Editing Aleppo (section)

===Ottoman era===
{{See also|Aleppo Eyalet}}
[[File:Khusruwiyah mosque and Aleppo view2.jpg|thumb|[[Khusruwiyah Mosque]] of the early Ottoman period]]
[[File:Alep. Prise de Bab Antakieh (publiée) MET DP-1757-027.jpg|thumb|right|1842 [[daguerreotype]] by [[Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey]] (the earliest photograph of the city)]]
Aleppo became part of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1516 as part of the vast expansion of the Ottoman borders during the reign of [[Selim I]]. The city then had around 50,000 inhabitants, or 11,224 households according to an Ottoman census.<ref>"Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century"</ref> In 1517, Selim I obtained a fatwa from Sunnite religious leaders and unleashed violence on the [[Alawites]], killing 9,400 men, which is known as the [[Massacre of the Telal]].<ref>{{cite web |date=9 May 2017 |title=Ottoman Empire massacre against Alawites |url=http://sy-center.net/?p=1512 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423182731/http://sy-center.net/?p=1512 |archive-date=23 April 2019 |access-date=28 May 2018 |work=Syrian Center for Studies}}</ref> It was the centre of the [[Aleppo Eyalet]]; the rest of what later became Syria was part of either the eyalets of Damascus, Tripoli, Sidon or [[Rakka Eyalet|Raqqa]]. Following the Ottoman provincial reform of 1864 Aleppo became the centre of the newly constituted Vilayet of Aleppo in 1866.

Aleppo's agriculture was well-developed in the [[Ottoman Syria|Ottoman]] period. Archaeological excavations revealed water mills in its river basin.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Tony J. |title=The Archaeological Landscape of the Balikh Valley, Syria |url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/ar/91-00/95-96/95-96_BalikhValley.pdf |access-date=24 March 2022 |archive-date=24 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324183438/https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/ar/91-00/95-96/95-96_BalikhValley.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Yuan Julian |date=2021-10-11 |title=Between the Islamic and Chinese Universal Empires: The Ottoman Empire, Ming Dynasty, and Global Age of Explorations |url=https://www.academia.edu/59068575 |journal=Journal of Early Modern History |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=422–456 |doi=10.1163/15700658-bja10030 |s2cid=244587800 |issn=1385-3783 |access-date=24 March 2022 |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417192653/https://www.academia.edu/59068575 |url-status=live }}</ref> Contemporary Chinese source also suggests Aleppo in the Ottoman period had well-developed animal husbandry.<ref name=":1" />

During his travels to the Levant in the 17th century, French traveler Jacques Goujon recounted how the [[Maronites|Maronite]] community in Aleppo, facing financial difficulties and considering conversion to Islam due to their inability to pay the [[Jizya|jizya tax]], was aided by the [[Franciscans]] who bought their church, enabling them to meet their tax obligations.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Tramontana |first=Felicita |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc16s06 |title=Passages of Faith: Conversion in Palestinian villages (17th century) |date=2014 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-10135-6 |edition=1 |pages=69–70 |chapter=III. Conversion to Islam in the villages of Dayr Abān and Ṣūbā |doi=10.2307/j.ctvc16s06.8|jstor=j.ctvc16s06 }}</ref>

Moreover, thanks to its strategic geographic location on the trade route between [[Anatolia]] and the east, Aleppo rose to high prominence in the Ottoman era, at one point being second only to [[Constantinople]] in the empire. By the middle of the 16th century, Aleppo had displaced [[Damascus]] as the principal market for goods coming to the Mediterranean region from the east. This is reflected by the fact that the [[Levant Company of London]], a joint-trading company founded in 1581 to monopolize England's trade with the Ottoman Empire, never attempted to settle a factor, or agent, in Damascus, despite having had permission to do so. Aleppo served as the company's headquarters until the late 18th century.<ref name="Masters 2009">Ágoston and Masters (2009), Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire</ref>

