History Of Tyre, Lebanon

This article details the history of Tyre, Lebanon, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for over 4,700 years. Situated in the Levant on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Tyre became the leading city of the Phoenician civilization in 969 BC with the reign of the Tyrian king Hiram I, the city of Tyre alongside its Phoenician homeland are also credited with numerous innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. The Phoenician Tyrians' international trade network is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and cultural foundations of Classical Western civilization.

During the early Middle Ages, the city experienced a long period of decline, with its population increasingly suffering during the 6th century from the political chaos that ensued when the Eastern Roman empire was torn apart by wars, that added with the numerous earthquakes that have destroyed the city, Tyre then enjoyed a period of prosperity under the Muslims and then the crusaders, that was until the former squashed the revolts that have happened in the city and the latter being eventually kicked out of the city in 1291 AD by the Mamluks, resulting in a mass depopulation event and the start of a new dark age for the city that lasted until 1750 CE, when the local ruler, sheikh Nasif al-Nassar, initiated a number of construction projects to attract new inhabitants to the almost deserted town, the revival of the city was short-lived, but the city experienced another boom in the 19th century with the start of several new commercial and building projects, although that period came to a halt due to the numerous invasions the city had to witness, that was until the independence of French-occupied Lebanon in 1943.

Founding millennium (2750–1700 BC)

The Roman historian Justin wrote that the original founders arrived from the nearby Northern city of Sidon in the quest to establish a new harbour. Doric Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC), born in the city of Halicarnassus under the Achaemenid Empire, visited Tyre around 450 BCE at the end of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC), and wrote in his ''Histories'' that according to the priests there, the city was founded around 2750 BCE, as a walled place upon the mainland, now known as ''Paleotyre'' (Old Tyre). Archaeological evidence has corroborated this timing. Excavations have also found that there had already been some settlements around 2900 BCE, but that they were abandoned.

The Greek historian Eusebius recorded the common myth that the deity Melqart built the city as a favour to the mermaid Tyros and named it after her. Melqart – who was worshipped as a divine patron of Tyre for millennia – was called Melqart Heracles in Greek, but is not to be confused with the demigod Heracles (Hercules), hero of the 12 labors. However, there are two other main founding legends:

According to the first one, there were two brothers in primeval times – Usoos and Shamenrum – living on the seashore who separated after a fight. Usoos took a tree trunk and was the first to sail in it on the sea. He landed on an island and consecrated two columns there, one to fire and the other to the wind, thus founding Tyre which was called Ushu in Egypt and Mesopotomia. The second legend explains why Astarte as the goddess of fertility was worshipped in Tyre as well:

Originally the island was not attached to the sea floor, but rose and fell with the waves. An Olive tree of the goddess Ashtart rose there, protected by a curtain of Flames. A snake was wrapped around its trunk and an eagle was perched in it. It was predicted that the island would cease floating when the bird was sacrificed to the gods. The god Melqart taught people how to build boats, then sailed to the island. The eagle offered itself, and Sur became attached to the sea floor. Since then, the gods have never stopped living there...

In Greek mythology, Zeus, the ruler of the gods, took the form of a bull to abduct the Tyrian princess Europa to Crete. There the couple had three sons – Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon, who became kings of Crete and after their deaths the judges of the Underworld. The continent Europe is named after her.

Some sources go on to say that her brothers Cadmus and Cilix went to search for her, in vain. Instead, Cadmus became the founder and king of the Greek city of Thebes, who also introduced the Phoenician alphabet to the Hellenic world. Cilix fell in love during the quest and gave his name to Cilicia in Asia Minor. Their supposed third brother Phoenix became the eponym of Phoenicia. In this way the Ancient Greek culture expressed its appreciation of the influence that the Phoenician civilisation had on their own.

Third and second millennia BC strata from Tyre .are buried so deeply under the debris of later periods that its early history is somewhat obscure.

The first known textual reference to Tyre comes from a curse text dated to the 19th century BCE. In general, the first half of the second millennium BCE in the Eastern Mediterranean was "a time of peaceful trade and Tyre probably shared in the commercial activity."

Egyptian period (1700–1200 BC)

In the 17th century BCE, the settlement came under the supremacy of the Egyptian pharaohs. In the subsequent years it started benefitting from the protection by Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty and prospered commercially.

Archaeological evidence indicates that Tyre had already by the middle of the second millennium BCE established the industrial production of a rare and extraordinarily expensive sort of purple dye, known as Tyrian Purple, which was famous for its beauty and lightfast qualities. It was exploited from the ''Murex trunculus'' and ''Murex brandaris'' shellfishes. The colour was, in ancient cultures, reserved for the use of royalty or at least the nobility. In fact, the very word "Phoenician" is a Greek designation meaning "red" or "purple":

Tyrians brought their methods in the purple dye industry near to perfection. Their excellent technique of extraction and blending of dyes is the reason why Tyrian purple was so esteemed in the ancient world.

And:

The Tyrians were extremely discreet about their industry to ensure absolute monopoly.

According to mythology, deity Melqart was walking on the beach with the nymph Tyro, whom he courted, when his dog bit a mollusc and the sea snail's blood-stained its mouth purple. Tyro desired from Melqart a dyed dress of the same colour and thus the manufacture was born.

