Former state in the French Mandate of Syria
The
State of Aleppo
(
French
:
Etat d'Alep
;
Arabic
:
???? ???
Dawlat ?alab
) was one of the six states that were established by the
French
High Commissioner of the Levant
, General
Henri Gouraud
, in the
French Mandate of Syria
which followed the
San Remo conference
and the collapse of
King Faisal I
's short-lived Arab
monarchy in Syria
.
The other states were the
State of Damascus
(1920), the
Alawite State
(1920), the
State of Jabal Druze
(1921), the
Sanjak of Alexandretta
(1921), as well as the
State of Greater Lebanon
(1920), which later became the modern country of
Lebanon
.
Establishment
[
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]
Official document carrying the name and the stamps of the State of Aleppo
The State of Aleppo was declared by the French General Henri Gouraud on 1 September 1920 as part of a French scheme to make Syria easier to control by dividing it into several smaller states. France became more hostile to the idea of a united Syria after the
Battle of Maysaloun
. The State of Aleppo included the
Sanjak of Alexandretta
and was governed by Kamil Pasha al-Qudsi.
[1]
By separating Aleppo from Damascus, Gouraud wanted to capitalize on a traditional state of competition between the two cities and turn it into political division. The people in Aleppo were unhappy with the fact that Damascus was chosen as capital for the new nation of Syria. Gouraud sensed this sentiment and tried to manipulate it by making Aleppo the capital of a large and wealthier state with which it would have been hard for Damascus to compete. The State of Aleppo as drawn by France contained most of the fertile area of Syria, including the fertile country around Aleppo as well as the entire fertile basin of the
Euphrates
. The state also had access to the sea via the autonomous
Sanjak of Alexandretta
. On the other hand, Damascus, which is an oasis on the fringes of the
Syrian Desert
, had neither enough fertile land nor access to sea. Gouraud wanted to make the State of Aleppo attractive to its potential rulers by giving it control over most of the agricultural and mineral wealth of Syria, so that it would not want to re-unite with Damascus.
Population
[
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]
There was a
Sunni Muslims
majority in the Aleppo State. This population was mostly
Arabs
but also included
Kurds
, especially in the eastern regions, and other diverse ethnicity relocated during the
Ottoman
period, most notably
Circassians
,
Albanians
,
Bosnians
,
Bulgars
,
Turks
,
Kabardins
,
Chechens
, and others. Significant
Shia Muslim
populations lived in Aleppo too, in towns such as
Nebbol
,
Fu'a
,
Az Zahra'
,
Kefrayya
and
Maarrat Misrin
.
Aleppo was also a home to one of the richest and most diversified
Christian
communities of the
Orient
. Christians belonging to a dozen different congregations (with prevalence of the
Armenian Apostolic
,
Greek Catholic
, and
Syriac Orthodox
churches) represented about a third of the population of Aleppo city, making it the city with the largest Christian community in the
Middle East
outside
Lebanon
. Many Christians inhabited the eastern districts of the state as well, being mainly of
Syriac
and
Assyrian
ethnicity.
In 1923, the total population of the state was around 604,000 (excluding the nomadic population of the eastern regions).
[2]
[3]
Aleppo city had also a large
Jewish
community.
General Distribution of Population in the State of Aleppo according to the French census in 1921-22
[4]
|
Religion
|
Inhabitants
|
Percentage
|
Sunni
|
502,000
|
83.1%
|
Christians
|
52,000
|
8.6%
|
Alawis
|
30,000
|
5%
|
Jews
|
7,000
|
1.2%
|
Foreigners
|
3,000
|
0.5%
|
Total
|
604,000
|
100%
|
Governors
[
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]
Mustafa Bey Barmada
, Governor General of the State of Aleppo, 1923
Mar'i Pasha Al Mallah, Governor General of the State of Aleppo, 1924
French Delegates
[
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]
The Council of Directors
[
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]
Despite the desires of the French government, Islamo-Arabic resistance was sufficient in forcing the French to work through them in governing the area. Thus, the Council of Directors was created in 1920 to complement the governor general. The four members of the Council were:
Mar'i Pasha Al Mallah
(Interior),
Subhi Bey Al Nayyal
(Justice),
Nasri Effendi Bakhash
(Commerce and Agriculture) and
Victor Effendi 'Ajouri
(Finance). On Al Mallah's resignation in 1921, he was succeeded by Al Nayyal as Director of the Interior and
Zaki Bey Al Gorani
was selected to succeed Al Nayyal as Director of Justice. In 1923, a left-wing French government came to power and changed political direction by allowing a pan-Arabic Syria to be constructed. Thus, the Aleppo Council of Directors was abolished following the establishment of the Syrian Federation.
The Representative Council
[
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]
The legislature was the Representative Council, and the majority of its members were pro-French. Some of the prominent deputies were
Subhi Barakat
who later served as President of the Syrian Federation, Aleppo's mayor Ghaleb Bey Ibrahim Pasha, the head of the Chamber of Commerce Salim Janbarat, the lawyer Michel Janadri and
Fakhir Al Jabiri
, elder brother of nationalist leader
Saadallah al-Jabiri
.
Hananu Revolt
[
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]
Ibrahim Hananu
was a native of Aleppo and a prominent member of the
Syrian National Congress
which was elected in 1919, and which refused the French mandate of Syria. Supported by the Turkish nationalist leader
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
, Hananu started an armed insurgency against the French that lasted until he was arrested in 1921. Hananu was tried in the same year in an Aleppo court, but he was found not guilty by the judges by three votes to two; probably the verdict was influenced by the crowds of supporters who gathered around the courthouse in that day.
Hananu moved to political opposition afterwards, and in 1926, he played a major role in preventing the secession of Aleppo from the State of Syria established in December 1924. He died in 1935.
The Syrian Federation and the State of Syria
[
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]
General Gouraud created the
Syrian Federation
on 28 June 1922. The federation included the states of Damascus, Aleppo, and the Alawite State. In 1924, the Alawite State was separated again. The Syrian Federation was incorporated into the
State of Syria
on 1 January 1925. With the centralization of the new Syrian state in 1925, Aleppo lost its autonomy and reduced to provincial dependency on Damascus. The incumbent governor general of the state of Aleppo the Moslem
Mar'i Pasha Al Mallah
was named governor (vali) of the province of Aleppo (with a rank of minister). However, the colonial flag of the State of Aleppo remained in use until 25 January 1925 when it was finally abolished.
[5]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- al-Ghazzi, Kamil, Nahr al-dhahab fi tarikh halab, (History of Aleppo), 3 vols., Aleppo, 1922?1926.
- L'indicateur Libano-Syrienne. Eds. E & G. Gedeon. Beirut, 1923, 1928?1929.
- Recueil des Actes Administratifs du Haut-Commissariat de la Republique Francaise en Syrie et au Liban. Beirut, 1919?1920, 1921?1939.
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37°10′E
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