Aleppo: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Aleppo vies with Damascus for the title of the world's oldest continually inhabited city. In fact, a handful of other Middle Eastern towns make this claim too, but texts from the ancient kingdom of Mari on the Euphrates River indicate that Aleppo was already the centre of a powerful state as long ago as the 18th century BC, and the site may have been continuously inhabited for the past 8000 years. Its pre-eminent role in Syria came to an end with the Hittite invasions of the 17th and 16th centuries BC, and the city appears to have fallen into obscurity thereafter. During the reign of the Seleucids, who arrived in the wake of Alexander the Great's campaign, it was given the name Beroia, and with the fall of Palmyra to the Romans, it became the major commercial link between the Mediterranean and Asia.

The town was destroyed by the Persians in AD 611, falling again to the Muslims during their invasion in 637. The Byzantines overwhelmed the town in 961 and again in 968 but they could not take the Citadel. Three disastrous earthquakes shook the town in the 10th century, and another, on August 9, 1138, 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.

In 1124, the Crusaders (under Baldwin II, the Frankish king of Jerusalem) laid siege to the town. After raids by the Mongols in 1260 and 1401, in which Aleppo was all but emptied of its population, the city finally came into the Ottoman Turkish orbit (in 1517.) It prospered greatly until an earthquake in 1822 killed over 60% of the inhabitants and wrecked many buildings, including the Citadel.

Modern History

By 1901, Aleppo's 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.)

From 1952, many parts of the old city were sacrificed to progress. This started with broad roads being built through the city centre. In the 1970s, this process had reached its peak. Much of the old substance was demolished, and replaced by modern apartment buildings; what had still survived was left to decay. The turnaround came in 1986. Since the old city was declared a site of world cultural heritage by UNESCO in 1986, several Syrian and international organisations - such as the Agha Khan Trust for Culture, the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development and the German GTZ agency - work for its conservation.

Recent History

Today the major local industries are silk-weaving and cotton-printing. Products from the surrounding area include wool, hides, dried fruits and, particularly, pistachios - for which Aleppo is justly famous. Aleppo was named by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) as the capital of Islamic culture in 2006.

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