However, the ancient author Strabo, who visited Tyre himself, recorded that the dye industry polluted the air so much that its stench made his stay in the city very unpleasant. Experts have calculated that some 8,000 Murex had to be crushed to extract one gram of the dye, which may have cost the equivalent of about twenty grams of gold.

The first clear accounts of the city are given by the ten Amarna letters dated 1350 BCE from the Prince of Tyre, Abimilku, written to Akenaten. The subject is often water, wood, and the Habiru overtaking the countryside of the mainland and how that affected the island-city. Eventually, Egyptian forces defeated a Hittite army that besieged Tyre.

While the city was originally called Melqart after the city-god, the name Tyre appears on monuments as early as 1300 BCE. Philo of Byblos (in Eusebius) quotes the antiquarian authority Sanchuniathon as stating that it was first occupied by Hypsuranius. Sanchuniathon's work is said to be dedicated to "Abibalus king of Berytus" – possibly the Abibaal, who became the Phoenician king of Tyre towards the end of the 2nd-millennium BCE.

According to some sources, Tyrians said sailors ventured to the British Isles and purchased tin there to produce bronze for arms and artefacts as early as in the 13th century BCE.

In the 12th century BCE, Egypt's pharaohs gradually lost political control over the Levant, though Egyptian art continued to influence Tyrian art for more than half a millennium.

Independent Phoenician period (1200–868 BC)

During the 11th century BCE the collection of maritime merchant-republic city-states constituting Phoenicia began a commercial expansion. Especially Tyre and Sidon benefited from the elimination of the former trade centers in Ugarit and Alalakh. Hence, Phoenicia came to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians as ''Sidonia'' or ''Tyria''. Phoenicians and other Canaanites alike were called ''Sidonians'' or ''Tyrians''. Yet, such was Tyre's maritime dominance

that the Mediterranean Sea became known as the Tyrian Sea.

There is very little archaeological data from Tyre during this period of Iron Age II and thus it is not known how it imposed its hegemony on others. However, it is widely assumed that it relied on trade as well as cultural exchange, rather than on military conquest. Most prominently, Tyre has been credited for spreading its alphabet and a Vigesimal numerical system.

A decisive factor in this global rise were apparently the extraordinary skills by Tyrian scholars in astronomy to navigate their ships. And as the space on the island city was limited, the inhabitants constructed multi-storey buildings. They thus acquired a reputation for being great masons and engineers, also in metalworks and especially in shipbuilding.

Written tradition has largely credited one individual with the strong growth of Tyre's prosperity from the 10th century BCE onwards: Hiram I, who succeeded his father Abibaal in 969 BCE. More than a millennium later, Flavius Josephus recorded the legend that Hiram expanded the urban territory by projects connecting two islands or Reefs to form a single island on which he had temples erected for Melqart, Astarte, and Ba'al Shamem.

Beyond the borders of his kingdom, Hiram evidently forged close relations with the Hebrew kings David and Solomon. Reportedly, he sent cedar wood and skilled workers for the construction of the great Temple in Jerusalem. Imports from Cyprus played an important part in this period.

Furthermore, Hiram's regional cooperation as well as his fight against Philistine pirates helped to develop trade with Arabia, and North and East Africa. Commerce from throughout the ancient world was gathered into the warehouses of Tyre, as its fortifications offered protection for valuable goods in storage or transit. And Tyrians not only settled in Memphis, south of the temple of Hephaestus in a district called the Tyrian Camp. They also founded

colonies on the coasts and neighbouring islands of the Aegean Sea, in Greece, on the northern coast of Africa, at Carthage and other places, in Sicily and Corsica, in Spain at Tartessus and even beyond the pillars of Hercules at Gadeira (Cádiz).

However, after Hiram's reign of 34 years, several Tyrian kings were killed in succession fights:

the king was chosen among the royal families and reigned for life. He was backed by a council of the elders (or magistrates,) and their decisions were controlled by the great merchant families.

Neo-Assyrian period (868–612 BC)

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.

However, Tyre started paying tribute to the Neo-Assyrians 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 strong regional power. Thus, Tyre itself remained one of the more powerful cities in the Eastern Mediterranean. One of its kings, the priest Ithobaal I (887–856 BCE), ruled as far north as Beirut, and part of Cyprus.

According to the myth, the Northern African city of Carthage (''Qart-Hadašt'' = "New City") was founded in 814 BCE by Tyre's Princess Elissa, commonly known as Dido ("the wanderer"), who escaped after a power struggle with her brother Pygmalion with a fleet of ships. She has also widely been credited as a pioneering mathematician in planimetrics: Legend has it that she purchased a large piece of land from the local Numid ruler, who granted her the size of land that an oxhide could cover, by having it cut into thin threads. The ancient historians Josephus and Justin give elaborate accounts that a political conflict between the king and the priestly class was at the core of the break-up.

In the course of 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 settlements to the South. His successor Shalmaneser V besieged the city with support from Phoenicians of the mainland from around 725 to 720 BCE, but was not able to take it. Cyprus – on the other hand – liberated itself from Tyrian domination in 709 BCE.

