ALE 
of the affailants. Such, among others, is that on which 
the houfe of the Derviches hands, and which commands 
the canal and the rivulet: Aleppo, therefore, cannot be 
efteemed a place of importance in war, though it be the 
key of Syria to the north ; but, confidered as a commer¬ 
cial city, it has a different appearance. It is the emporium 
of Armenia and the Diarbekar; fends caravans to Bagdad 
and into Perfia : and communicates with the Perfian Gulph 
and India, by BafTora, with Egypt and Mecca by Damaf- 
cus, and with Europe by Scanderoon (Alexandretta) and 
Latakia. Commerce is there principally carried on by 
barter. The chief commodities are raw or fpun cottons, 
clumfy linens fabricated in the villages; filk huffs manu¬ 
factured in the city, copper, bcurres (coarfe cloths) like 
thole of Rouen, goats hair brought from Natolia : the 
gall nuts of the Kourdehan, the merchnndife of India, 
fuch as (hawlsand mtthins, and pihachio nutspf the growth 
of the neighbourhood. The articles fupplied by Europe 
are the Languedoc cloths, cochineal, indigo, fugar, and 
fome other groceries. The coffee of America, though 
prohibited, is introduced, and ferves to mix with that 
of Moka. The French have at Aleppo a eonful and feven 
counting'-houles; the Englifh and the Venetians two, and 
the merchants of Leghorn and Holland one. The empe¬ 
ror appointed a eonful there in 1784, in the perfon of a 
rich Jew merchant, who fliaved his beard to afRime the 
uniform and the fvvord. Ruffia has alfo fent one very 
lately. Aleppo is not exceeded in extent by any city in 
Turkey, except Conftantinople and Cairo, and perhaps 
Smyrna. The number of inhabitants has been computed 
at 200,000; but in thefe calculations certainty is impolli- 
ble. However, if we obferve that this city is not larger 
than Nantes or Marfeilles, and that the houfes Confiftonly 
of one ftory, we {hall perhaps not think it probable they 
exceed 100,oco. The people of this city, both Turks and 
Chriftians, are with reafon efteemed the mod civilized in 
all Turkey ; and the European merchants no where enjoy 
fo much liberty, or are treated with fo much refpeft. 
The air of Aleppo is very dry and piercing, hut at the 
fame time very falubrious for all who are not troubled with 
afthmatic complaints. The city, however, -and the envi¬ 
rons, are iubjeft to a Angular endemial diforder, which 
is called the ringworm or pimple of Aleppo : it is in fa£l a 
pimple which is at firfl inflammatory, and at length be¬ 
comes an ulcer of the fizeof the nail. The ufual duration 
of this ulcer is one year ; it commonly fixes on the face, and 
leaves a fear which disfigures almofl all the inhabitants. 
It is alleged that every ftranger who relides there three 
months is attacked with it; experience has taught that 
the bell mode of treatment is to make ufe of no remedy. 
No reafon is afligned fhr this malady: but M. Volnev fuf- 
peffs it proceeds from the quality of the water, as it is 
likev, ife frequent in the neighbouring villages, in fome 
parts of the Diarbekar, and even in certain diflricts near 
Damafcus, where the foil and the water have the fame 
apliearances. Of the Chriftian inhabitants the greater 
number are Greeks, next to them the Armenians, then 
the Syrians, and laftly the Maronites; each of whom have 
a church in the city called Judida ; in which quarter, and 
the parts adjacent, molt of them refide. The common 
language is the vulgar Arabic, but the Turks of condi¬ 
tion ufe the Turkifli. Mod of the Armenians can fpeak 
the Armenian, fome few Syrians underftand Syriac, and 
many of the Jews Hebrew ; but fcarcely one of the Greeks 
underflands a word of Greek. The people in general are 
of ajniddle ftature, and tolerably well proportioned ; but 
they they feem neither vigorous nor active. Both {exes 
are handfome when young: but the beard foon disfigures 
the men : and the women, as they come early to maturity, 
alfo fade very foon ; females are generally married'from 
fourteen to eighteen years of age, and many tinder four¬ 
teen. The'people of rank, here are polite and affable, 
making allowances for that fiiperiority which the Maho¬ 
metan religion inft ru< 5 ls its votaries to a {Rime over all who 
hold a different faith. Their bread is generally of wheat 
P P O. - 2 63 
flour made into thin cakes, but very ill prepared, and is 
