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.
