Late Eighteenth-Century Riots in Ayntab in Comparative Perspective In 1772-1824, the town of Ayntab saw several waves of social and political upheaval, much like its senior neighbor Aleppo. Unlike rebellions in the earlier part of the century, economic tensions were not immediately visible in these disturbances even though they certainly were a factor. Instead, the period was marked by what looks like power struggles between sadat and janissaries of the town, again, much like in contemporary Aleppo. Nineteenth-century historians of the Ottoman center dated the divide between the two groups in Ayntab and Aleppo (and Mara?) to the time of the Ottoman conquest, which, in fact, lends support to the interpretation we find in some modern studies on ashraf in Arab cities. Chroniclers characterized the sadat/ashraf-janissary divide as one between the old local nobility on the one side and pro-Ottoman social groups on the other. This argument is not completely incorrect but it appears ahistorical in its overarching scope. For one thing, it can be argued that the claim of descent from the family of the prophet Muhammad served simultaneously as a medium of resistance and adaptation to Ottoman rule in various parts of the empire, at least, from the 16th century onwards, but such claims were not prompted by just one factor, or one aspect of the process of state-making. Therefore, the claimants were not a homogenous group across time and space. The same considerations apply to claims of membership in the janissary corps as well even if the claimants in this case appear less diverse in terms of their social background. As for the ‘pro-Ottoman stance’ of the janissaries, it is as problematic as the ‘anti-Ottoman stance’ of the sadat/ashraf. This paper attempts to disentangle the significance of the sadat/ashraf-janissary divide in Ayntab in the context of two episodes of upheaval: 1788 and 1791, and discuss them in three perspectives: local, regional and imperial. The paper will be based on chronicles, the court records of Ayntab, and orders and reports from the Prime Ministry Archives in Istanbul.