Sat 30 Jan - THE ORLEANIST AND THE ORIENT: Aleppo's Merchant City and the Paris of Louis-Philippe with Historian Philip Mansel

King Louis-Philippe's reign cultivated the arts quarter reputation that Paris became famous for in the nineteenth century. At the same time foreign affairs, colonial ambitions led him to campaigns in Algeria and Syria. Philip Mansel looks at the history of Paris and the merchant city of the Aleppo and their cultural and colonial links before Syria gained independence from France in 1946. The city's rich history creates a brutal contrast with the modern political isolation, instability and the current devastation we are still witnessing in Aleppo. Philip Mansel's forthcoming book 'Aleppo: The Rise and Fall of Syria's Great Merchant City' will be published shortly by I.B. Tauris.