The country adjacent to Aleppo is broken with many inequalities, and even the city stands partly on high and partly on low ground. A small river, called Coik, descends from Aintab, and, after passing through the city, is lost in a marsh on the West.
So many descriptions of this famous capital having appeared, I shall only offer a few remarks on such objects as struck me during my residence there.
The site is rocky, and the few gardens chiefly produce pistachios. The city is well built, and paved with stone. The tall cyprus trees, contrasted with the white minarets of numerous mosques, give it a most picturesque appearance. The population and buildings seem to be on the increase; but this affords no proof of public felicity; for, in proportion as the capital swells, the adjacent villages are deserted. The houses are clean, airy, substantial, and commodious. The people in general are distinguished by an air of affected polish, hardly to be observed in the other towns of Syria. Their dialect too has its characteristic marks. The Arabic prevails, though many speak the Turkish language.
A new Pasha had been lately appointed at the time I arrived, but was prevented from entering the city, by the feuds which had prevailed between the Sherîfs and the Janizaries, and induced the latter to suspect that the Pasha had a design of punishing them. This officer was a young man, the son of the Pasha of Adene; his title El Sherîf Mohammed Pasha; of an unblemished character, but unequal, in point of talents and personal weight, to compose the violence of these factions, which, after he had resided a short time in the city, obliged him to retire. The Sherîfs, or descendants of Mohammed, here form a considerable faction; a circumstance also observable at Bagdad, but not in so remarkable a degree. In Aleppo they form a body of near sixty thousand. The Janizaries do not exceed one-fourth of that number. The Sherîfs consist of all ranks, from the highest Imâm to the lowest peasant, and are far from excelling in courage: the Janizaries are of superior valour, though little acquainted with the use of arms or aspect of battle. Hence the force of the factions is merely balanced, and continual disputes arise for offices of profit or power, which generally terminate in bloodshed. In the course of this summer, 1797, several of these took place; in one of them it is supposed near three hundred persons perished. This imperfect exercise of authority may be estimated among the symptoms of decline in the Turkish empire.
The manufactures are in a flourishing state, being carried on with great spirit both by Christians and Mohammedans: silk and cotton form the chief articles. Large caravans frequently arrive from Bagdad and Bassora, charged with coffee, which is carried round to the Persian gulf from Moccha, with the tobacco and cherry-tree pipes from Persia, and muslins, shawls, and other products of India.
Besides the manufactures of Aleppo, and the productions of the surrounding country, which are sent to Europe by sea, three or four caravans, laden with merchandize, proceed annually through Anatolia to Constantinople. Pistachio nuts form no mean article of trade, being the chief produce of the adjacent territory, in the soil of which that tree particularly delights. Aleppo also maintains a commercial intercourse with Damascus, Antioch, Tripoli, Ladakia, and the towns on the East towards the Euphrates.
The last pestilence is supposed to have destroyed sixty thousand of the inhabitants.
The women of Aleppo are rather masculine, of brown complexions, and remarkable for indulging in the Sapphic affection.
The quarries which supplied the stone for the construction of the city, are not far removed from the Antioch gate. They are every way worthy remark. On both sides of a road, cut through the solid rock, are seen the openings of caverns, capable of giving shelter to a vast number of persons. From these again, which are tolerably light, open a number of other passages, in all directions, from the principal apartments. These I had neither time nor instruments to investigate; but the people of the place pretend that one of these passages goes to the castle, another to Antioch, &c. Traditions similar to which abound in every country, which presents any caverns natural or artificial.
The material is a soft stone or tufa, replete with petrified shells. It would appear that the artificers designed those quarries for some useful purpose, as they have not only left rough columns, and cut perpendicular shafts, which admit some portion of light, but the walls are hewn to a much greater degree of smoothness than is usually seen in quarries. It is certain they have afterwards been occupied, as marks of fire, mangers for horses, and even burial places, may be observed. In latter times, disbanded dellîs, not being admitted into the city, have here fixed their abode, and become dangerous to passengers, whom they have robbed, and sometimes murdered.