Al-Bab

Al-Bab الباب Bab Bzaʻa
Toun
Al-Bab Location in Sirie
Coordinates: 36°22′21″N 37°31′4″E
Kintra	Sirie
Govrenorate	Aleppo Govrenorate
Destrict	Al Bab Destrict
Nahiyah	Al-Bab
Elevation	471 m (1,545 ft)
Population  (2004)
• Total	63,069
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	+3

Al-Bāb (Arabic: الباب‎) is a Sirian ceety admeenistratively belangin tae the Aleppo Govrenorate. Al Bab is locatit northeast o Aleppo an haes an aurie o 30 km². Al-Bab haes an altitude o 471 meters. It haes a population o 144,705 as o 2007, makkin it the 8^t lairgest ceety per geographical entity in Sirie. The majority o the ceety's population are Sunni Muslims.

Name

Al-Bāb in Arabic means the door. Accordin tae Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in 1226, the name is a shortenin o Bāb Bizāʻah (the gate tae Bizāʻah). Bizāʻah (an aa Buzāʻah an Bzāʻā) is a toun locatit aboot 10 km east o Al-Bāb.

History

Al-Bāb wis conquered bi the Arab airmy o the Rashidun Caliphate unner caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab. It received its name, meanin "the Gate", durin Islamic rule as it served as "the gate" atween Aleppo an the adjacent toun o Buza'ah. The tomb an shrine o Aqil ibn Abi Talib (the brither o Ali) wis locatit in al-Bāb, an till its rule bi the Ayyubids in the 13t century, the toun wis populatit maistly bi Shias o the Ismaili sect.

Accordin tae Yaqut al-Hamawi in 1226, it wis a sma toun in the destrict o Aleppo. In the toun wur mercats filled wi a type o cotton product cried kirbas which wur exportit tae Damascus an Egyp. Abu al-Fida writes that al-Bab wis a sma toun wi a mercat, a bath, pleasant gardens, an a mosque (the Great Mosque o al-Bab).