[7] In an engraving concerning the invasion of Tripoli by the Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II (888–859 BC), it is called Mahallata or Mahlata, Mayza, and Kayza.

During the season of blooming, the pollen of orange flowers was said to be carried on the air, creating a splendid perfume that filled the city and suburbs.

This caused extensive destruction, including the burning of Tripoli's famous library, Dar al-'Ilm (House of Knowledge), with its thousands of volumes.

Tripoli has not been extensively excavated because the ancient site lies buried beneath the modern city of El Mina.

At the Abou Halka area (at the southern entrance of Tripoli) refuges dating to the early (30,000 years old) and middle Stone Age were uncovered.

During the Roman and Byzantine period, Tripoli witnessed the construction of important public buildings including a municipal stadium or gymnasium due to the strategic position of the city midway on the imperial coastal highway leading from Antioch to Ptolemais.

[19] The Jewish community of Tripoli traces its roots back to the seventh century, as recounted by the Abbasid-era historian al-Baladhuri.

Notably, during the Seljuk invasion in the 1070s, Tripoli served as a refuge for Jews from Palestine, as documented in Cairo Geniza records.

[21] 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 mid-twelfth century earthquake led to the death of many Jews in Tripoli, as noted by Jewish explorer Benjamin of Tudela.

[28] Tripoli became a major trading port of Syria supplying Europe with candy, loaf and powdered sugar (especially during the latter part of the 14th century).

The main products from agriculture and small industry included citrus fruits, olive oil, soap, and textiles (cotton and silk, especially velvet).

Arabs formed the population base (religious, industrial, and commercial functions) and the general population included the original inhabitants of the city, immigrants from different parts of the Levant, North Africans who accompanied Qalawun's army during the liberation of Tripoli, Eastern Orthodox Christians, some Western families, and a minority of Jews.

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.

Among the finest is the madrassa al-Burtasiyah, with an elegant façade picked out in black and white stones and a highly decorated lintel over the main door.

Hammams (public baths) were carefully located to serve major population concentrations: one next to the Grand Mosque, the other in the center of the commercial district, and the third in the right-bank settlement.

After the partition of the Ottoman Empire, the French created the territory of Greater Lebanon, whose borders forcibly separated Tripoli from Syria, a decision that was contested by Tripolitans.

[33] During this period, protests demanding reunification with Syria were backed by the Syrian National Bloc until the French cut off their support, resulting in a massive 33 day general strike in 1936.

Beirut's rise as Lebanon's dominant port deprived Tripoli of its former preeminence as a trading hub, and globalization eroded the city's ability to compete in manufacturing.

The city, moreover, saw little of the post-war reconstruction funding that Prime Minister Rafic Hariri ushered into Lebanon, with an overwhelming focus on the capital.

[41] Tripoli has a majority Arab, Sunni Muslim population in neighbourhoods such as Bab al-Tabbaneh, right next to the [2][5] small Lebanese-Alawite community that is concentrated in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood.

[2] Tripoli stands as one of Lebanon's less stable cities, marked by recurrent sectarian tensions among its communities, notably the Sunni and Alawite populations.

The impact of the Syrian civil war, beginning in 2011, had extended into Tripoli, where Alawites aligned with the former Assad regime, and Sunnis supported the opposition, resulting in frequent and intense clashes between the two groups.

There are fine baths here.’’ The hammams built in Tripoli by the early Mamluk governors were splendid edifices and many of them survive to the present.

The site was built for a World's Fair event to be held in the city, but construction was halted in 1975 due to the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war, and never resumed.

[46] "More recent years have seen the fairground undermined by a mixture of periodic instability and nonsensical administrative procedures that make it virtually impossible to put the facility to use.

If the city needed any more physical metaphors for decay, the fairground is flanked by a Quality Inn that is literally falling apart, and whose ownership is years overdue on payment to the site’s administrators.

[48] The Tripoli Special Economic Zone (TSEZ) was established in 2008 to provide exemptions from many taxes and duties for investment projects that have more than $300,000 of capital and more than half their workers from Lebanon.

At the end of the 15th century, the governor of Tripoli Yusuf Sayfa Pasha established Khan Al Saboun (the hotel of soap traders).