Difference between revisions of "Tripoli"

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*Libyan Tripoli appears in several episodes of Euro-centric history:
 
*Libyan Tripoli appears in several episodes of Euro-centric history:
 
**As a chief port on 'the Barbary coast' (~ the sea-coast of the land where the people spoke Berber, of which the main ports were  Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli), Tripoli was notorious for piracy in the Mediterranean and raiding for slaves along all the coasts of Europe. The 'Barbary corsairs' were everywhere feared and held up as bogey-men to children.
 
**As a chief port on 'the Barbary coast' (~ the sea-coast of the land where the people spoke Berber, of which the main ports were  Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli), Tripoli was notorious for piracy in the Mediterranean and raiding for slaves along all the coasts of Europe. The 'Barbary corsairs' were everywhere feared and held up as bogey-men to children.
**They - and in particular their piratical attacks on American shipping in the Mediterranean - led to the '''Barbary wars''' where the US Navy (founded in 1794 for this purpose) fought. The US Marine Corps won its first battle (Battle of Derna|Derna, 1805) during the First Barbary War (1801-1805): this is commemorated in the first two lines of the Marine Hymn, "From the Halls of Montezuma/To the shores of Tripoli." The Second Barbary War, in 1815, began the elimination of piracy in the western Mediterranean.  
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***They - and in particular their piratical attacks on American shipping in the Mediterranean - led to the '''Barbary wars''' where the US Navy (founded in 1794 for this purpose) fought. The US Marine Corps won its first battle ([[Battle of Derna|Derna]], 1805) during the First Barbary War (1801-1805): this is commemorated in the first two lines of the Marine Hymn, "From the Halls of Montezuma/To the shores of Tripoli." The Second Barbary War, in 1815, began the elimination of piracy in the western Mediterranean.  
 
**In the Second World War, Libyan Tripoli was one of the positions fought for by the [[Axis]] [[Afrika Korps]] and the British [[Eighth Army]] with the substantial US forces of the Operation Torch invasion of Morocco during the North Africa campaign. In 1943, it was finally ceded to the Allies; Libya became independent as the United Kingdom of Libya under King Idris in 1951.
 
**In the Second World War, Libyan Tripoli was one of the positions fought for by the [[Axis]] [[Afrika Korps]] and the British [[Eighth Army]] with the substantial US forces of the Operation Torch invasion of Morocco during the North Africa campaign. In 1943, it was finally ceded to the Allies; Libya became independent as the United Kingdom of Libya under King Idris in 1951.
 
**Colonel Muammar Gaddafi became leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after his coup d'etat. Although he called the country a 'state of the masses' and himself 'brotherly leader', he ruled it as a dictator. Aggression abroad (he fought wars with Egypt and Chad)  gave him pariah status, which he reinforced with attacks on Britain (the Libyan Embassy siege in 1984 followed the murder of P.C. Yvonne Fletcher, and the Lockerbie bombing (Pan Am Flight 103) in 1988). In 2011. as part of the [[Arab Spring]], [[civil war]] broke out in Libya, supported by NATO airstrikes. During the Civil War Gaddafi was murdered. (2011)
 
**Colonel Muammar Gaddafi became leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after his coup d'etat. Although he called the country a 'state of the masses' and himself 'brotherly leader', he ruled it as a dictator. Aggression abroad (he fought wars with Egypt and Chad)  gave him pariah status, which he reinforced with attacks on Britain (the Libyan Embassy siege in 1984 followed the murder of P.C. Yvonne Fletcher, and the Lockerbie bombing (Pan Am Flight 103) in 1988). In 2011. as part of the [[Arab Spring]], [[civil war]] broke out in Libya, supported by NATO airstrikes. During the Civil War Gaddafi was murdered. (2011)

Latest revision as of 16:49, 27 May 2020

Tripoli (pronounced in English RP as three syllables, with the stress on the first: 'TRIP-er-ly', IPA: /ˈtrɪ pə lɪ/) is a place-name (which also gave rise to a surname). There are several places called Tripoli, of which three may have significance for users of AWE. (One thing they have in common is the etymological oddity that all are ascribed a root in the Greek for 'three cities', which may well be wrong.) Two lie within the Arabic-speaking world, and one in Greece.

