Libya’s earliest inhabitants were the semi-nomadic Berbers, whose descendants still live throughout North Africa’s Atlas Mountains. Phoenician merchants from the Levant began to settle in what is today Libya from around 1000 BC
The Phoenicians founded Tripoli in the 8th century BC. It originally comprised three neighborhoods situated in the current location of Al Mina. It was the center of a Phoenician confederation with Sidon and Tyre and Arados Island, hence the name "Tripolis", meaning "triple city". This city enjoyed the highest repute amongst the cities of Phoenicia for there, as it happens, the Phoenicians held their common council and deliberated on matters of supreme importance.
Roman settlements appeared in Libya in the third century BC. Later Rome triumphed over Carthage and destroyed the city in 149 B.C. The Phoenician Tripolis: Oya, Sparta, and Leptis-Magna, close to the modern Tripoli, became a Roman city.
The Arabs arrived in Libya much before Islam, from Yemen and settled around the water recourses of the mountains. In 10th Century AD the Fatimid Caliph, Al-Muiz, conquered the city. It became an independent province encompassing Lattakia (Syria), experiencing a commercial and cultural boom that rendered it a significant center of Shiia.
In 1109 Tripoli was conquered by Raymond de Saint Gilles, Count of Toulouse. It became the capital of Tripoli County, one of the main Crusader states, and remained under domination by the Franks for almost two centuries under the name “Triple”.
In 1289 the Mamluks conquered the Crusader city that was situated on the peninsula, razed it to the ground but keeping the St. Gilles Citadel and the Cathedral, today known as “Taynal Mosque”, and rebuilt a new city two kilometers to the east at the foot of the citadel and straddling the Abu Ali river. During this period, Tripoli witnessed a substantial growth in its economic and political power.
Tripoli, Libya
