Tripolis
Tripolis
(TRIPOLITANA).
A Maronite and Melchite diocese, in Syria. The primitive name of the town is not known; Dhorme (Revue biblique, 1908, 508 sqq.) suggests that it is identical witrh Shi-ga-ta mentioned in the El-Amarna letters between 1385 and 1368 B.C. The name Tripolis is derived from the fact that the city formed three districts separated from each other by walls, inhabited by colonists from Aradus, Tyre, and Sidon, and governed by a common senate. Almost nothing is known of its ancient history. Christianity was introduced there at an early date; mention may be made of a much frequented sanctuary there which was dedicated to the martyr St. Leontius, whose feast is observed on 18 June (Analecta bollandiana, XIX, 9-12). The see, which was in the Province of Tyre and the Patriarchate of Antioch, had a bishop, Helladicus, in 325; other bishops were: the Arian Theodosius; Commodus, who was present at the Council of Ephesus in 431; and Theodorus, at that of Chalcedon in 451 (Le Quien, “Oriens christ.”, II, 821-24). After an earthquake Tripolis was restored by Emperor Marcianus about the middle of the fifth century, to be captured by the Arabs in 638, when it became a powerful centre of the Shiite religion, resisting all attacks by the Byzantines. It then had a university and a library of more than 100,000 volumes; the latter was burned on the arrival of the Crusaders. As early as 1103 Raymond, Count of Saint-Gilles, being unable to capture the city, built on a neighbouring hill the stronghold which still exists and compelled the inhabitants to pay him tribute. In 1109 the city was captured, made a countship, and given to Bertrand, Raymond’s son, and to his descendants. The latter owned it until 1289, when it was taken from them by Sultan Qalaoun, who massacred the entire Christian population. Du Cange (Les familles d’outre-mer, 811-13) and Eubel (Hierarchia catholica medii ævi, I, 526: II, 281; III, 339) give the list of its Latin residential and titular bishops. In 1517 the Turks finally captured Tripoli and still retain possession of it. In 1697 the Maronite prince Younès was martyred there for the Faith, and in 1711 the Sheikh Canaan-Daher-Shhedid.
Tripolis is now a sanjak of the vilayet of Beirut, and contains two towns linked by a tramway: El-Mina, or maritime Tripolis, on the site of the ancient city, and Taraboulos, built since 1289, at the foot of Raymond’s fortress. The two cities together contain 37,000 inhabitants, of whom 110 are Latins, 2200 Oriental Catholics of various rites, and 4000 schismatic Melchites; the remainder are Mussulmans. The Maronite bishop, Mgr. Antoine Arida, consecrated on 18 June, 1908, resides at Karrusadde. The Melchite bishop, Mgr. Joseph Doumani, was consecrated on 21 March, 1897. The Franciscans have the Latin parish and two establishments. In this parish are also established the Lazarists, the Carmelites, the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and the Sisters of Charity. The sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin is called Saïdyat el-Harah, Our Lady of the Quarter. The Maronite diocese has 48,000 faithful, 350 priests, and 70 churches. The Melchite diocese, created in 1897, has 1225 faithful, 14 priests, 10 churches or chapels, and 6 schools. The schismatic Melchite diocese has 50,000 members.
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DU CANGE, Les familles d’outre-mer (Paris, 1869), 477-95; RENAN, Mission de Phénicie (Paris, 1864), 120-30; GUÉRIN, Description de la Palestine: Galilee, II, 23-30; GOUDARD, La Sainte Vierge au Liban, 269-77; Missiones catholicæ (Rome, 1907), 783, 819; CHARON in Annuaire pont. cath. (Paris, 1911), 430.
S. VAILHÉ Transcribed by Dorothy Haley In honor of the Queen of Peace
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XVCopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Tripolis
( ), the Greek name of a city of great commercial importance, which served at one time as a point of federal union for Aradus, Sidon, and Tyre (hence the name the threefold city), which each had here its special quarter. What its Phoenician name was is unknown; but it seems not impossible that it was Kadytis, and that this was really the place captured by Necho, of which Herodotus speaks (2, 159; 3, 5). Kadytis is the Greek form of the Syrian Kedutha, the holy, a name of which a relic still seems to survive in the Nahr-Kadish, a river that runs through Tarabalus, the modern representative of Tripolis. All ancient federations had for their place of meeting some spot consecrated to a common deity, and just to the south of Tripolis was a promontory which went by the name of .
