The earliest reference to Aleppo’s destruction during the 1170 earthquake appears in the Latin chronicle of William of Tyre, writing no more than 15 years after the event. He includes Aleppo (Halapia) among several destroyed towns. Contemperaneous but distant Latin Chronicler Robert of Torigni lists Aleppo among the Arab cities that suffered the plague of destruction. A more vivid and detailed picture comes from Michael the Syrian, writing in Syriac a few decades later. He described Aleppo as completely destroyed—its walls and houses reduced to rubble, the ground split by cracks and fissures, and the air tainted by the stench of the dead. He emphasizes that nowhere else was there such horror and that the city’s collapse surpassed every other disaster in Syria. Strikingly, he observes that one Christian church—naturally of his own denomination—within Aleppo remained standing and completely intact. Arabic historian Ibn al-Athir, writing in Mosul early in the 13th century, also reports catastrophic destruction: Aleppo’s citadel, walls, and houses were ruined, great numbers were killed, and survivors fled in panic, unwilling to return for fear of aftershocks. Ibn al-Athir records how Nūr al-Dīn personally oversaw reconstruction of the town walls, mosques, and houses, an effort he says was enormously costly.

From Damascus, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi repeats the account of extreme ruin, adding that half of the citadel collapsed, and that 80,000 people were killed. He, too, notes that the population fled into the countryside. An Aleppine perspective is preserved by Kemal ad-Din (aka Ibn Al-Adim), who wrote before 1260 CE. He reports repeated shocks over several days, with more than five thousand deaths, and describes Nūr al-Dīn’s reconstruction of the ruined city walls and markets—including the building of a second, concentric wall that formed a double enclosure around the city. In Syriac, Bar Hebraeus repeated Michael the Syrian's account stating that that all else in Aleppo fell except one church, while other fortresses and great buildings also collapsed upon their inhabitants. Mid-13th-century historian Ibn Wasil called it “the earthquake of Aleppo and its region,” suggesting the city gave its name to the catastrophe. Around 1274 CE, the Armenian Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet stated that the ramparts of Aleppo were overthrown during this earthquake.

Later writers continued to echo the event. Ibn Shaddad mentions that much of the region was ruined. In the 14th century, Ibn al-Dawādārī reports that earthquakes lasted for months, killing many in Aleppo. Finally, as-Suyūṭī summarises that a very violent earthquake struck al-Shām and al-Jazira, notably Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus.