History of Aleppo
Aleppo's Arabic name, Halab, is of ancient Semitic origin and is first mentioned in texts at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. In the 18th century BC Halab was the capital of the Amorite kingdom of Yamkhad, and it subsequently came under Hittite, Egyptian, Mitannian, and again Hittite rule during the 17th–14th century. In succeeding centuries it achieved some independence as a Hittite principality and remained under Hittite control until around 800 BC.
Halab then passed through the hands of the Assyrians (8th century BC) and the Persians (6th-4th century BC) before being captured by the Greeks in 333 BC. Seleucus Nicator, a general of Alexander the Great, renamed the settlement Beroea. It became a first-ranking city of the Hellenistic period and an important commercial connection between the Mediterranean world and lands farther east.
The city was absorbed into the Roman province of Syria in 64 BC. It prospered under Byzantine rule, during which it was a center of Christianity. A great cathedral was built during this period and became a mosque in 1124 (it still stands within the citadel).
Aleppo was pillaged and burned by the Persian Sasanian king Khosrow I in AD 540 and in 637 the city was conquered by the Arabs, under whom it reverted to its old name, Halab. 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. It returned to native control in 1317 decades after the Battle of Ain Jalut. On August 9, 1138 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.
The city became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, when the city had around 50,000 inhabitants, and remained Ottoman until the empire's collapse. It was occasionally rife 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.
Aleppo was named by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) as the capital of Islamic culture in 2006.
Sources
- "Aleppo" - Wikipedia (2006)
