Heritage
Six generations at the kettle.
The story of a family, a city, and a bar of soap that outlasted them both.
Soap has been cooked in these vaults for some seven centuries; the Jebeili family has made and stamped it under their own name since 1832.
“My grandfather said the soap is not finished when you cut it. It is finished when your grandchildren sell it.”Abu Samir Jebeili, master soapmaker
Born in the Old City.
The soap factory stands by Bab Qinnisrine, one of the seven ancient gates of Aleppo, facing the Arghony Bimaristan — the old Arghun hospital — in premises that began in the Mamluk era as a khan — a grand travellers' inn beside Khan al-Qadi, the Judge's Khan, and a few steps from the covered souqs and the Citadel. By the seventeenth century its vaults had been given over to soapmaking, and in 1832 the Jebeili family bought them outright to cook and trade Aleppo soap under their own name. The recipe they settled on — olive oil pressed in the countryside around Aleppo, laurel berry oil from the coastal mountains — has not changed since.
It is the oldest hard soap in the world — full soap of olive oil and lye was cooked in Aleppo as far back as the eighth century, and the Marseille soap of Europe traces its method to it.
Each generation since has apprenticed at the kettle before earning the right to strike the family stamp.
Timeline
Seven centuries of these vaults.
The premises rise by Bab Qinnisrine in the Mamluk era as a khan — a grand hostelry for merchants, beside the Judge's Khan (Khan al-Qadi).
The vaults are given over to soapmaking — olive oil, laurel oil, alkali, and water cooked into Aleppo soap.
The Jebeili family buy the soap factory to produce and trade under their own name, refining the pour by laying paper beneath the liquid soap for a cleaner slab.
Jebeili soap is awarded the Silver Medallion at the Industrial & Agricultural Fair in Cairo.
Production pauses during the conflict. The family safeguards the stamps, ledgers, and recipes.
The kettles are relit in the rebuilt workshop, and the first post-war batch is stacked to age.
The sixth generation cooks one winter batch a year and ships it to shops on four continents.
See how it is made.
From the winter cook to the aging towers — the same six steps, every year.
The process