Since 2011, Syria’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, levelled entire communities and prompted waves of refugees to flee their home country in search of safety.

On a much smaller scale, the conflict has delivered a devastating blow to one of the country’s oldest industries: soap-making.

For thousands of years, Aleppo was known for producing laurel soap, an artisan product with purifying qualities that was said to be favoured by Cleopatra.

A Montreal woman who imports the handmade soaps to Canada has gone to great lengths to keep the tradition alive and support local soap-makers working in the shadow of the war.

Adelle Tarzi-Bachi has been selling the soap in Montreal since 2009. After the civil war broke out, shipments came to an abrupt halt as many of the production factories were destroyed. Luckily, some soap artisans have found a safe way to rebuild and keep the family business alive.

For Tarzi-Bachii to continue, she had to secure a special permit and prove that she wasn’t working with any warring factions.

Keeping the business alive, she says, was personal.

“My mom, my grandma used to put it in the drawer to perfume the drawer,” she told CTV News. “We used to use it daily.”

The soap is still made in Aleppo using oil extracted from laurel berries, which are harvested from forests surrounding the ancient city.

Soap makers produce thousands of tons of the soap each year by hand-stamping each bar and letting them sit out for months to dry.

“Laurel oil has antiseptic and psychiatric benefits. So the more laurel percentage on the soap, the more it’s good for skin irritating problems,” she said.

For Tarzi-Bachi’s shipments to reach Canada, the boxes must pass through rebel-held areas and government territories before reaching Lebanon. From there, they are shipped overseas.

The onerous process, she says, is well worth it. She could import the soap from somewhere else, but she says it wouldn’t smell like home.

“It is the oldest soap in the world. It has been created thousands of years ago, and it is the same shape, the same colour,” she said.

The Syrian-sourced soap is sold in dozens of retailers across Quebec.

With a report from CTV’s Vanessa Lee in Montreal