Ayntab

Ayntab lies between the highlands of Anatolia and the plains of northern Syria, beneath a castle that dominates the town. Its position on routes linking Aleppo with the Euphrates and inland Anatolia made it a place of markets and workshops. The neighbouring village of Dülük was an older centre of settlement, but Ayntab grew into the principal town of the district during the Islamic period.

The town entered the Ottoman Empire after the campaigns of Selim I in 1516. During the sixteenth century it became a centre of a sancak, and its inhabitants supplied goods for armies travelling east. Ottoman court records show that merchants extended credit and invested in trade. In the second half of the seventeenth century visitors stayed in the town's inns and dealt in markets such as the Uzun Çarşı, Arasta and Kalealtı. Locally made textiles attracted buyers, while resident merchants maintained connections with distant places.