It was at Tripolis that, in the year B.C. 351, the plan was concocted for the simultaneous revolt of the Phoenician cities and the Persian dependencies in Cyprus against the Persian king Ochus. Although aided by a league with Nectanebus, king of Egypt, this attempt failed, and in the sequel a great part of Sidon was burned and the chief citizens destroyed. Perhaps the importance of Tripolis was increased by this misfortune of its neighbor, for soon after, when Alexander invaded Asia, it appears as a port of the first order. After the battle of Issus, some of the Greek officers in Darius’s service retreated thither, and not only found ships enough to carry themselves and eight thousand soldiers away, but a number over and above, which they burned in order to preclude the victor from an immediate pursuit of them (Arrian, 2, 13). The destruction of Tyre by Alexander, like that of Sidon by Ochus, would naturally tend rather to increase than diminish the importance of Tripolis as a commercial port. When Demetrius Soter, the son of Seleucus, succeeded in wresting Syria from the young son of Antiochus (B.C. 161), he landed there and made the place the base of his operations. It is this circumstance to which allusion is made in the only passage in which Tripolis is mentioned in the Bible (2Ma 14:1).
The prosperity of the city, so far as appears, continued down to the middle of the 6th century of the Christian aera. Dionysius Periegetes applies to it the epithet in the 3rd century. In the Peutinrge Table (which probably was compiled in the reign of the emperor Theodosius), it appears on the great road along the coast of Phoenicia, and at Orthosia (the next station to it northwards) the roads which led respectively into Mesopotamia and Cilicia branched off from one another. The possession of a good harbor in so important a point for land traffic doubtless combined with the richness of the neighboring mountains in determining the original choice of the site, which seems to have been a factory for the purposes of trade established by the three great Phoenician cities. Each of these held a portion of Tripolis surrounded by a fortified wall, like the Western nations at the Chinese ports; but in A.D. 543 it was laid in ruins by the terrible earthquake which happened in the month of July of that year, and overthrew Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, and Byblus as well. On this occasion the appearance of the coast was much altered. A large portion of the promontory Theuprosopon (which in the Christian times had its name, from motives of piety, changed to Lithoprosopon) fell into the sea, and, by the natural breakwater it constituted, created a new port, able to contain a considerable number of large vessels. The ancient Tripolis was finally destroyed by the sultan El-Mansur in A.D. 1289, and the modern Tarabalus is situated a couple of miles distant to the east, and is no longer a port. El- Myna, which is perhaps on the site of the ancient Tripolis, is a small fishing village. Tarabalus contains a population of fifteen or sixteen thousand inhabitants, and is the center of one of the four pashalics of Syria. It exports silk, tobacco, galls, and oil, grown in the lower parts of the mountain at the foot of which it stands, and performs, on a smaller scale, the part which was formerly taken by Tripolis as the entry point for the productions of a most fertile region (Diod. Sic. 16:41; Strabo, 16:2; Vossius ad Melam, 1, 12; Theophalnes, Chronographia, sub anno 6043). For the modern place, see Pococke, 2, 146 sq.; Maundrell, p. 26; Burckhardt, p. 163 sq.; Porter, Handbook, p. 542; Badeker, Palestine, p. 509 sq. (where a map is given). SEE PHOENICIA.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Tripolis
TRIPOLIS.An important town in northern Phnicla, where Demetrius Soter landed when he made his successful attack against Antiochus v. (2Ma 14:1). It was divided into three parts, originating in colonies from Tyre, Sidon, and Arvadhence the name. The modern Tarbuls is two miles inland, its fort occupying the site of the ancient city on the coast.
J. F. McCurdy.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Tripolis
tripo-lis (, Trpolis, triple city): Demetrius the son of Seleucus, having fled from Rome, collected a mighty host and fleet, sailed into the haven of Tripoils, took the city, obtained possession of the country, and put to death his cousin, Antiochus V, along with his guardian Lysias (2 Macc 14:1 ff; Josephus, Ant., XII, x, 1). After a period of unsuccessful guerrilla warfare against Hyrcanus in Samaria, Antiochus Cyzicenus retired to Tripells (Ant., XII, x, 2). The city was founded by the Phoenicians and was a member of the Phoenician league. It was divided into 3 quarters by walls – hence, the name triple city – and these were occupied by settlers from Tyre, Sidon, and Aradus, respectively. The federal council of these states sat here. Its position on the Phoenician seacoast, with easy access to the interior, gave it many advantages from the commercial point of view. The Seleucid monarchs, the Romans, and Herod the Great did much to beautify the city; the last-named building a gymnasium (Josephus, BJ, I, xxi, 11). When attacked by the Arabs the inhabitants took ship and escaped. Later their places were taken by Jews and Persians. Captured by the Crusaders in 1109, it was taken by the Egyptians in 1289. The ancient city was surrounded on three sides by the sea. The site is now occupied by el-Mna, the harbor of the modern city, Tarabulus, which stands on the bank of Nahr Kadsha, about 2 miles away. The inhabitants number about 23,000. The town gives its name to a district under the vilayet of Beirut, which has always been famous for its fruitfulness.