TYRE

Statue of Our Lady of the Seas, Tyre, courtesy,
commons.wikimedia.org

The city of Tyre is one of the main towns in southern Lebanon and, with a population of approximately 200,000, the 5^th largest city in the country. However, most of that number are Arab Shia Muslims. Estimates put the number of indigenous Phoenician Lebanese (Maronites) at around 500 thus, making Tyre, almost entirely, an Arab-occupied city.

Tyre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. According to one Phoenician legend and as recorded by the Greek historian Eusebius, the deity Melqart built the city as a favor to the mermaid Tyros and named it after her. Afterward, Melqart was worshipped as a divine patron of Tyre for millennia. Later, it became the legendary birthplace of Europa (after whom, the continent of Europe was named), her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix, as well as Carthage's founder Dido (Elissa) and her bother Pygmalion. In subsequent years, it sometimes led an independent existence as one of the city states of Phoenicia. Indeed, Tyre was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises. The Tyrians were among the first to construct multi-storey buildings thus acquiring a reputation for being high-quality masons and engineers as well as metalworkers and shipbuilders. Scholarship was also at a high level as Tyre was credited with spreading its alphabet and a Vigesimal numerical system. Tyrians also became known as learned in the science of astronomy and ship navigation. Economically, Tyre had already established the industrial production of a rare and extraordinarily expensive purple dye, extracted from the murex shellfish, which was famous for its beauty and lightfast qualities. As trade and commerce expanded, Tyre and also nearby Sidon to the north, benefited from the elimination of the former trade centers in Ugarit and Alalakh.

In Biblical times, the city was allotted to the Israelite tribe of Asher. Since the conquest of Canaan by Joshua, both Israelites and Phoenicians lived in Tyre in peace. During the reign of King Solomon over Israel, Hiram I was king over Tyre. He was the son of King Abibaal, his predecessor. His mother was an Israelite which probably explains his close friendship with the Kingdom of Israel. It was Hiram, who would send cedar wood and skilled workers for the construction of the great Temple in Jerusalem. He reigned for 34 years. After his reign, inter-royal assassinations and intrigues plagued the city. In the course of the 9th century BCE, the city remained close to the Israelites, as evident through the marriage of Jezebel from a royal Tyrian family with Ahab, King of Israel.

Later, Tyre began to pay tribute to the Neo-Assyrian Empire who gradually established sovereignty over Phoenicia. It seems though that Tyre only made a nominal subjection and kept a large degree of independence, while benefiting in its commerce from the stability of a strong regional power. Under their Priest King Ithobaal I (887–856 BCE), who ruled as far north as Beirut and part of Cyprus, Tyre remained one of the more powerful cities in the Eastern Mediterranean. But beginning in the 8th century BCE, the Assyrian kings attempted to increase their sovereignty over Tyre. Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 BCE) demanded tribute from Hiram II and tried to prohibit trade between Tyre and the settlements to the South. His successor Shalmaneser V besieged the city from around 725 to 720 BCE, but was not able to take it. However, Tyre experienced some instability as a result and in 709 BCE, Cyprus liberated itself from Tyrian domination. Sennacherib, who ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 to 681 BCE, failed to conquer Tyre in his military campaigns. In 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II laid siege to Tyre for thirteen years. That too, failed, but it weakened the city to such an extent, that it conceded to pay tribute. In 539 BCE, Tyre was conquered by Persia. Two centuries later, the Tyrian Phoenicians rebelled against the coming of the Greeks under Alexander the Great but the rebellion was ruthlessly put down and Tyre came under Alexander’s rule in 332 BCE. Under the Greeks, Tyre witnessed a renaissance with such luminaries as Euclid, the "Father of Geometry" (c. 325 B.C.), Diodorus of Tyre, Antipater of Tyre, and Apollonius of Tyre. After the death of Alexander and the crumbling of his empire, the town then passed to Ptolemaic (Greek) Egyptian rule. In 198 BCE, it was conquered by the Seleucid Greeks of Syria. In 195 BCE, Hannibal, after his defeat by the Romans, escaped by ship to Tyre before moving on to Antioch. By 64 BCE, Tyre came under Roman rule. 