    • There are also places called Tripolitania, the name of the African region under the Romans from the 3rd century CE and the Italian colony there from 1927. From 1934 to 1963, Tripolitania was one of three administrative divisions within, first Italian Libya and then the Kingdom of Libya.
  • The largest of the three Tripolis covered in this article is the capital city of Libya, the one sometimes called Tripolitania. It is called طرابلس‎ (Ṭarābulus) in Arabic, and more fully طرابلس الغرب‎ Ṭarābulus al-Gharb, or 'Tripoli of the west) to distinguish it from the Lebanese Tripoli. Both of these can trace their past back to the Phoenicians: Libyan Tripoli was actually founded by Phoenicians, who called it Oea. It was quickly taken over by colonizing Greeks, finally forming part of Cyrenaica. The Romans, who controlled it by the 2nd century CE, named it by the beginning of the 3rd century AD Regio Tripolitana, meaning "region of the three cities", namely Oea (i.e. modern Tripoli), Sabratha and Leptis Magna. Collins Dictionary says that Tripoli is "a transcription of the Arabic name".
    • The ancient Egyptians referred to it, in the Amarna letters of the Middle Kingdom (c. 14th century BCE), by the name Derbly, possibly a Semitic cognate of the city's modern Arabic name Ṭarābulus. This may suggest that the derivation of the name Tripoli from Greek may be an over-simplification, or at least that it may reflect a phonetic coincidence.
  • Libyan Tripoli appears in several episodes of Euro-centric history:
    • As a chief port on 'the Barbary coast' (~ the sea-coast of the land where the people spoke Berber, of which the main ports were Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli), Tripoli was notorious for piracy in the Mediterranean and raiding for slaves along all the coasts of Europe. The 'Barbary corsairs' were everywhere feared and held up as bogey-men to children.
      • They - and in particular their piratical attacks on American shipping in the Mediterranean - led to the Barbary wars where the US Navy (founded in 1794 for this purpose) fought. The US Marine Corps won its first battle (Derna, 1805) during the First Barbary War (1801-1805): this is commemorated in the first two lines of the Marine Hymn, "From the Halls of Montezuma/To the shores of Tripoli." The Second Barbary War, in 1815, began the elimination of piracy in the western Mediterranean.
    • In the Second World War, Libyan Tripoli was one of the positions fought for by the Axis Afrika Korps and the British Eighth Army with the substantial US forces of the Operation Torch invasion of Morocco during the North Africa campaign. In 1943, it was finally ceded to the Allies; Libya became independent as the United Kingdom of Libya under King Idris in 1951.
    • Colonel Muammar Gaddafi became leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after his coup d'etat. Although he called the country a 'state of the masses' and himself 'brotherly leader', he ruled it as a dictator. Aggression abroad (he fought wars with Egypt and Chad) gave him pariah status, which he reinforced with attacks on Britain (the Libyan Embassy siege in 1984 followed the murder of P.C. Yvonne Fletcher, and the Lockerbie bombing (Pan Am Flight 103) in 1988). In 2011. as part of the Arab Spring, civil war broke out in Libya, supported by NATO airstrikes. During the Civil War Gaddafi was murdered. (2011)
  • The second largest city in Lebanon (Lebanese Tripoli) is known in Arabic as طرابلس الشام (Ṭarābulus al-Sham (~ 'Levantine Tripoli', 'Tripoli of the sunrise')). It too was founded by Phoenicians, although the date is obscure.
  • Tripoli is also the name of a city in central Greece, capital of the Peloponnese region as well as of the regional unit of Arcadia. According to the ancient Greek geographer Pausanias the name is derived from Τρίπολη, 'Trípoli', from the Greek Τρίπολις ('Trípolis', 'three cities') - although he does not specify which three. The town acquired this name after the Greek War of Independence in 1830. It had been a target of the insurgents since a massacre by the Ottomans in putting down the Orlov Revolt in 1770.
    • In the Middle Ages the place was known as Drobolitsa, Droboltsá, or Dorboglitza, either from the Greek Ὑδροπολιτσα ('Hydropolitsa', 'Water City'; or perhaps from the South Slavic for 'Plain of Oaks') (wikipedia, 2020). The form later taken of Τριπολιτσά ('Tripolitsá') may strengthen the belief that Tripoli here is an aphetic adaptation of 'Hydropolitsa'.