Citadels

The Citadel of Aleppo During the Seljuk Period in Historical Process
The city of Aleppo is located in a very strategic location in the north of Syria, where the transit roads cross from north to south and east to west. Aleppo is a city that preserved its importance in every period of history with this feature. In 1086, The Seljukids started to rule over the city during the reign of the Great Seljuk's ruler Melikshah. The short-term Seljukid domination indwelled the Turkish-Islamic civilization in every aspects in Aleppo. The citadel of Aleppo is the most spectacular building in Aleppo, which has a ancient history. The castle which dates back BC. 3000, it is one of the most remarkable and ancient works of military architecture in the Middle East, even in the world. It rises stately from the center of the old city. It has long been regarded as one of the wonders of the Islamic world. The citadel of Aleppo is situated on a natural oval-shaped mound with an artificially formed slope.It does not have a regular plan. Since its terrain is flat, the city is equipped with a triple defense system in the form of moat, outer and inner walls. During the Seljuk period, the city walls were rebuilt and the fortifications were repaired many times. Nuraddin Zangi has a privileged place in the castle history at the point of repair of the fortress, the construction of new administrative and social structures and defenses. The citadel of Aleppo, a Seljukid fortress, and its defense structures will be tried to evaluated in light of historical data in our article.

Keywords
Aleppo, The citadel of Aleppo, Seljuks, Imadaddin Zangi, Nûraddin Zangi.

Storia e immagine della diversità urbana: luoghi e paesaggi dei privilegi e del benessere, dell’isolamento, del disagio, della multiculturalità / History and image of urban diversity: places and landscapes of privileges and welfare, of seclusion, discomfort and multiculturalism

Nella storia moderna e contemporanea la città ha dovuto tenere conto delle ‘alterità’ sociali, ossia delle classi privilegiate, delle minoranze, degli stranieri e degli immigrati, e delle conseguenti diversità culturali e religiose. La compagine urbana ha strutturato alcune parti del proprio tessuto come luoghi di esercizio del potere politico, militare o di classe, altre come spazi per gli arrivi, per la produzione e per gli scambi, ma anche per l’isolamento, l’emarginazione o il rimedio alla catastrofe. Nel corso dell’età moderna l’immagine della città ‘altra’ viene spesso falsata o addirittura negata da governanti e potenti per fini di apparenza o di propaganda politica; e se, tra Sette e Novecento, nuovi metodi di rappresentazione possono svelare la struttura e il paesaggio urbano nella loro oggettività, il ritratto di città mostra ancora oggi le contraddizioni di una comunità che a volte include, o addirittura esalta, le diversità, altre volte le respinge, tradendo il malessere di una difficile integrazione.

In modern and contemporary history, the city has taken account of social ‘otherities’, namely of privileged classes, minorities, foreigners and immigrants, and of resulting cultural and religious diversity. The urban community has structured some parts of its fabric as places of political, military or class power, other parts as spaces for arrivals, for production and trade, but also for isolation, marginalization or remedy for catastrophe. In the modern age, the image of the ‘other' city’ is often falsified or even denyed by rulers and powerful people for purposes of political appearance or propaganda; and if, between the XVII and XX century, new methods of representation can reveal the structure and the urban landscape in their objectivity, the city portrait still shows the contradictions of a community that sometimes includes or even enhances the diversities, other times rejects them, betraying the malaise of a difficult integration.