Aleppo
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Revised and updated.
A poignant testament to the city shattered by Syria's civil war.
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 a vibrant world city, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived and traded together in peace. Few places are as ancient and diverse. At the crossroads of global trade, Aleppo drew merchants from Venice, Isfahan and Agra to the largest souq in the Middle East and it was from here that some of the world's most enduring food, music and culture sprang.
Philip Mansel is a historian of France and the Middle East. He has lived in Paris, Beirut and Istanbul, and has frequently visited Aleppo. In 2012 he won the London Library Life in Literature award and became a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 2013. Aleppo: The Rise and Fall of a World City is a sequel to his two best-selling books on other mixed cities of the Middle East: Constantinople: City of the World's Desire (1995), on Istanbul; and Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean (2010), on Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut. He is also the author of The Eagle in Splendour (I.B.Tauris).