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Where Is Aleppo And Where Is Arşın?



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#1 saffron

    Turkish Instructor, Moderator

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Posted 10 February 2012 - 02:59 PM

Aleppo is a big city of Syria, which is near to Antakya, Turkey. In Turkish this city is called 'Halep'.
The story goes like that: Once there was a man who loved to exaggerate his achievements, so he had the habit of overestimating himself by telling unrealistic stories. One day he said that when he was in Aleppo, he was able to jump over a distance of sixty 'arşın'. Arşın is another measuring unit used before the metric system was accepted. Altough arşıns used for different purposes were not exactly the same, roughly it corresponds to 70 cm.
While he was proud of telling his achievements in Aleppo, somebody stopped and challenged him: 'Ok, prove it!'. He replied: 'but I was able to jump when I was in Aleppo'. 'Ok, said the other, 'if Aleppo is there, arşın is here': 'Halep ordaysa arşın burda'.
This saying was used to challenge somebody to prove his claim. But in the course of time, it gained another meaning as well: If somebody says what you intend to do sounds impossible , you can say 'Halep ordaysa arşın burda' to mean you are capable to prove your claim.