The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1919-09-05

mercenaries; they turned their swords
against one another, and amid this in
ternecine strife the Byzantine cuiras-
siers stormed the walls and came pour
ing into the streets, sweeping the last
army Of "Khabdanos' before them in
rout and ruin. For three days the vic
toriOus army wrought its will on un-
happy Aleppo, while upon the sack and
destruction the fallen emir and rem
Eant of his army looked down from the
walls of the impregnable citadel, per-
haps those self-same piles of tawny ma
scnry which crown the fortress hill to
this day. When the Mesopotamians
arrived they found that Phokas and his
army had quietly retired with their
prisoners and plumber, leaving ruin
and restitution behind.
ATeppo in the Middle Ages.
Aleppo's brief political greatness
thus fell beneath the hammer stroke Of
Nicephoros Phokas, but its commercial
eminence did not leave it. For two
centuries 1t led a precarious political
existence-usually in vassalage to the
dominant great power. 1t was part Of
the empire of the mighty Saladin, and
probably the work of his masons is to
be seen today In the citadel walls.
After Saladin and his house had passed
away Aleppo fell to the Mameluke sui
of Egypt. Thither in 1902 came
the terrible Timur (Tamerlane) on his
way to overthrow the armyoof Egypt
at Damascus.
Timur left terrible traces of his pres
ence on Aleppo, but the city, thanks to
It's splendid situation, recovered, and
for the next century or more, indeed,
was at the height Of It's prosperity.
1t was injured by the discovery of the
passage round the Cape Of Good Hope,
but remained great and wealthy until
1922, when 1t was smitten by an earth
quake and almost completely de-
stroyed, with a loss Of life calculated
at the lowest at 10000 persons. Dur
ing the thirteenth, fourteenth and fif-
teenth centuries It was foremost among
the trading cities of the world, and its
renown spread far and wide.
1t was from Aleppo that the first pio-
neers Of England's Indian trade and
empire started on their long journey
to the courts Of the moghul emperors.
Doubtless Il was from some Of them,
or reports of their journeys which must
have been current in Elizabethan
London, that Shakespeare and Marlowe
learned of the oriental city. At all
events. references to Aleppo are to be
found in the plays of both-less in
Shakespeare than in Marlowe, whose
bent was clearly In the direction Of ORR
entail glamor.
Modern Aleppo still suffers from the
destruction wrought by the catastrophe
of 1922, but there is no doubt that the
researches of skilled Psychologists
would meet with rich reward in a city
which has existed continuously for
1000 years, which has seen the char
ioteers of Egypt and of Khatti, the
phalanx of Alexander and the legions
Of Rome, no less than the mailed horse
men of ByZantium and the savage
riders of Timur and Selim the Grim.
The citadel walls still stand intact and
imposing; the walls Of the inner city
are mainly in ruins. In the western
rampant there survives-in the form
Of an neutrality-suspicious. of the pres
ence of the Hittite conquerors, who
wrested North Syria from the weak
hands of the hereto Pharaoh Akena-
ten. The fiat roofs Of the houses are
often laid out as gardens, and south
and west Of the city extend wide
plantations and orchards. Water is
supplied by means Of an ancient
aqueduct, a relic of the Roman rule,
which, in Syria, as in Gaul and Brit
ain, has left indestructibIe evidence of
its passion for works Of practical util-
lily. There is much local industry. and
as a principal station on the Trans
Syrian railway close to the Bagdad
line, Aleppo still occupies position
of great importance. Under civilized
rule it has every opportunity Of recov-
ering its former prosperity.