Aleppo: A History (Cities of the Ancient World)

Synopsis

Setting The Scene -- Bronze And Iron Ages. Environment -- A High Place -- Bronze Age (c. 3600 -- C. 1200 Bc) -- The Storm God -- Transition To The Iron Age (c. 1200 -- C. 900 Bc) -- Neo-assyrian Dominance (883 -- 612 Bc) -- Neo-babylonian And Persian Rule (612 -- 333 Bc) -- Alexander (333 -- 323 Bc) -- Greek And Roman Aleppo . Seleucus' Tetrapolis -- Hellenistic Aleppo (beroia) -- The Syrian Goddess -- Collapse (c. 100 -- 65 Bc) -- Enter Rome (64 Bc) -- Wider Challenges -- From Pagan To Christian -- The Byzantine Transition -- In Antioch's Orbit -- Byzantine Aleppo In A World Of Churches And Monasteries (353 -- 637). Bidding For God -- Fortress City -- Transition To An Islamic Order -- Aleppo On A New Frontier (637 -- 947). A Soft Transition -- The Umayyads -- The 'abbasids, Rule From Iraq -- A Delicate Balance -- Between Turkic And Arab Worlds (947 -- 1097). Enter The Turks -- Hamdanids (in Aleppo 947 -- 1004) -- Curtain Raider To The Crusades? -- Seljuk Foothold In Aleppo -- Fortress Of Islam -- Aleppo And The First Crusade (1098 -- 1127). A Christian Jihad? -- Antioch Vs Aleppo -- On To Jerusalem -- The Antioch?aleppo Front 1098 -- 1120 -- Zengid Aleppo (1127-74). Zengids -- The Ascent Of Nur Al-din Zengi (r. 1146-74) -- Building On Message -- Into Egypt -- Saladin And The Ayyubids (1174 -- 1260). Saladin Extends His Rule -- Al-zahir Ghazi (r. 1186 -- 1216) -- The Northern Front After 1188, Trade -- Ayyubid Building Program -- The 'chosen Pearls' -- Ayyubid Stability -- Fostering Piety -- A New Axis -- A Wider World Opens -- Aleppo Under The Mamluks (1260 -- 1516). Mongols (1258-60) -- The Bahri Mamluks (1260 -- 1382) -- Building The Mamluk World -- Burji Mamluks (1382 -- 1516) -- The First Ottoman Centuries (1516 -- 1750). Planting The Ottoman Imperium -- Faith And Trade -- An Ottoman 'image' -- City Within A City -- Al-medina -- City Administrative Structures -- Strangers In The City -- Beyond The Walls -- The Hajj -- Aleppo Decline -- Inquiring Minds -- End Of The Silk Route -- Modernising Aleppo (1750 -- 2000). Waning Of Authority -- Return To An 'imperial' Style -- Disintegration And Invasion -- A 'reordering' (tanzimat) -- Arabs In The Late Ottoman World -- Reign Of Abdul Hamid -- End Of The House Of Osman -- 1915, Collapse Of Ottomanism By Consensus -- New Frontiers -- A Mandate For Confusion -- Postscript. Boxed In -- The Baathist 'revolution' -- Rescuing Ancient Aleppo -- Town Planning -- 2011 -- A War For (or Against?) Aleppo -- Hussein's Lost Child -- A Confected Doomsday -- Appendix. Maps Of Aleppo. Ross Burns. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 306-324) And Index.