[[File:Aleppo Khan Shuneh.jpg|thumb|left|Khan al-Shouneh dating back to 1546]]
As a result of the economic development, many European states had opened consulates in Aleppo during the 16th and the 17th centuries, such as the consulate of the [[Republic of Venice]] in 1548, the consulate of [[Kingdom of France|France]] in 1562, the consulate of [[Kingdom of England|England]] in 1583 and the consulate of the [[Dutch Republic|Netherlands]] in 1613.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.panoramaline.com/aleppo-arab.htm |title=Aleppo in History (in Arabic) |publisher=Panoramaline.com |access-date=11 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315181143/http://www.panoramaline.com/aleppo-arab.htm |archive-date=15 March 2012}}</ref> The [[Armenians|Armenian]] community of Aleppo also rose to prominence in this period as they moved into the city to take up trade and developed the new quarter of Judayda.<ref>{{cite book |first=Elyse |last=Semerdjian |editor1-first=Stefan |editor1-last=Winter |editor2-first=Mafalda |editor2-last=Ade |title=Aleppo and its Hinterland in the Ottoman Period / Alep et sa province à l'époque ottomane |chapter=Armenians in the Production of Urban Space in Early Modern Judayda |year=2019 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-37902-2 |url=https://brill.com/view/title/38977 |access-date=5 September 2021 |archive-date=28 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128154204/https://brill.com/view/title/38977 |url-status=live }}pp. 28-61</ref> The most outstanding among Aleppine [[Armenian merchantry|Armenian merchants]] during the late 16th and early 17th centuries were [[Petik and Sanos|Khwaja Petik Chelebi]], the richest merchant in the city, and his brother [[Petik and Sanos|Khwaja Sanos Chelebi]], who monopolized Aleppine silk trade and were important patrons of the Armenians.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Aslanian |first1=Sebouh |title=From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa |date=2011 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-94757-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mYAkDQAAQBAJ|page = 68}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1 = Sanjian|first1 = Avedis|title = The Armenian Communities in Syria under Ottoman Dominion|url = https://archive.org/details/Sanjian1965ACSOD|date = 1965|publisher = [[Harvard University Press]]|pages = 48–49, 261}}</ref>

[[File:Aleppo in Syrien - Peeters Jacob - 1690.jpg|thumb|left|Aleppo in 1690]] 
However, the prosperity Aleppo experienced in the 16th and 17th century started to fade as silk production in Iran went into decline with the fall of the [[Safavid dynasty]] in 1722. By mid-century, caravans were no longer bringing silk from Iran to Aleppo, and local Syrian production was insufficient for Europe's demand. European merchants left Aleppo and the city went into an economic decline that was not reversed until the mid-19th century when locally produced cotton and tobacco became the principal commodities of interest to the Europeans.<ref name="Masters 2009"/> According to [[Halil İnalcık]], "Aleppo ... underwent its worst catastrophe with the wholesale destruction of its villages by [[Bedouin]] raiding in the later years of the century, creating a long-running [[famine]] which by 1798 killed half of its inhabitants."<ref>Suraiya Faroqhi, Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert (1997). "''[https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA651 An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029010330/https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA651 |date=29 October 2019 }}''". [[Cambridge University Press]]. p.651. {{ISBN|0-521-57455-2}}</ref>

The economy of Aleppo was badly hit by the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869. This, in addition to political instability that followed the implementation of significant reforms in 1841 by the central government, contributed to Aleppo's decline and the rise of Damascus as a serious economic and political competitor with Aleppo.<ref name="Masters 2009"/> The city nevertheless continued to play an important economic role and shifted its commercial focus from long-distance caravan trade to more regional trade in wool and agricultural products. This period also saw the immigration of numerous "Levantine" (European-origin) families who dominated international trade. Aleppo's mixed commercial tribunal (''ticaret mahkamesi''), one of the first in the Ottoman Empire, was set up around 1855.<ref>{{cite book |first=Mafalda |last=Ade |editor1-first=Stefan |editor1-last=Winter |editor2-first=Mafalda |editor2-last=Ade |title=Aleppo and its Hinterland in the Ottoman Period / Alep et sa province à l'époque ottomane |chapter=L’innovation judiciaire dans l’Empire ottoman : l’établissement d’un tribunal de commerce à Alep au milieu du XIXe siècle |year=2019 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-37902-2 |url=https://brill.com/view/title/38977 |access-date=5 September 2021 |archive-date=28 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128154204/https://brill.com/view/title/38977 |url-status=live }}pp. 175-203</ref>

