Aleppo

Klappentext Every time gardens welcomed us, we said to them ,Aleppo is our aim and you are merely the route. 'Aleppo lies in ruins, a casualty of Syria's brutal civil war. Its streets are cloaked in darkness, its population scattered, its memories ravaged. But this was once once a vibrant world city, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived and traded together in peace. Few places are as ancient and diverse as Aleppo - one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world - successively Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Seleucid, Armenian, Roman, Ummayyad, Abbasid and Mameluk. During the Ottoman empire it became the empire's third largest city, after Constantinople and Cairo. Its significance was its position at the end of the Silk Road, at the crossroads of the world's trade, where merchants from Venice, Isfahan and Agra gathered in the largest souq in the Middle East and from which sprang some of the world's most enduring food, music and culture. In this, the first history of Aleppo during, Philip Mansel vividly describes Aleppo at the pinnacle of its cultural and economic power, a poignant testament to this once-vital world city. Zusammenfassung Invaluable to all those interested in the magnificent history of this now-ruined city.

Préface
Invaluable to all those interested in the magnificent history of this now-ruined city.

Auteur
Philip Mansel is a historian of France and the Middle East. He has lived in Paris, Beirut and Istanbul, and often visited Aleppo. In 2012 he won the London Library Life in Literature Award, and in 2013 became a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. His most recent publication is The Eagle in Splendour: Inside the Court of Napoleon (2015). Aleppo: The Rise and Fall of Syria's Great Merchant City is his third book on cosmopolitan cities of the Middle East, after Constantinople: City of the World's Desire (1995), on Istanbul, and Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean (2010), on Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut.

Texte du rabat

'Every time gardens welcomed us, we said to them,Aleppo is our aim and you are merely the route.' Al-Mutanabbi Aleppo lies in ruins. Its streets are plunged in darkness, most of its population has fled. But this was once a vibrant world city, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived and traded together in peace. Few places are as ancient and diverse as Aleppo - one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world - successively ruled by the Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman and French empires. Under the Ottomans, it became the empire's third largest city, after Constantinople and Cairo. It owed its wealth to its position at the end of the Silk Road, at a crossroads of world trade, where merchants from Venice, Isfahan and Agra gathered in the largest suq in the Middle East. Throughout the region, it was famous for its food and its music. For 400 years British and French consuls and merchants lived in Aleppo; many of their accounts are used here for the first time.
In the first history of Aleppo in English, Dr Philip Mansel vividly describes its decline from a pinnacle of cultural and economic power, a poignant testament to a city shattered by Syria's civil war.

Résumé
Invaluable to all those interested in the magnificent history of this now-ruined city.