Tripoli - City of Lebanon

Tripoli is a city in Lebanon. Situated north of Batroun and the cape of Lithoprosopon, Tripoli is the capital of the North Governorate and the district of the same name. The city is located 85 km north of the capital Beirut, and can be described as the easternmost port of Lebanon.

Tripoli is today the second-largest city and second-largest port in Lebanon, with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, mainly Sunni Muslims , along with fairly large communities of Christians and Alawite Muslims. The city borders El Mina, the port of the Tripoli district, which it is geographically conjoined with to form the greater Tripoli conurbation.

There is evidence of an early settlement in Tripoli that dates back as early as 1400 BC. In the 9th century BC, the Phoenicians established a trading station in Tripoli and later, under Persian rule, the city became the center of a confederation of the Phoenician city states of Sidon, Tyre, and Arados Island. Under Hellenistic rule, Tripoli was used as a naval shipyard and the city enjoyed a period of autonomy. It came under Roman rule around 64 BC. In 551, an earthquake and tidal wave destroyed the Byzantine city of Tripoli along with other Mediterranean coastal cities.

Many historians deny the presence of any Phoenician civilization in Tripoli before the 8th century BC. However, a careful investigation of the sequence of Phoenician port establishments on the Lebanese coast will realize a north-to-south gradient, thus, indicating an earlier age for the Phoenician Tripoli. Other evidence is supported by the idea that Phoenicians always preferred cities that had islands in front of them. Tripoli fulfills this criterion and in addition it has the Kadisha river that, for sure, helped in the establihement of a prosperous city.

Tripoli gained in importance as a trading centre for the whole Mediterranean after it was inhabited by the Arabs. Tripoli was the port city of Damascus; second military port of the Arab navy after Alexandria; prosperous commercial and shipbuilding center; wealthy principality under the Banu Ammar emirs. During a visit for the traveler Nasir-i-Khusrau in 1047, he estimated the size of the population in Tripoli to be around 20,000. Legally, Tripoli was part of the juridiction of the military province of Damascus .

During the Ottoman period, Tripoli became the provincial capital and chief town of an Ottoman pashalik encompassing the coastal territory from Jubayl to Tarsus and the inland Syrian towns of Homs and Hama; the two other vilayets were Aleppo, and Damascus. Until 1612, Tripoli was considered as the port of Aleppo. It also depended on Syrian interior trade and tax collection from mountainous hinterland. Tripoli witnessed a strong presence of French merchants during the 17th and 18th centuries and became under intense inter-European competition for trade.

Ottoman Tripoli embraced many religious buildings, such as: al-Muallaq or "hanging" Mosque , al-Tahhan Mosque , and al-Tawbah mosque . It also included several secular buildings, such as: Khan al-Saboun and Hammam al-Jadid.