Aleppo

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, حلب Arabic 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 and to the Greeks as Beroea, and 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 milk, coming from the ancient tradition that Abraham gave out milk to travelers as they traveled throughout the region. The city had a large jewish population from the times of King david. The great synagouge housed the famous Aleppo codex, dated back to the ninth century. The codex is now housed in Jerusalem and Aleppo's Jewish residents have moved abroad due to anti-zionism and anti-semitsm [1] (http://www.http://www.bible-researcher.com/aleppo.html).

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 WW 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 product of the surrounding region, mainly wheat and cotton, pistachios, olives and sheep.

Contents

1 History 1.1 Sultanate of Aleppo (1094–1260) 2 Famous people 3 External link

History

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 before 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. The city became part of the Byzantine Empire before falling into Arabic hands from 637 until the 10th century when 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 it was taken by the Mongols in 1260, returning to Arab hands in 1317 before it became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, when the city had around 50,000 inhabitants. The city remained part of the Ottoman Empire until its collapse but it was still 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 was revived when it came under French colonial rule but slumped again following the decision to give Antioch to Turkey in 1938-1939.

Sultanate of Aleppo (1094–1260)

List of the rulers of Aleppo:

Seljuq Dynasty in Aleppo and Damascus:

• Ak Sunkur Qasim al-Awla, Governor of Aleppo and Damascus until 1094
• Tausch, Sultan of Aleppo and Damascus 1094–1095

Seljuq Dynasty in Aleppo:

• Rodwan ibn Tausch 1095–1113
• Alp Arslan al-Akhies ibn-Rodwan 1113–1114
• Sultan Shah ibn-Rodwan 1114–1117

Artuk Dynasty in Aleppo:

• Ghazi ibn-Artuk 1117
• Timurtash ibn-al-Ghazi 1117–1118
• Suleyman I ibn-al-Ghazi 1118–1121
• Suleyman II (usurper) 1121–1123
• Balak the Usurper 1123–[1124]
• Timurtash ibn-al-Ghazi (second time) 1124–1125
• Ak Sunkur 1125–1127 (Sultan of Mosul)
• Masul ibn-Ak Sunkur 1127–1128 (Sultan of )

Seljuq Dynasty in Aleppo:

• Zenghi I Ibn Ak Sunkur Kasim el Awla 1128–1146
• Nur ad-Din Mahmud ibn-Zengi 1146–1173 (since 1154 to 1173 united with Damascus)
• Malek as-Saleh ibn-Nur ad-Din 1173–1181
• Masud of Mosul (son of the Mosul Sultan) 1181–1182
• Zengi II, brother of Masud 1182–1183

Conquered by Saladin in 1183. Single Sultan 1183–1186 (in Egypt, Damascus and Aleppo)

Ayyubid Dynasty in Aleppo: (see Ayyubid dynasty)

• Malek Al-Adil I (brother of Saladin, viceroy) 1183–1186
• Malek Az-Zahir 1186–1216
• Malek Al-Aziz 1216–1236
• Al Malek An-Nasir Yusuf 1236–1260

Mongol conquest 1260, and then to Kutus, Mameluk Sultan of Egypt

Famous people

• Chessplayer and writer Phillip Stamma was born in 1705 in Aleppo.
• Muhammed Fares (born 1951), first Syrian cosmonaut
• Ammar Fares (born 1979)

External link

• Lynn Simarski, 'The lure of Aleppo" history and architecture. (http://almashriq.hiof.no/syria/900/the_lure_of_aleppo/)
• More images like above about Aleppo are here (http://www.zeledi.com/public/Photography/SyriaWinter03/Aleppo/)ar:حلب

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