History of Tripoli, Lebanon
During the Roman and Byzantine period, Tripoli witnessed the construction of important public buildings including municipal stadium or gymnasium due to strategic position of the city midway on the imperial coastal highway leading from Antioch to Ptolemais.
He assigned the Tanukhid tribes to head to the mountains of Beirut to protect the coasts of the Levant and Islamic possessions from the Byzantine danger and local hostile movements.
[15] In Tripoli, 357 AH corresponding to the year 968 AD, there was a revolution against the Turkic Abbasid-appointed Ikhshidid rulers as a result of the tyranny of the governor, Abu al-Hasan Ahmed bin Ghurair al-Arghli, and his injustice and cruelty in the treatment of the people.
[16] And in the meantime, the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros Phocas II arrived in Tripoli in his campaign on the Levant in an attempt to take it from the Muslims, where he had seized the north of the country, including Arqa.
Where he arrested Abu Al-Hassan bin Ghurair Al-Arghli and took all his money, then he went to Tripoli and went down to it on the day of Eid Al-Adha and stayed in it that night and burned its territory and returned to the coastal countries.
[24] And according to Nasir Khusraw, the Fatimid Sultan raised a mighty army from Tripoli to defend it against Byzantine, Frankish, Andalusian and Moroccan invasions and raids.
[citation needed] At that time, Tripoli had a heterogeneous population including Western Europeans, Greeks, Armenians, Maronites, Nestorians, Jews, and Muslims.
The state was a major base of operations for the military order of the Knights Hospitaller, who occupied the famous castle Krak Des Chevaliers (today a UNESCO world heritage site).
The main products from agriculture and small industry included citrus fruits, olive oil, soap, and textiles (cotton and silk, especially velvet).
It is the madrassas which most attract attention, for they include highly original structures as well as decoration: here a honeycombed ceiling, there a curiously shaped corniche, doorway or moulded window frame.
[46] In early November, anti-PLO Palestinian factions and Syrian troops,[47] reportedly backed by Libyan forces, started to assault PLO positions in the outskirts of Tripoli, most importantly Beddawi and Nahr al-Bared.
[50] Arafat called upon other Islamic countries to assist the PLO to avoid "a new massacre",[48] believing that international pressure would force Damascus to accept him as the legitimate leader and stop the fighting.
[51] However, Arab support for the PLO was mostly confined to statements of denunciation by Iraq towards the Syrian actions[52] and Egypt sending an arms shipment to Arafat's forces.
[53] On 9 November, a ceasefire was agreed upon, while negotiations between the PLO, the anti-Arafat groups, and Syria were initiated under mediation by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanese third parties such as statesman Rashid Karami,[54] and the Arab League.
[53] Arafat's followers began a counter-attack at Beddawi on 18 November; the operation lasted for three days, but produced few tangible results aside from widespread destruction due to heavy artillery fire.
On 22 November, the Syrian-backed dissidents made major advances at the edges of Tripoli despite heavy resistance by the PLO loyalists, securing the Mallouleh intersection at the city's northern entrance and cutting all roads through the Baal Mohsen quarter which led to Beddawi.
[55] Faced with repeated attacks by the Syrians and allied Palestinians, coupled with the inaction of other countries, Arafat eventually yielded and agreed to a ceasefire as well as evacuation deal at the end of November.
Arafat's forces agreed to leave their heavy weapons behind, including the Katyusha multiple rocket launchers, technicals, recoilless rifles, and antiaircraft guns.
The PLO militants reportedly felt a mixture of frustration and relief, as they had lost the battle and had to move abroad, but at least survived the "devastating artillery siege".
[56] During the Civil War, Lebanese Alawites in the Jabal-Mohsen-based Arab Democratic Party (ADP) aligned with Syria, fought alongside the Syrian Army against the Sunni Islamist Tawhid Movement in Tripoli, which was based mainly in Bab-Tabbaneh.
The militant group subsequently began shooting at the Lebanese security forces who returned fire, triggering clashes in the vicinity of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli.
[67] On June 28, the military found and engaged a group of Fatah al-Islam militants, in a cave in the mountains south of Tripoli, in fighting that killed 5 Islamists.
[74] On 11 May, Sunni supporters of the Islamic groups had reportedly been fighting opposition followers in the Alawite dominated Jabal Mohsen area with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Between 22 and 23, clashes between pro-government Sunnis based in the Bab el-Tabaneh district and pro-Syrian Alawites from Jabal Mohsen led to the deaths of at least nine people, eight civilians and a policeman; 55 others were wounded.
[88] The exchange of gunfire between the Islamists and the army occurred as the protestors, who were sympathizers with the ongoing revolt in Syria, tried to approach the offices of the pro-Assad Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Lebanon.
[113] On 20 and 21 August, seven people were killed and more than 100 wounded in clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites in a spillover from the war in neighbouring Syria, according to security and medical sources.
[116] Further fighting occurred after a dawn exchange of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades between Sunni and Alawite fighters in the Qobbah and Jabal Muhsin neighbourhoods.
[122] At least 12 people were killed and 73 injured in Tripoli between 4 and 6 December, as Alawites and Sunnis were involved in heavy clashes, which were sparked by the Tall Kalakh incident, where 20 Lebanese Salafists that were going to join the insurgency in Syria were ambushed.
On 23 August 2013, twin bombings in Tripoli caused extensive damage with some 47 people killed and more than 500 wounded according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.
On 23 August 2013, twin bombings in Tripoli caused extensive damage with some 47 people killed and more than 500 wounded according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.
