Aleppo : a history / Ross Burns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burns, Ross, author.

Series:

Cities of the ancient world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aleppo (Syria)--History.

Aleppo (Syria).

Syria--Aleppo.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xx, 340 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017.

Summary:

Aleppo is one of the longest-surviving cities of the ancient and Islamic Middle East. Until recently it enjoyed a thriving urban life - in particular an active traditional suq, which has a continuous tradition going back centuries, its tangle of streets still follow the Hellenistic grid and above it looms the great Citadel, which contains recently uncovered remains of a Bronze/Iron Age temple complex, suggesting an even earlier role as a 'high place' in the Canaanite tradition. In the Arab Middle Ages, Aleppo was a strongpoint of the Islamic resistance to the Crusader presence. Its medieval Citadel is one of the most dramatic examples of a fortified enclosure in the Islamic tradition. In Mamluk and Ottoman times, the city took on a thriving commercial role and provided a base for the first European commercial factories and consulates in the Levant. Its commercial life funded a remarkable building tradition with some hundreds of the 600 or so officially declared monuments dating from these eras. Its diverse ethnic mixture, with significant Kurdish, Turkish, Christian and Armenian communities, provides a rich layering of influences on the city's life. In this volume, Ross Burns explores Aleppo's rich history from its earliest times through to the modern era, providing a thorough treatment of this fascinating city, accessible both to scholarly readers and to the general public interested in a factual and comprehensive survey of the city's past. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Setting the scene - Bronze and Iron Ages 2

