After the Mongolian storm which caused great devastation in 1260, Aleppo fell under the power of the Mamelukes
who developed its commercial function by erecting caravanserais and souks. It became Turkish in 1516 and kept its
title as chief city of a province and became, in the 17th century, the principal market of European trade in Syria.
Many souks, khans (caravanserails) and warehouses were built that still remind us of its prodigious vitality.
Aleppo was then the most populated Syrian city and was renowned for its textiles. They were produced in "Qaysariah»,
large constructions where workshops were grouped together, most often around a patio. Liberated from Turkish domination
at the end of World War I, Aleppo was put under the French mandate until 1945.
Separated from a large part of its natural hinterland by an impervious border isolating Turkey, and cut from its
opening to the sea by the cession (1939) of Alexandretta to Turkey by the French, (although populated then with
an Arab majority) Aleppo exchanged its function of international commercial place for that of the motor of Syrian
economy, ahead of Damascus. It was especially the case during World War II, when the small local industry developed.
The economic power of Aleppo, was seriously weakened by the first measures of nationalization (1958) after the
constitution of the United Arab Republic. These measures, aggravated in 1963 when the Baath Arab Party took power,
caused the departure of many industrialists and big traders from Aleppo, at the same time as the industrialization
of its Damascene rival by the public power was actively prompted. Aleppo in 1975 was still the main manufacturing
center of Syria, closely followed by Damascus which, in addition to its political function, adds now that of economic
metropolis. |
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