According to the New Testament account, Jesus visited the city where he drank water with John sitting on a rock by the spring of Ain Sur, also known as Ain Hiram, named after the Phoenician king. Shortly after his death and later, that of his disciple Stephen, the local Phoenicians adopted Christianity and a Christian congregation was formed. Some of these earliest Tyrian Christians included Paulus, who served as ambassador to the Imperial court in Rome and played the main role in securing for Tyre, the title of Metropolis; the cartographer Marinus, who became the founder of mathematical geography; the pre-eminent jurist Ulpian; the philosophers Maximus, who was one of the tutors of emperor Marcus Aurelius, and Porphyry. Eventually, however, the Romans began to persecute the Christians. Many died as a result of torture including the scholar Origen of Caesarea who died in Tyre c. 253 CE, and Saint Christina, the daughter of the city's governor, who was executed around 300 CE, after her own father had her tortured. In 304 CE, an additional 500 Christians were persecuted, tortured and killed. However, less than a decade later, the Bishop Paulinus had a basilica constructed upon the ruins of a demolished church. Reportedly, Origen was buried behind the altar of this basilica. In 315 CE, the Cathedral was inaugurated by Bishop Eusebius. Subsequently, Tyre became caput et metropolis, "head and capital" of the churches of the region. During the entire period of Byzantine rule, the archbishopric of Tyre had primacy over all the bishops of the Levant. After 480/1 the metropolitan of Tyre established himself as the first “protothronos” of all the metropolitans subject to the Patriarch of Antioch. Yet, while Christianity was the main religion, some people reportedly continued to worship the Phoenician deities, especially Melqart. During the 6th century CE, a series of earthquakes shattered the city and left it diminished. The 551 Beirut earthquake which was accompanied by a Tsunami destroyed the Great Triumphal Arch.

In c. 640, Tyre, as well as the rest of the Levant, was conquered and colonized by invading Arab Muslims who gradually supplanted the indigenous population although there were still Christian and Israelite/Jewish communities there. Later in the century, when Maronite Christianity was formulated, Tyre became one of its major centers. It also became a major Jewish center. The Jewish population had, many centuries ago, returned to the city and established a strong presence especially in industry and commerce deriving their income mainly from the manufacture of glass and the export of glass products. They also traded in spices and flax with Jews from Egypt and the Maghreb who came there on business. Their religious scholars engaged in literary works and maintained close contacts with the Geonim in Jerusalem as well as many other scholars of Jewish law such as Maimonides. During the great Bedouin revolt against Fatimid rule in the 1030s the Jewish community in the city was spared the sufferings that afflicted most of the other communities in Israel and southern Syria. However, in 1071, Jerusalem was conquered by the Seljuq Turks and the ruling rabbinic council in Jerusalem was forced to flee to Tyre but left shortly thereafter as a result of inter-rabbinic conflict. In 1094, the conflict was resolved and the council returned.  

When Tyre was conquered by the Crusaders in 1124, the local Arab settlers fled leaving the city to the indigenous Tyrians, both Maronites and Jews. However, the rabbinic council fled once again, this time, permanently, and moved north to Tripoli. Some of the Jewish community followed them especially after the local Maronites, as did the Maronites in general, form an alliance with the Crusaders. The city then became one of the most important cities in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, as it opened the Silk Road to the Western kingdoms. As a result, there was much commercial activity. Italian merchants, led by Venetians, established their own quarter in the city which was under the direct control of the Republic of Venice. The local Jews who remained also lived in the Venetian Quarter where they engaged in various commercial activities, coming under the jurisdiction of Venice as well. There were often attempts by the last of the Christians kings residing in Jerusalem to wrest jurisdiction over the Tyrian Jews but these attempts failed. Other enterprises among the Tyrians in general included the production of Sendal silk cloth, purple dye, and sugar. In the meantime, William, Archbishop of Tyre strengthened the alliance with the crusaders but in 1187, Saladin conquered Jerusalem and Tyre became a refuge for fleeing Christians. Its Cathedral would then become the traditional coronation place for the kings of Jerusalem and a venue for royal marriages. But in 1291, the Muslim Mameluke Egyptians conquered the city and almost the entire Christian and Jewish populations fled, leaving it, practically a ghost town. Arabs settlers later returned and thereafter, Tyre became, almost exclusively, an Arab city.

