Since 1835 Tripoli has lost the semi-independent character of a regency which it formerly enjoyed in common with Tunis, and has become a vilayet or outlying province of the Turkish empire. For administrative purposes it is divided into five districts, which are again subdivided into twenty-five cantons, the former being governed by motasarrifs and the latter by caimacams. Each village has its sheikh, who is assisted by a sort of municipal council. Since the invasion of Tunis by the French, the Turkish garrison of Tripoli has been considerably reinforced, and many new fortifications are partially erected on the coast. The chief judge or cacti is nominated by the Porte; the muftis are subject to his authority. There are also a criminal court and a commercial tribunal. The taxes are collected by a receiver-general, also nominated from Constantinople, and they press very heavily on all classes of the inhabitants. The principal sources of revenue are the usual Mohammedan taxes. The constant succession of Turkish governors, each of whom invariably follows a different policy from that of his predecessor, has been fatal to the material progress of the country. There are few elementary schools in the capital, and instruction in the interior is entirely limited to the Koran.

History.— After falling successively into the hands of the Phoenicians, Romans (a four-sided triumphal arch, erected in honour of Aurelius Antoninus and Aurelius Pius, still stands near the Marina gate), Vandals, and Greeks, Tripoli was finally conquered by the Arabs twelve centuries ago, and has remained a Moslem state ever since. In 1510 Ferdinand the Catholic of Spain took it, and thirteen years later it was given to the Knights of St John, who were expelled in 1553 by the Turkish corsairs Dragut and Sinan. Dragut, who afterwards fell in Malta, lies buried in a much venerated kubba close to one of the mosques. After his decease the connexion between Tripoli and Constantinople seems to have been considerably weakened. But the Tripolitan pirates soon became the terror and scourge of the Mediterranean; half the states of Europe seem at some time or other to have sent their fleets to bombard the capital. In 1714, when Hosain ibn 'Alí founded the present line of the beys of Tunis, Ahmed Pasha Caramanli achieved independence, and his descendants governed Tripoli until 1835. In that year the Turks took advantage of a civil war to reassert their authority, and since that date Tripoli has been governed by representatives of the sultan.

The khouan (ikhwán) or semi-religious semi-political fraternities which exercise such considerable influence in Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco are perhaps still more powerful in Tripoli. The most remarkable is that of the Senúsíya, the centre of whose authority is Jaghbub or Jerabub, north-west of the oasis of Síwa. The sectaries of Senúsíya are found in all parts of North Africa, but exist in unusual force in Tripoli, and particularly in Ghadámes and Murzuk. A certain halo of romance surrounds the history of this powerful sect; but its chief has, up to the present time (1887), not played any conspicuous part in the affairs of the Soudan or in those of the North African littoral. Mohammed el-Senúsí came originally in 1830 from Mostaghánem in Algeria. He acquired a high reputation for sanctity at Fez in Morocco. After a visit to Mecca and the holy places he started a záwiya or convent-college at Alexandria, but, being excommunicated by the sheikh al-Islam at Cairo, he fled across the Libyan Desert to the Jebel al-Akhdar near Benghazi. He afterwards removed to Jaghbub, which has never been visited by any European traveller. Here he established his záwiya in the midst of palm-groves and soon gathered nearly a thousand followers. His austere doctrines are received with enthusiasm in the Moslem states of Northern and Central Africa. He established some one hundred sanctuaries in every considerable place between Morocco and Mecca, and appointed mukaddemín or lieutenants in nearly every part of Islam. Senúsí the elder died in 1860 and was succeeded by his son, who bore the title of Al-Mahdí. Under his rule the prosperity of the záwiya at Jerabub is said to have greatly increased. Pilgrims to Mecca from North Africa, as well as those coming from Bornou and the Saharan provinces, flock there to seek his blessing. He not only receives caravans of ivory and ostrich feathers from the different sultans of the interior, but cargoes of arms and ammunition often arrive for him at the almost unknown harbours of the coast. Rohlfs, Nachtigal, and Duveyrier found their passage barred by Senusian agents. It was confidently expected Senúsí would make some demonstration at the beginning of the 14th century of the Hijra (November 1882). His followers were, however, doomed to disappointment. Most of the Tripolitan sheikhs are affiliated to the Senúsíya confraternity.

