TRIPOLIS trĭp’ ə lĭs (Τρίπολις, three-city). This once important seaport in Phoenicia, N of Byblos, derived its name from its triple occupancy by citizens of Tyre, Sidon, and Arvad. Perhaps during the latter Pers. period (in the 4th cent. b.c.), it became the center of the conclaves from the neighboring localities. It was a member of the Phoenician League. It seems to have been a place of commercial importance, being bounded on three sides by the sea. It was also the seat of the federal council of the represented Phoen. states.

Demetrius Soter (162 b.c.), son of Seleucus of Syria, fleeing from Rome where he had been a hostage, collected a large force, took the city and gained possession of the country, executing his cousin Antiochus V (2 Macc 14:1; Jos. Antiq. XII. x. 1). Both the Seleucids, and later the Romans, added much to the city; Herod the Great built a gymnasium (Jos. War I. xxi. 11).

Tripolis was taken by the Mohammedans, a.d. 638; later (1109) by the Crusaders; and again by the Muslims, under Sultan Kala’un, of Egypt (1299), who wrought great destruction.

Constant attacks by enemies, and the feeling of insecurity, prompted removal two m. inland where the present Tarabulus was founded in 1366 on the banks of the Nahr Kadisha. The ancient Tripolis, under the later name of el-Mina, became the seaport for the modern Tarabulus. The British occupied the city in 1918; in 1920 it was incorporated in the State of Gran Liban. In 1941, it became part of the independent Republic of Lebanon. It specializes in soap, tobacco, sponges and fruits; and it exports eggs and cotton.

Bibliography A. H. M. Jones, Cities of the Roman Empire (1937), 231, 251.