The Jews of Aleppo, Syria, had been part of the city' fabric for more than two thousand years, through good times and bad, conquerors and kings, residing alongside Christians and Muslims with respectful tolerance. By the middle years of the twentieth century, though, all that had changed, leading to an odyssey that began for the Sutton family on a fateful day in 1941. Rising anti-Semitism, Claudette Sutton's grandfather decided, required him to "export his sons", beginning with the oldest, her father, Mike. Decades later, Mike's unassuming request to his daughter to "help me get my story down on paper" opened a treasure trove of personal memories, religious history, and global politics which have come together as Farewell, Aleppo.

The linguistic history of Northwest Syria spans more than 6,000 years, starting with the emergence of Semitic languages. This book takes the reader on a journey through the region's linguistic evolution, highlighting key events that influenced its course. Each chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the language spoken during a unique period, focusing on Eblaite, Amorite, Aramaic, and Arabic, and diving deep into the features of various Aramaic and Arabic dialects. With three glossaries included, this book is a valuable resource for linguists, historians, and Semitic studies enthusiasts interested in historical linguistics and ancient languages.

First published in 1927. 'This diary is history' The Observer This is the first complete published edition of Teonge's Diary. The edition of 1825, besides omitting several passages, contained many faulty transcriptions which have now been corrected for this edition. An intensely human document, enlivened with sketches of the people he met and places he visited, Teonge's Diary is one of the finest accounts of life on board ship in the seventeenth century. When not at sea, Henry Teonge's life was as a parson and this edition of his Diary includes a full inventory for his Parish, providing an excellent source of historical and social information on rural life in the late 1600s.

Incorporating published and archival material, this volume fills an important gap in the history of the Jewish experience during World War II, describing how the war affected Jews living along the southern rim of the Mediterranean and the Levant, from Morocco to Iran. Surviving the Nazi slaughter did not mean that Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa were unaffected by the war: there was constant anti-Semitic propaganda and general economic deprivation; communities were bombed; and Jews suffered because of the anti-Semitic Vichy regulations that left them unemployed, homeless, and subject to forced labor and deportation to labor camps. Nevertheless, they fought for the Allies and assisted the Americans and the British in the invasion of North Africa. These men and women were community leaders and average people who, despite their dire economic circumstances, worked with the refugees attempting to escape the Nazis via North Africa, Turkey, or Iran and connected with international aid agencies during and after the war. By 1945, no Jewish community had been left untouched, and many were financially decimated, a situation that would have serious repercussions on the future of Jews in the region. Covering the entire Middle East and North Africa region, this book on World War II is a key resource for students, scholars, and general readers interested in Jewish history, World War II, and Middle East history.

Paul of Aleppo, an archdeacon of the Church of Antioch, journeyed with his father Patriarch Makarios III ibn al-Za'im to Constantinople, Moldavia, Wallachia and the Cossack's lands in 1652-1654, before heading for Moscow. This book presents his travel notes, preceded by his record of the patriarchs of the Church of Antioch and the story of his father's office as a bishop and election to the patriarchal seat. The author gives detailed information on the contemporary events in Ottoman Syria and provides rich and diverse information on the history, culture, and religious life of all the lands he travelled across.

Winner of the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature A thousand years ago, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. It was kept safe through one upheaval after another in the Middle East, and by the 1940s it was housed in a dark grotto in Aleppo, Syria, and had become known around the world as the Aleppo Codex. Journalist Matti Friedman’s true-life detective story traces how this precious manuscript was smuggled from its hiding place in Syria into the newly founded state of Israel and how and why many of its most sacred and valuable pages went missing. It’s a tale that involves grizzled secret agents, pious clergymen, shrewd antiquities collectors, and highly placed national figures who, as it turns out, would do anything to get their hands on an ancient, decaying book. What it reveals are uncomfortable truths about greed, state cover-ups, and the fascinating role of historical treasures in creating a national identity.