The city, in turn, was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1516. In the early 17^th century, the Sublime Porte in Constantinople appointed the Druze leader Fakhreddine II of the Maan family as Emir of southern Lebanon and Galilee. This included Tyre where he constructed a residence for his brother, Prince Younis Al-Maani. Fakhreddine encouraged Shiites and Maronites to settle to the East of Tyre to secure the road to Damascus. Eventually, many of these settlers migrated to the city proper. At the same time, Fakhreddine turned the old cathedral into a military fortress. In 1618, after a French diplomatic mission was sent by King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, the Maani palace in Tyre "became the property of the Franciscan fathers." This allowed for the growth and development of the local Maronite community and in 1736, the Church made Tyre, conjointly with Sidon, an eparchy of the Maronite Church. The eparchy separated in two in 1838 and Tyre was thus able to manage its own church affairs. (In 1965 the eparchy of Tyre was elevated to the rank of Archeparchy.) In the second half of the 19th century, the Maronite cathedral of "Notre Dame Des Mers" was constructed near the modern harbor on the foundations of an ancient church. Next to it was the Sanctuary of the Holy Martyrs of Tyre which contained the part of the remains of Saint Christina. Pierre Bostani, private secretary to the archbishop, was appointed by Patriarch Massad, Coadjutor Archishop of Tyre on July 28, 1856. He became archbishop ten years later.

In the aftermath of World War I which found the Ottoman Empire defeated, Lebanon came under a French Mandate. Angered by this, an Arab intifada broke out against the French in 1920 and many Maronites became victims to Arab bloodshed forcing many others to flee to Tyre. To protect themselves, the Maronites allied with the French and actively assisted them in putting down the rebellion. Since then, Tyre became a tourist destination, especially among Palestinian Jews who would often go there on holidays. The Jewish community of Tyre had revived in the latter part of the 18^th century, albeit modestly, and as is implied by the Montefiore censuses of Palestinian Jewry, and a small Jewish presence has remained there until it fell victim to constant Arab harassment. In 1943, Lebanon declared its independence (even though still under continued Arab occupation) and the Mandate officially ended two years later.

Since Israeli independence, Jews have been banned from Tyre as with Lebanon in general. However Lebanese Jews were still free to visit for the time being but even that was severely restricted in later years. At the same time, Tyre was overrun by Arab Palestinian refugees making the position of the remaining Maronites there, very uncomfortable. Then, after the formation of the United Arab Republic (UAR) under the leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser in February 1958, tensions quickly escalated in Tyre between the forces of President Camille Chamoun, a Maronite, and supporters of Pan-Arabism. Twenty years later, during the civil war of the 70s and 80s, the Maronites suffered greatly from Arab Shia extremists and Arab Palestinians. Consequently, Tyre was left with only a few hundred of the indigenous Maronites as is the situation today. There are, at present, three active Maronite churches in Tyre – Our Lady of the Seas, Saint Touma (not to be confused with the Melkite church of the same name), and Saint Anthony Church. The Archbishop resides at the Maronite Diocese of Tyre. 

Large-scale archaeological excavations, especially in Tyre, began in 1946 under the leadership of Emir Maurice Chéhab (1904-1994), a Maronite, considered "the father of modern Lebanese archaeology" who did extensive work at the Al Bass archaeological site. Today, the site contains the ruins of Triumphal Arch dating to the Roman era, the al Mina excavation site, the necropolis, the Roman Baths, the aqueduct which brought water into the city from the reservoirs of Ras el Ayn, today, located in the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve, and many other sites and artefacts. Some other sites nearby include the Ruins of Tyre/the Egyptian Port and the Tyre World Heritage Site.