From an archaeological point of view Tripoli possesses an interest equal to, if not greater than, that which attaches to Tunis. On this subject the fullest information is afforded by the book of the Beecheys, and in a less degree by that of Mr Rae. The former is illustrated by numerous plans and engravings and still affords the safest guide to the antiquities of Tripoli. (A. Μ. B.)

TRIPOLI, the capital of the above country, is situated in 32° 53' 40" N. lat. and 13° 11' 32" E. long., on a promontory stretching out into the Mediterranean and forming a small bay. Its crenellated enceinte wall has the form of an irregular pentagon. A line of small half-ruined forts is supposed to protect one side of the harbour, and the castle of the governor the other. The desert almost touches the western side of the city, while on the east is the verdant oasis of Meshiga, where are still to be seen the tombs of the Caramanlian sultanas and the twelve-domed marabout of Sy Hamonda. In the town itself there are seven principal mosques, six of them possessing lofty minarets in the Turkish style. The streets are narrow, dirty, and unpaved; there is no European quarter properly so called: Tripoli is still a typical Moorish city. Its population numbers about 20,000.

TRIPOLI(Tarábulus), a town of Syria, capital of Liwā, on the river Kadīsha or Abū 'A1ī, in 34° 26' N. lat. and 35° 50' E. long., is situated in a fertile maritime plain covered with orchards and dominated by a castle overhanging a gorge of the river, some parts of which are, perhaps, the work of the crusaders. The port (Al-Míná) is about two miles distant, on a small peninsula. The population is estimated at 17,000, with the port at 24,000 or a little more. Nearly half of these are Christians, the Maronites preponderating. There is a considerable export of silk cocoons and a native silk manufacture; the sponge fishery is a large industry; tobacco is exported; and soap is made from the olive oil of the district. There are eighteen churches, and several monasteries, nunneries, and large kháns.

The ancient Phoenician city which we know only by its Greek name of Tripolis was the seat in Persian times of the federal council of Sidon, Tyre, and Aradus, each of which cities had its separate quarter in the “triple town” (see vol. xviii. p. 809). In the second and first centuries b.c. it struck coins, on which it is designated a “holy and autonomous” city. These are succeeded by imperial coins ranging from 32 b.c. to 221 a. d. About 450, and again in 550, it was destroyed by earthquake. The Arabs took it in 638 after a prolonged siege, the inhabitants withdrawing by sea. It appears from Beládhorí (p. 127) that at this time the city still consisted of three fortified places. Mo'áwiya recruited the population by a colony of Jews and gave it fortifications and a garrison against the naval attacks of the Greeks, who, notwithstanding, retook it for a brief space in the time of Abdalmalik (Beládh., ut sup.). It was again taken by the Greeks in the war of 966-69 and was besieged by Basil II. in 995, after which date it was held by a garrison in the pay of the Fatimite caliphs of Egypt, who treated the city with favour and maintained in it a trading fleet. At this time, according to the description of Násiri Khosrau (ed. Schefer, p. 40 sqq.), who visited it in 1047, it lay on the peninsula of Al-Míná, bathed on three sides by the sea, and had about 20,000 inhabitants and important industries of sugar and paper-making. Of the great sea-walls and towers there are still imposing remains. From this date till it was taken by the crusaders, after a five years’ siege, in 1109, the ruling family was that of 'Ammār, who founded a library of over 100,000 volumes. Under the crusaders Tripoli continued to flourish, exported glass to Venice, and had 4000 looms (Quatremère, Hist. des Sultans Mamlouks, ii. 103). In 1289 it was taken and destroyed by the sultan Kalaún of Egypt, and a new city was begun on the present site, which rapidly rose to importance (Ibn Batúta, i. 137). Its mediaeval prosperity has obliterated most relics of remoter antiquity.

See Renan, Mission de Phénicie, p. 129 sqq.