''The Natural History of Aleppo'' is a 1756 book by naturalist Alexander Russell on the

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

. In 1794 his half-brother, Patrick Russell, revised and expanded the text in a second edition. The book is significant for its quality, the contemporary interest it attracted, and for being a product of the

Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment (, ) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Sco ...

. When the book was published it was immediately an important European record and perspective on the state of contemporary science in Syria. The book contains the earliest known description of the

Syrian hamster The golden hamster or Syrian hamster (''Mesocricetus auratus'') is a rodent belonging to the hamster subfamily, Cricetinae. Their natural geographical range is in an arid region of northern Syria and southern Turkey. Their numbers have been d ...

References

External links

*
The Natural History of Aleppo
' at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

2008 sale of book
by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Natural History of Aleppo 1756 non-fiction books Natural history books Scottish Enlightenment History of Aleppo Books about Syria