Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1919-01-30
WTYHEN General Allenby's Brit
A/Nf ish troops entered Aleppo,
another change was added

WTYHEN General Allenby's Brit
A/Nf ish troops entered Aleppo,
another change was added
to the long list Of changes
hat have come to the ancient Hittite
:ity whose existence first was noted in
Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian
::ecords under the name of Khalep.
Aleppo, or Khalep, was banded back
and forth with the swaying fortunes of
those times, until it fell before the
world-conquering Alexander and his
Macedonian hosts. Then is when we
Began to hear of it in authentic his
cory, says a writer in the Kansas. City
Star. Seleucus Nicator, was one of
the generals who aided Philip, the ia
Their of Alexander, in establishing the
Macedonian kingdom. He went with
Alexander into Asia in 1888 B. G. In
321, when he was twenty-five years old,
he was given the government Of the
Babylonian satrapy, which included
Khalep. He gave the city the name OF
Beroea, and as Beroea or Khalep-Be-
roea, it figures historically most of the
time for the next 900 years.
In 64S A. D. it disappeared from
European records under the Saracen
flood that swept up from the south
east. When the wild tribes began to
assume a sort Of settled state under
Moslem influence, it reappeared as
Halep, the gathering place of the great
passing from Asia Minor and
Syria to Mesopotamia, Bagdad and the
Persian and Indian kingdoms.
Earthquake and Plague.
In common with most of the towns
of northern Syria, Aleppo suffered fire.
quently from earthquakes. After a ter
rible shock late in the twelfth century
It had to be almost entirely rebuilt.
But neither earthquake nor the plague,
to which it was also peculiarly subject,
could divert from it trade and pros
perity, and it became one of the COM
mercial capitals Of the eastern world.
The city passed under various Mos
lem dynasties, being at one time the
northern capital of the famous Saladin.
The Tartars held it awhile in the thir-
teenth century. Then the Mamelukes
came up from Egypt and took it, hold
ing it under their terrible sway until
it's final conquest by the Ottomans in
1917.
Under the strong hand of it's new
rulers, the trade Of Aleppo was re-
vived. The English had recognized it's
Importance as a commercial station
and it became the eastern outpost Of
the British Turkey company as early
as the time of Elizabeth. 1t was con-
nected with the western outpost of
the East India company at Bagdad by
a private caravan service. Its name
was familiar in the England of that
period. Shakespeare refers to it sew
eral times in his plays and it appears
frequently in the writings Of his con-
temporaries.
Through Aleppo passed the silks of
Bambyce (bombazines), the light tex
tiles of Mosul notwithstanding and
many other commodities for the
wealthy and luxurious. The discovery
of the route around the Cape of Good
Hope to India was the first blow to
this trade. The second was the open
ing of a land route through Egypt to
the Red sea and the third and final
n was the construction of the Suez
canal.
Long before the Suez canal became
a reality, however, Aleppo had been
declining from internal causes. In the
latter part of the eighteenth century
and the first years Of the nineteenth it
was constantly the scene of bloody dis
sensions between rival religious and
secular parties, in which the Ottoman
government took part, first on one side
then the other, plundering both. Two
earthquakes and three visitations of
cholera between 1922 and 1882 left
the place a wreck with only half it's
former population. Tumults and mas
sacres of Christians occurred in 1850
and in 1862, accompanied by great de.
struction of property. Its trade has
revived greatly in recent years, but
has been largely of a local nature.
Modern City on Ancient Site.
The modern city stands on virtually
the ancient site. The older sections
are partly within a wall built by the
Saracens. A medieval castle on the
site of the ancient citadel is deserted
and in ruins. 1t stands on q mound
partly artificial and faced with stone
The population of the city, about 100,
GOO, is three-quarters Moslem. The
European residents, the Armenians