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Phoenician
Tyre was queen of the seas, an
island city of unprecedented
splendor. She grew wealthy from her
far-reaching colonies and her
industries of purple-dyed textiles.
But she also attracted the attention
of jealous conquerors among them the
Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and
Alexander the Great.
Five
Millennia of History
Founded at
the start of the third millennium
B.C., Tyre originally consisted of a
mainland settlement and a modest
island city that lay a short
distance off shore. But it was not
until the first millennium B.C. that
the city experienced its golden age.
In the 10th century B.C. Hiram, King
of Tyre, joined two islets by
landfill. Later he extended the city
further by reclaiming a considerable
area from the sea. Phoenician
expansion began about 815 B.C. when
traders from Tyre founded Carthage
in North Africa. Eventually its
colonies spread around the
Mediterranean and Atlantic, bringing
to the city a flourishing maritime
trade. But prosperity and power make
their own enemies. Early in the
sixth century B.C. Nebuchadnezzar,
King of Babylon, laid siege to the
walled city for thirteen years. Tyre
stood firm, but it was probable that
at this time the residents of the
mainland city abandoned it for the
safety of the island.
In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great set
out to conquer this strategic
coastal base in the war between the
Greeks and the Persians.Unable to
storm the city, he blockaded Tyre
for seven months. Again Tyre held
on. But the conqueror used the
debris of the abandoned mainland
city to build a causeway and once
within reach of the city walls,
Alexander used his siege engines to
batter and finally breach the
fortifications. It is said that
Alexander was so enraged at the
Tyrians' defense and the loss of his
men that he destroyed half the city.
The town's 30,000 residents were
massacred or sold into slavery. Tyre
and the whole of ancient Syria fell
under Roman rule in 64 B.C..
Nonetheless, for some time Tyre
continued to mint its own silver
coins.
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The
Romans built great important
monuments in the city, including an
aqueduct,
a triumphal arch and the largest
hippodrome in antiquity.
Christianity figures in the history
of Tyre, whose name is mentioned in
the new testament. During the
Byzantine era, the Archbishop of
Tyre was the primate of all the
bishops of Phoenicia. At this time
the town witnessed a second golden
age as can be seen from the remains
of its buildings and the
inscriptions in the necropolis.
Taken by the Islamic armies in 634,
the city offered no resistance and
continued to prosper under its new
rulers, exporting sugar as well as
objects made of pearl and glass |
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With
the decline of the Abbasid
caliphate, Tyre acquired some
independence under the dynasty of
Banu 'Aqil, vassals of the Egyptian
Fatimides. This was a time when Tyre
was adorned with fountains and its
bazaars were full of all kinds of
merchandise, including carpets and
jewerly of gold and silver.
Thanks to Tyre's strong
fortifications it was able to resist
to onslaught of the Crusaders until
1124. After about 180 years of
Crusader rule, the Mamlukes retook
the city in 1291, then it passed on
to the Ottomans at the start of the
16th century. With the end of the
World War I Tyre was integrated into
the new nation of Lebanon.
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Major
Cities - Tyre
