Aleppo

Old Town Aleppo viewed from the Citadel

Aleppo is also the name of two townships in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. See: Aleppo Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and Aleppo Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania.

Aleppo (or Halab Arabic:حلب meaning "Fresh Milk") is a city and province in northern Syria. The city has a population of around 1.7 million (1999), making it the second largest city in the country after Damascus. It is one of the oldest cities in the region, known to antiquity as Khalpe, to the Greeks as Beroea, and to the Turks as Halep, and 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. The province or governate extends around the city for over 16,000 km² and has around 3.7 million inhabitants.

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 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.

The Name Halab means gave out milk , coming from the ancient tradition that Abraham gave out milk to travelers as they traveled throughout the region.

While more than 70% of Aleppo's inhabitants are Sunni Muslims (mainly Arabs, but also Kurds and a few ethnic Turks and Circassians), 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 Orthodox denominations) represent today between 15% and 20% of its population, making it the second biggest community of the Middle East after the one in Beirut, Lebanon.

The city had a large Jewish population from ancient times, by legend since the period of King David. The great synagogue housed the famous Aleppo codex, dated 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 Israel due to various social and political pressures. Only a dozen jewish families still live in Aleppo today and the synagogue remains virtually empty.

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 "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. 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 modern traffic easier passage. In the 1970s, large parts of the older city were demolished to allow for the construction of modern flat blocks.

The main role of the city was as a trading place, 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, olives and sheep.

History

Ancient

Because the modern city occupies its ancient site, Aleppo has scarcely been touched by archaeologists. The site has been occupied from around 1800 BC, as recorded in the Hittite records. 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 maybe 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. The city remained in Greek or Seleucid hands until 64 BC when Syria was conquered by the Romans.

Medieval

The city became part of the Byzantine Empire before falling to Arabs 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. It came under the control of Saladin and then the Ayyubid Dynasty from 1183 and remained in Arab hands until taken by the Mongols in 1260. Returning to native control in 1317, it became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, when the city had around 50,000 inhabitants.

On August 9, 1138 AD a deadly earthquake ravaged the city and the surrounding area. Although estimates from this time are very unreliable, it was estimated that 230,000 people had died, making it the fourth deadliest earthquake in recorded history.

Modern

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.

Born in Aleppo

Paul of Aleppo, 17th century Archdeacon of Aleppo, traveler and chronicler.
Chessplayer and writer Phillip Stamma was born in 1705
Muhammed Fares (born 1951), first Syrian cosmonaut.
Moustapha Akkad, film producer and director, born in 1935.
Levon Ter-Petrossian, former president of the Republic of Armenia

External links

Lynn Simarski, 'The lure of Aleppo" history and architecture.
A collection of pictures made in 2003 about Aleppo.
A picture gallery about a 2005 trip in Aleppo.
'Ittihad club of Aleppo" forum for local sport and aleppo community .