ON THE PATTERN OF COMMERCE IN ALEPPO DURING THE OTTOMAN PERIOD
OSMANLI HÂKİMİYETİ DÖNEMİNDE HALEP ŞEHRİNDEKİ TİCARİ YAPILANMA

Author : Kemal Hakan TEKİN
Number of pages : 681-698

Abstract

The importance of Aleppo, whose commercial being experienced revitalization starting with the Ayyubid period, increased even more with its coming under Ottoman rule, and the city became an important center of trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. This development led Western merchants transporting Asian goods to Europe to shift their commercial activities from Damascus to Aleppo. Ottoman governors, who ensured that Aleppo fully became an imperial province, considered the city and its commercial capacity as a good investment for both this world and the next. Governors who administered the city during the initial years of the Ottoman rule made significant contributions to its appearance and commercial infrastructure. As a natural consequence of these activities, development in Aleppo during the first half-century of Ottoman rule more than doubled the size of the city’s commercial core. Occupying the road connecting Anatolia to Syria, as well as being on the Spice Route, Aleppo had an active commercial life throughout its history. At Aleppo, it is possible to come across the Covered Market and the finest examples of caravanserais. All who visited the city were stunned by the Aleppo Bazaar and admired its beauty, feeling that only the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul could possibly surpass it. The sizes of the caravanserais varied considerably, but the largest were, without a doubt, found in Aleppo. The objective of this study is to discuss the important commercial buildings that have marked the period, as well as their contributions to the economic life of Aleppo, by providing information on the value accorded to the economical significance of Aleppo by the Ottoman State, which ruled the city for nearly 400 years, as well as the construction activities it conducted with respect to the economic importance of the city.

Keywords

The Ottoman State, Aleppo, Commerce, Caravanserai, Economics

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