Aleppo

Aleppo (Arabic حلب, DMG Ḥalab; French Alep; Kurdish (Kurmanji) Helebê; Turkish Halep; Armenian Հալէպ; Aramaic ܚܠܒ Halab; in ancient times temporarily Beroia) is a city in northern Syria. Aleppo is also the capital of the Aleppo Governorate of the same name. In 2006, Aleppo became the first place after Mecca to receive the designation Capital of Islamic Culture.

In 2008, the city had just under 1.7 million inhabitants in the city limits and in 2010 around 2.5 million inhabitants with suburbs. It was thus the second largest city in Syria after Damascus. Aleppo is also one of the oldest cities in the region and occupies a strategic point between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River. It was originally built on a group of hills in a wide fertile depression on both sides of the Quwaiq River.

In the course of the civil war in Syria, the city of Aleppo was fought over from summer 2012 to December 2016. Since 22 December 2016, the city has been controlled by troops of the Syrian government. Large parts of the city have been destroyed and a large part of the inhabitants had fled. According to the UN and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in the first 7 months after the victory of the Syrian army, most of them have already returned.

Population and religion

The majority of the Muslim population in Aleppo is Arab. There are also Kurds, Turkmen and other smaller Muslim ethnic groups.

About 15-20% of the inhabitants are Christians, predominantly Assyrians and Armenians, who belong to the Syrian Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox Churches, respectively; there are also Greek Orthodox believers. A large proportion of Christians live in the al-Judaide district immediately north of Aleppo's old city. Another Christian-influenced, younger district is Sulaymaniyah.

Economy

The city was historically important primarily as a trading center. It was located at the crossroads of two trade routes and mediated trade from India, the Euphrates and Tigris regions with Damascus in the south, following the foot of the mountains instead of the impassable sea coast. Since the early Middle Ages, Aleppo has produced the handmade "Aleppo soap" based on olive oil, which is not only appreciated and known in the Orient. The soap factories (Sgl. maṣbana) were located around the Bab Qinnasrin in the southwest of the old city, where some are still located today. Other factories moved to the streets at Bab an-Nasr to the north of the citadel. Because of the great need for space, some soap factories set up shop in former hans. Hane are shelters and selling places for merchants that existed within the Old City since the beginning of the 16th century. Today there are still about 60 smaller soap factories in Aleppo, which are mostly family businesses and have often existed for many centuries.

In the Middle Ages, especially the Zengids and the Ayyubids (1128-1260) made the city a center of long-distance trade. The Ayyubids concluded trade treaties with Venice in 1207/1208, 1225, 1229 and 1254/1255. In Ottoman times, there were trading posts and factories not only of Venice, but also of French (1535), English (1580) and Dutch (1612) merchants. Although trade was often banned from the city for political reasons, it grew steadily until Europeans took the sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope and the route to Egypt via the Red Sea. This began the city's economic decline; its main exports are now agricultural products of the region, mainly wheat and cotton, pistachios, sheep and olives.