Aleppo And Its Too Many Conflicts: The Rise and Fall of a Great City and People

 

Aleppo and the New Regime in Syria

When the Bashar al-Assad regime was toppled in Syria, the rebel troops first took over the Syrian city of Aleppo in a surprise attack on the Syrian army. They claimed the city’s control, and in a show of strength, paraded the streets, fully armed. A civil war was simmering on the country's margins for a long time. Russia, Iran, the US, Turkey, and Israel had intervened in Syria's many conflicts at their different stages and moments. This time, Russia bombed Aleppo trying to push back the rebels. The same multiple rebel groups who were driven out of the city by the Syrian army were the ones who have come back now.

Bashar al-Assad, the incumbent Syrian President had been fighting the opposition groups for about 30 years continuously, as a civil war raged on and off since 2011. More than half a million people had been killed in this conflict and no respite was in sight. Around 6.8 million Syrians became refugees internally displaced or fleeing the country. The peace agreement at the Treaty of Astana had the Arab league as moderators, and the UN, Russia, and major Western countries as interested parties. Kazakhstan’s Astana had been the venue for many of these peace negotiations. Before and after this treaty, too many discussions and agreements commenced without bringing stability or lasting peace to the region.

The timing of the current rebel attack was crucial owing to the volatile situation in the entire Middle East, which the Syrian rebels took advantage of. Bashar al-Assad fled the country and a new rebel government took control of the reins of the country. Aleppo stood silent witness to these changes, its physical infrastructure decimated in the conflict and its people once again mourning the dead.

Aleppo: A City of Greatness Marred by a Long History of Conflict

You have to look at the people up close to understand the society. This is not the first time Aleppo has seen a military takeover and conflict. Thanks to its strategic geographic location, this city has been devastated many times in both remote and recent history. A long period of prosperity that was there before all that happened, remains a distant memory for the people of Aleppo.

For generations, Aleppo was a peaceful trading hub. Reaching Aleppo, the Silk Route entered the Mediterranean Sea, rendering it a special status among such trade centres. Aleppo has been a safe city of magnificence and importance protected on two sides by the desert and the sea, fortified on the third side by the Anatolia Mountains, and cradled by the River Euphrates on the fourth side, However, invaders began to arrive and the city, in its efforts of self-protection, a citadel, a fortified palace in the middle of the old town which is a beautiful example of Arab military architecture was built. Research showed that a citadel tower in some form or other existed in Aleppo since the 3rd millennium BC. As conflicts grew, rings of walls and gates were built with the citadel at its centre during different periods.

These conflicts did not prevent the city from keeping its multiculturalism. From time immemorial, Arab, Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish people have made this city their home. Under the Ottomans, Aleppo turned Muslim-majority and Arab-speaking. Still, French culture and Catholic missionary work were unhindered in the region.

Despite military conflicts, Aleppo remained a great city of continuous human habitation. The city and its teeming civilisation have existed for at least 500 years without a pause. As world politics changed, empire-building became the way of mighty kingdoms. Many wars haunted Aleppo. Still, human habitation has gone uninterrupted in this city for centuries and Aleppo has a place on the world map as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of human civilisation.

When Syria became part of the Roman Empire in 64 BCE, Aleppo came under Roman rule. Then the Arabs conquered it. In 737 CE, the Umayyad Khalifs and in 750 CE, the Abbasid Khalifs ruled Aleppo from Damascus and Baghdad respectively. In 962 CE, the Byzantine Emperor, Nicephorus Phocas, captured the city briefly, only to be taken back into the Arab-Muslim realm by the Hamdanids. In 1260, the Mongols invaded and killed most of the inhabitants of the city. In the modern era also, the conflicts continue, the latest being the ongoing between the ruling President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition forces since 2012.

Millions have lost their lives over the control of this small stretch of urban habitation. One cannot but wonder why humanity has made it a habit of wasting so many human lives to the futility of violence and war.

What Happened to Aleppo in 2012?

2012 was the decisive year in Aleppo’s modern history. The rebel forces made Aleppo their stronghold of resistance against the Bashar al-Assad regime. A full-blown civil war followed and it ended only in 2016. The rebel forces surrendered to the Syrian army on the condition of safe passage out of the city. The city’s buildings were ground to dust by the heavy fighting, by that time.

The city ceased to exist unless a vast pile of rubbles could be called a city. Indeed, thousands of people still lived there. A government bombing its people and its urban centres was a tragic rarity.

How the Conflicts Affected Aleppo’s Cultural Heritage

The Citadel of Aleppo, the city’s iconic landmark, is a structure with parts belonging to different periods including the Byzantine, Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Zengid. These buildings and ruins were partially destroyed in the conflicts. The ruins of the Temple of Storm God, dating back to the Iron and Bronze Ages, also came under artillery fire and bombardment. The Barracks of Ibrahim Pasha is another monument harmed by this war.

The loss of life and ancient heritage hollowed out the city into just a rubble-ridden outer shell of human civilisation. Still, in the back alleys and margins, human resilience perseveres and life pulsates with the hope of a peaceful future. Will Aleppo regain its greatness and cosmopolitanism?

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

Aleppo: Culture and Legends

We would have to try to imagine this city’s alive and incessantly throbbing heart, in all its varied rhythm and vibrancy acquired and carried forward since the 5th century BCE so that we get an idea of its legacy.

A ring of ancient ruins surrounds the city on its outskirts and the adjoining countryside. The site where Abraham supposedly milked his goats and gave away the milk as alms is just 35 kilometres from Aleppo and was part of the ancient city of Ebla. The archives of Ebla have been preserved and they mention Aleppo. The archives say that at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, a temple of the Near Eastern storm God, Hadad, was located in Aleppo. Archaeologists later excavated the temple ruins near the site of the old citadel.

The city’s Arabic name is Halab. The greatness and beauty of Aleppo is captured in the words of the poet, al-Mutanabbi,

“Every time gardens welcomed us, we said to them,

Aleppo is our aim and you are merely the route.”

The glorious centuries of ancient global trade gave Aleppo a place in many travel narratives and even in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In Act 1, Scene 3, the first witch replies to the third witch when asked where she is,

“A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap,

And munch’d, and munch’d, and munch’d:–

‘Give me,’ quoth I:

‘Aroint thee, witch!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries.

Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ the Tiger:

But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,

And, like a rat without a tail,

I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.”

Many travellers, including the famous Ibn Battuta, have praised Aleppo’s markets where long lines of shops with diverse crafts sold, all the ancient world’s major trading goods, assorted in one place. On his return home from his travels to India, Ibn Battuta made a diversion from Damascus to Aleppo on a leisurely trip for a few days. The city was under Mamluk rule then. Spices, silk, locally woven turbans, horses, and wines were traded and the place was known near and afar for its delicious food. Until the middle of the 18th century, Aleppo remained affluent and attracted traders and tourists. The status as a trade centre continued till after the First World War, when the UK and France set the boundaries of Syria as a nation, cutting it off from the regions that fell under Iraq and Turkey and the port of Iskenderun.

Aleppo had acquired a cosmopolitan nature through trade and interactions with diverse groups of foreigners. Many foreign academics and researchers flocked to Aleppo to study the Levantine culture and ancient ruins. In the 16th century, coffee was introduced to Aleppo from Yemen and soon cafes sprang up. Some cafes had theatres and music halls. Different religions coexisted smoothly within the city walls. The wars were always about power and expansion of empires and had nothing to do with religion.