Aleppo's great Byzantine cathedral founded by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, which contains a tomb associated with Zachary, father of John the Baptist. During the Crusades, when the invaders pillaged the surrounding countryside, the city's chief judge converted St. Helena's cathedral into a mosque, and in the middle of the 12th century the famous leader Nur al-Din founded the madrasa or religious school that has encompassed the former cathedral. The Jami al-Kabir or "Great Mosque" was originally built by the Umayyads, although the present structure begun for Nur al-Din dates from 1158 and a rebuilding after the Mongol invasion of 1260.
 The National Park is in the heart of the city |
 Citadel of Aleppo is the most famous monument in the city |
 The amphitheatre inside the citadel |
 the Byzantine hall inside the citadel |
 Old Aleppo (view from the citadel) |
 Ar-Rahman (The Gracious) mosque in Al-Sabil neighborhood |
 Aleppo in 1912, centered on its citadel mound |
 St.Simon (Samaan) church is considered to be one of the oldest remained churches in the world. |
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Aleppo · Bosra · Krak des Chevaliers and Citadel of Salah Ed-Din · Damascus · Palmyra |
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