generally eaten as foon as it comes out of the oven. The 
principal people have fm.all leaves of a finer flour, which 
are well fermented and baked. Befides thefe, there are a 
variety of bifeuits, mod of which are ftrevved on the top 
with fome kind of feeds. The Europeans have very good 
bread, baked and prepared in the French manner. All 
the inhabitants of both fexes fmoke tobacco to great ex- 
cefs,; even the very fervants have almoft conffantly a pipe 
in their mouths. Coaches or carriages are not ufed here ; 
therefore perfons of quality ride on horfeback in the city, 
with a number of fervants walking before them, according 
to their rank : ladies of the firfl diftinCtion are even com¬ 
pelled to walk on foot in the city, or to any place at a mo¬ 
derate diffance; in longer journeys they are carried by 
mules, in a kind of a couch clofe covered up. There are 
a number of public bagnios in this city, which are ufed 
by people of ail ranks, except thofe of the higheft diftinc- 
tion, who commonly have baths and every other conve¬ 
nience in their own houfes. A curious account of the 
domeftic manners of the people of Aleppo has lately been 
given to the public by Dr. Ruffel in his Natural Hiftory 
of Aleppo. This gentleman availed himfelf of the oppor¬ 
tunity which Ills profeflion of a phylician afforded, in gra¬ 
tifying his own and the public curiofify by a more detailed 
account of the Harem, or female apartments, that cha- 
ratleriflic objed of the eaftern domeftic economy. From 
this we fliall make fome extrads. 
“ When the ladies vifit one another in a forenoon, they 
do not immediately unveil oncoming into the Harem, left 
fome of the men lliculd happen to be ftill at home, and 
might fee them as they pafs; but, as foon as tiiey enter 
the apartment of f he lady to whom the vifit is intended, 
either one of the young ladies, or a {lave, aflifts in taking 
off the veil, which, being carefully folded up, is laid afide. 
It is a lign that the vibrant intends only a fhort flay; when, 
inftead of refigning the veil, fhe only uncovers her head, 
permitting the veil to hang carelefsly down on the fiioulders. 
This generally produces a friendly conteft between the 
parties; one infilling upon taking the veil away, the other 
refilling to furrender it. A like conteft takes place at the 
clofe of the vifit. The common falutation is performed 
by laying the right hand on the left bread, and gently in¬ 
clining the head. They fometimes falute by killing the 
cheek; and the young ladies kifs the hands of their lenior 
relations. They entertain with coffee and tobacco, but the 
ftierbetand perfume are onlyprcduced on particular occa- 
lions. The great men are attended in the Harem, by the 
female Haves, in the fame manner as, in the outer apart¬ 
ments, by the pages. They remain Handing in the hum¬ 
ble attitude of attendance, their hands eroded before them 
on their cindlure, and their eyes fixed on the ground. 
The other ladies, as well as the daughters of the family, 
occafionally bring the pipe and coffee, but do net remain 
Handing; they either are delired to lit down, or they re¬ 
tire. This however is to be underllood of the grandees; 
for, in ordinary life, both wives and daughters minifter 
fervilely to the men : the two fexes never fitting at table 
together. It is feldcm that all the ladies of a Harem are, 
by the great man, feen alfembled, unlefs they happen, 
in the Runnier, to be furprized fitting in the Divan, where 
they meet to enjoy the cool air. At Iris approach, they 
all rife up, but, if defired,. refume their places, (fome of 
the (laves excepted,) and return to their work. However 
loquacious they may have been before he entered, a rel- 
pedlful filence enfues the moment he appears : a rellraint 
which they feel the lefs, from their being accullomed to 
it almoft from infancy. The Turks, in prefence of their 
women, appear to affcfl a more haughty referred air than 
ufual, and, in their manner of 1’peaking to them, are lefs 
courteous, and more abrupt, than they are to one ano¬ 
ther, or even to men v. ho are much their inferiors. As 
this was frequently obferved in perfons remarkable for an 
affable deportment to men, it may be confidered rather as 
their ufual manner, than aferibed to the accidental pre¬ 
fence 
