State of Aleppo
State of Aleppo | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1920–1925 | |||||||||
Flag | |||||||||
French Mandate of Syria) | |||||||||
Capital | Aleppo | ||||||||
Common languages | French Arabic | ||||||||
Historical era | Interwar period | ||||||||
1 September 1920 | |||||||||
28 June 1922 | |||||||||
1 January 1925 | |||||||||
|
The State of Aleppo (
The other states were the
Establishment
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
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
There was a
.Aleppo was also a home to one of the richest and most diversified
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
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
- 1920–1922 General Kamil Pasha al-Qudsi (1849–1926)
- 1923–1924 Mustafa Bey Barmada (1883–1953)
- 1924–1925 Mar'i Pasha Al Mallah(1856–1930)
French Delegates
- 1920–1922 General Henri-Félix de Lamothe (1843–1926)
- 1922–1924 General Gaston Billotte (1875–1940)
- 1925 Monsieur Jacques Reclus
The Council of Directors
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:
The Representative Council
The legislature was the Representative Council, and the majority of its members were pro-French. Some of the prominent deputies were
Hananu Revolt
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 Atatürk, 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
General Gouraud created the
See also
- French Mandate of Syria
- State of Alawites
- Jabal el Druze (state)
- Alexandretta / Hatay
- State of Damascus
- List of French possessions and colonies
- French colonial empire
- French colonial flags
References
- ^ Syrian History: Timeline
- ^ Syria: French Levant States 1920-1936
- ^ E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 2, page 301
- ^ E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 2, page 301
- ^ Autonomous State of Aleppo 1920-1924 (Syria)
Further reading
- al-Ghazzi, Kamil, Nahr al-dhahab fi tarikh halab, (History of Aleppo), 3 vols., Aleppo, 1922–1926.
- L'indicateur Libano-Syrienne. Eds. E & G. Gédéon. Beirut, 1923, 1928–1929.
- Recueil des Actes Administratifs du Haut-Commissariat de la République Française en Syrie et au Liban. Beirut, 1919–1920, 1921–1939.