The earthquakes of Aleppo and the region of the "Dead Cities" (Syria) 7th-15th century

Abstract

Syria, in particular the area of Aleppo and the northwestern region on the border of present-day Turkey, is one of the most seismic areas in the eastern Mediterranean. This paper presents the effects of major earthquakes that occurred from the 7th up to the beginning of the 15th century AD, which struck Aleppo and the sites of Harim, Atarib, Zaradna and Ma‘arrat an-Nu‘man, not far from the “Dead Cities”, an area of abandoned settlements in northwest Syria between Aleppo and Idlib. During the first centuries of the Muslim conquest of Syria (7th-8th century AD) information on seismic effects regarding the city of Aleppo is scarce: it derives from a single source or from certain very late (12th-13th century) Arab and Syriac sources. In fact there are many information gaps not filled by the written sources available. Much more detailed are the numerous Arab sources of the twelfth century, contemporary or slightly later to seismic events they describe. The major seismic crisis that hit Syria during the twelfth century, culminating in the earthquake of 29 June 1170, in Aleppo had more destructive effects than the entire period examined here.