[[File:1 Beit Gazaleh RCh 2010 DSC 1798.jpg|thumb|left|The 17th-century oriental mansion of [[Beit Ghazaleh]]]]
[[File:Haygazian Armenian School, Aleppo Armenian Quarter (2).jpg|thumb|Qalayet al-Mawarina alley at the Christian quarter in [[Al-Jdayde|Jdeydeh]], dating back to the early 17th century]]
Reference is made to the city in 1606 in William Shakespeare's ''Macbeth''. The witches torment the captain of the ship the ''Tiger'', which was headed to Aleppo from England and endured a 567-day voyage before returning unsuccessfully to port. Reference is also made to the city in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' when Othello speaks his final words (ACT V, ii, 349f.): "Set you down this/And say besides that in Aleppo once,/Where a malignant and a turbanned Turk/Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,/I took by th' throat the circumcised dog/And smote him—thus!" (Arden Shakespeare Edition, 2004). The English naval chaplain [[Henry Teonge]] describes in his diary a visit he paid to the city in 1675, when there was a colony of Western European merchants living there.
[[File:Alep 1850.jpg|thumb|250px|City walls and citadel of Aleppo (1850)]]

The city remained under Ottoman rule until the empire's collapse, but was occasionally riven with internal feuds as well as attacks of [[cholera]] from 1823. Around 20–25 percent of the population died of [[Plague (disease)|plague]] in 1827.<ref>Suraiya Faroqhi, Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert (1997). "''[https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA788 An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029010331/https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA788 |date=29 October 2019 }}''". Cambridge University Press. p.788. {{ISBN|0-521-57455-2}}</ref> In 1850, a Muslim mob [[Massacre of Aleppo (1850)|attacked]] Christian neighbourhoods, tens of Christians were killed and several churches looted. Though this event has been portrayed as driven by pure sectarian principles, Bruce Masters argues that such analysis of this period of violence is too shallow and neglects the tensions that existed among the population due to the commercial favor afforded to certain [[Christianity in Syria|Christian minorities]] by the [[Tanzimat]] Reforms during this time which played a large role in creating antagonism between previously cooperative groups of Muslim and Christians in the eastern quarters of the city.<ref>Masters, Bruce. "The 1850 Events in Aleppo: The Aftershock of Syria's Incorporation into the Capitalist World System." ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'' 22, no. 1 (February 1990): 3–4.</ref> By 1901, the city's population was around 110,000.

In October 1918, Aleppo was [[Battle of Aleppo (1918)|captured]] by [[Feisal I of Iraq|Prince Feisal]]'s Sherifial Forces and the [[5th Cavalry Division (India)|5th Cavalry Division]] of the [[Allies of World War I|Allied forces]] from the Ottoman Empire during the [[World War I]]. At the end of war, the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] made most of the Province of Aleppo part of the newly established nation of [[Syria]], while Cilicia was promised by France to become an Armenian state. However, [[Kemal Atatürk]] annexed most of the Province of Aleppo as well as Cilicia to Turkey in his [[Turkish war of independence|War of Independence]]. The Arab residents in the province (as well as the Kurds) supported the Turks in this war against the French, including the leader of the [[Hananu Revolt]], [[Ibrahim Hananu]], who directly coordinated with Atatürk and received weaponry from him. The outcome, however, was disastrous for Aleppo, because as per the [[Treaty of Lausanne]], most of the Province of Aleppo was made part of Turkey with the exception of Aleppo and [[Alexandretta]];<ref name="atak5">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttYVBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT149 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8041-5347-8 |title=Eastward to Tartary |author=Robert D. Kaplan |page=149 |year=2014 |access-date=19 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010052607/https://books.google.com/books?id=ttYVBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT149 |archive-date=10 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> thus, Aleppo was cut from its northern satellites and from the Anatolian cities beyond on which Aleppo depended heavily in commerce. Moreover, the [[Sykes-Picot]] division of the Near East separated Aleppo from most of [[Mesopotamia]], which also harmed the economy of Aleppo.