Environment 4

A high place 5

Bronze Age (c.3600-c.1200 BC) 8

Amorites(c.200-1595 BC) 8

Going by The Book 9

Hittite dominance (Halab, 1595-c.1200 BC) 11

Mitanni, Hittite kingdom and Egypt (c. 1500-1274 BC) 12

The Storm God 13

Transition to the Iron Age (c. 1200-900 BC) 15

'Aramaean' and 'Neo-Hittite States' (c. 1100-c.900 BC) 17

Trade 20

Art 21

Neo-Assyrian dominance (883-612 BC) 22

Neo-Babylonian and Persian rule (612-333 BC) 25

Alexander (333-323 BC) 26

2 Greek and Roman Aleppo 28

Seleucus' tetrapolis 31

Hellenistic Aleppo (Beroia) 32

Hellenisation 33

A new city centre 34

The Syrian Goddess 35

Collapse (c. 100-65 BC) 36

Enter Rome (64 BC) 38

End of the Seleucids 38

Parthia - threat or opportunity? 39

Roman Beroia 40

Wider challenges 44

The Judaean experience 44

Military build up 45

A new Persian threat 46

From pagan to Christian - the Byzantine transition 47

Failed mission 49

3 In Antioch's orbit - Byzantine Aleppo in a world of churches and monasteries (353-637) 54

Bidding for God 54

A world of churches 55

Church of St Simeon 56

Cathedral of St Helen 60

The Bandara Synagogue 64

Fortress City 65

The Eastern threat 66

Sasanian occupation (AD 611-28) 70

4 Transition to an Islamic Order - Aleppo on a new frontier (637-947) 72

A soft transition 72

Consolidating Islamic rule 74

Qinnisrin 75

Rightly Guided Caliphs (640-60) 77

The Umayyads 661-750 77

The Aleppo Great Mosque 79

From forum to suq 81

The 'Abbasids, rule from Iraq 83

'Abbasid decline 85

5 A delicate balance - between Turkic and Arab worlds (947-1097) 88

Enter the Turks ... 88

... via Egypt 89

Hamdanids (in Aleppo 947-1004) 90

'The platform' 92

Byzantines return (962-1084) 92

A religious mosaic 94

Playing off Byzantines vs Fatimids 96

A self-serving court; a glorious failure? 96

Curtain-raiser to the Crusades? 97

Mirdasids (1024-80) 99

The Turcoman factor 100

Seljuk foothold in Aleppo 1071 101

Manzikert 1071 101

Seljuks take direct power in Aleppo (1086) 102

The testament of the Great Mosque minaret 1090-4 103

6 Fortress of Islam - Aleppo and the First Crusade (1098-1127) 107

A Christian jihad? 107

Investing Antioch (1097-8) 109

Antioch vs Aleppo (1098-1119) 111

War aims 111

On to Jerusalem 113

The Antioch/Aleppo Front 1098-1120 114

Rising discontent in Aleppo 118

The Field of Blood 1119 120

Aleppo besieged 1124-5 122

7 Zengid Aleppo (1127-74) 124

Zengids 124

A saviour - 'Imad al-Din Zengi 124

Holy and war 125

Byzantine designs on Aleppo 1137 125

The first madrasas 126

Zengi's new agenda (1128-46) 126

The ascent of Nur al-Din Zengi (r. 1146-74) 128

The Second Crusade 1148 128

Nur al-Din wins Damascus 1154 129

Building on message 130

On Abraham's path 134

Into Egypt 136

Switching Caliphs 138

A mixed city 139

8 Saladin and the Ayyubids (1174-1260) 142

Saladin extends his rule 142

A question of authority 144

Al-Zahir Ghazi (r. 1186-1216) 145

Surviving the transition 147

The northern front after 1188, trade 148

Ayyubid building program - the 'Chosen Pearls' 150

A princely Citadel 152

Prototype of Islamic fortifications 154

Ayyubid stability 156

Fostering piety 158

Anticipating paradise 160

A new axis 163

9 A wider world opens - Aleppo under the Mamluks (1260-1516) 168

Mongols (1258-60) 168

The Great and Lesser Khans 169

Aleppo falls to the Mongols 1260 169

The Bahri Mamluks (1260-1382) 173

Baybars(r. 1260-77) 173

Securing Aleppo 175

Taking Antioch 1264-8 176

A city on its knees? Aleppo in the 1260s 178

Building the Mamluk world 179

First impressions 185

Tamerlane 1400 188

Recovery 190

A trading city, the suqs 192

Burji Mamluks (1382-1516) 194

The Venetian presence 194

Khans and palaces 196

A lost cause, 1516 (Marj Dabiq) 198

An accidental conquest? 199

10 The first Ottoman centuries (1516-1750) 202

Planting the Ottoman imperium 203

Aleppo in the Ottoman world 205

Faith and trade 206

The 'Silk Route' 207

An Ottoman 'image' 209

A monumental axis 210

al-Khusrofiye (Mosque-Madrasa of Khusrof Pasha) 212

al-'Adeliye (Mosque of Dukakinzade Mehmet Pasha) 214

Khan al-Jumruk 215

al-Bahramiye (Mosque of Bahram Pasha) 216

City within a city - al-Medina 218

City administrative structures 219

Strangers in the city 220

'An Epitome of the Whole World' 224

European life in the Medina 225

Elite housing 229

Beyond the walls 231

A 'new' quarter (Jdeide) 231

Other extra-mural offshoots 232

The Hajj 233

Aleppo's decline 234

Population displacement 234

Khan al-Wazir 237

Heavy hand of centralism 237

The religious 'fringe' 239

Inquiring minds 241

End of the silk route 243

11 Modernising Aleppo (1750-2000) 247

Waning of authority 247

Rule by consensus? 248

Embracing Rome 250

Return to an 'imperial' style 251

Disintegration and invasion 252

Revolt in Egypt 254

Egyptian occupation 1831-40 254

A 'reordering' (Tanzimat) 255

1850 anti-Christian disturbances 255

Arabs in the late Ottoman world 257

Reign of Abdul Hamid (1876-1909) 258

A troubled 'Golden Age' 258

'Shadow of God on Earth' -the Sultan-Caliph 258

Co-opting 'Arabistan' 259

Hamidism in architecture 260

Binding Aleppo by rail 262

End of the House of Osman 1909-20 264

The 'Young Turks' and Arab nationalism 264

1915, collapse of Ottomanism by consensus 266

Armenian deportations 266

Aleppo at war's end 268

Liberation from what? 269

New frontiers 270

A mandate for confusion (1920-46) 271

The jigsaw 272

The big Loser 273

Losing Antioch 275

Terminating the Mandate 275

Aleppo's loss of innocence 276.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415737210

0415737214

OCLC:

959328435