Bombed-out Aleppo soapmaker revives age-old tradition in Paris

A Syrian soapmaker who fled Aleppo after the factory he worked in was bombed has set up shop in a Paris suburb, reviving a tradition he says dates back millennia. Hassan Harastani left Syria in 2012, first for Lebanon and then two years later moving to France at the invitation of Samir Constantini, a Franco-Syrian doctor who was already importing the distinctive Aleppo soap. "In Aleppo, this type of soap was manufactured maybe 3,000 years ago," said Harastani, who markets his version - which he sells on the internet and through a shop in Angers in western France - under the brand name Alepia.

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