Sennacherib, who ruled the Neo-Assyrian kingdom from 705 to 681 BCE, failed to conquer Tyre in his military campaigns, but Tyrian king Luli lost control over the territories outside the city and was forced to flee. He was succeeded by pro-Assyrian monarchs and governors. Tyrian king Balu – or Baal I – reportedly assisted the Neo-Assyrian ruler Esarhaddon (680–669 BCE) in suppressing a Sidonian revolt and as an award gained control over much of the coast of Palestine. Yet, Balu apparently entered an alliance with Egyptian pharaoh Taharqa and was punished by Esarhaddon.

Asurbanipal, Esarhaddon's successor from 669 to 631, reportedly destroyed the hinterland of Tyre, but because of its economic potential preserved the once again rebellious city which reactivated its trade and continued to prosper.

As the Neo-Assyrian empire crumbled during the 7th century BCE, Tyre and the other Phoenician city-states not only enjoyed considerable independence but also booming trade activities.:

Independent and Neo-Babylonian period (612–539 BCE)

After the fall of the Assyrians in 612 BCE, Tyre and the other Phoenician city-states at first enjoyed another boom of its commerce without the burden of paying tributes. However, this period ended after a few years when Nebuchadnezzar II in 605 BCE started military campaigns in the Levant. The Tyrian rulers allied themselves with Egypt, the kingdoms of Judah, Edom, and Moab as well as other Phoenician cities against the Neo-Babylonian ambitions for regional expansion. They succeeded in keeping their independence

In 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II started a siege of Tyre that went on for thirteen years. It failed, but the weakened city eventually conceded to pay a tribute. Due to the long siege, Tyre had suffered economically, as its commercial activities were greatly damaged by the instability. Numismatic sources suggest that as a consequence Tyre lost grounds in its traditional rivalry with neighbouring Sidon, which gained back the upper hand.

At the same time, the influence of Egyptian art, which had remained "a cherished source of inspiration" even since the end of the Egyptian domination of the region in the 12th century BCE, finally diminished.

Persian period (539–332 BCE)

The Achaemenid Empire of the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered the city in 539 B.C. The Persians divided Phoenicia into four vassal kingdoms: Sidon, Tyre, Arwad organised a war campaign against Carthage, Tyre refused to sail against its daughter city.

Under Persian sovereignty, Tyre – like the other Phoenician city-states – was at first allowed to keep its own kings, but eventually the old system of royal families was abolished:

a republic was instituted . it was the government of the suffetes (judges), who remained in power for short mandates of 6 years.

Tyre's economy continued to rely largely on the production of purple dye from Murex shellfish, which appeared on a silver coin of Tyre around 450–400 BCE, when the city started minting its own currency. Other motives on coins included dolphins.

Herodotus visited Tyre around 450 BCE and found the temple of Melqart

richly adorned with a number of offerings, among which were two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night

Some historians speculate that the emerald pillar was made of glass and lit with a lamp.

According to Roman historian Justin, an insurrection of slaves took place during the Persian period, which spared only the life of one slave-master named Straton – who was then selected by the former slaves to be the new king and established a dynasty.

In 392 BCE Evagoras, the Prince of Cyprus started a revolt against the Persian rule with Athenian and Egyptian support. His forces took Tyre by assault – or by secret consent of the Tyrians. However, after ten years he terminated the rebellion and Tyre once again came under Persian control. It abstained from Sidon's insurgency in 352 BCE and profited commercially from the destruction of the neighbouring city.

Hellenistic period (332–126 BCE)

After his decisive victory over the Persian king Darius III in 333 BCE at the Granicus and Issus, Alexander the Great moved his armies south to Syria and the Levant, exacting tribute from all of coastal Phoenicia's city-states. Tired of Persian repressions, they mostly welcomed the new ruler. Tyre, however, adamantly resisted his ambitions:

Tyre's king Azemilcus was at sea with the Persian fleet when Alexander arrived in 332 BCE at the gates. Alexander proposed a sacrifice to Heracles in the city, which was home to the most ancient temple of Heracles. However, the Tyrian government refused this and instead suggested that Alexander sacrifice at another temple of Heracles on the mainland at Old Tyre.

Angered by this rejection and the city's loyalty to Darius, Alexander started the Siege of Tyre despite its reputation as being impregnable. However, the Macedonian conqueror succeeded after seven months by demolishing the old city on the mainland and using its stones to construct a causeway to the island:Presutta, David. ''The Biblical Cosmos Versus Modern Cosmology''. 2007, page 225, referencing: Katzenstein, H.J., ''The History of Tyre'', 1973, p.9

The tallest siege towers ever used in the history of war were moved via this man-made land bridge to overcome the walls of the city, which was running low on supplies. As Alexander's forces moved forward towards linking the fortified island with the mainland, the Tyrians evacuated their old men, women, and children to Carthage. According to some historical sources, fellow Phoenician sailors from Sidon and Byblos, who had been forcefully recruited by Alexander, secretly helped many Tyrians to escape.

Altogether some eight thousand Tyrians were reportedly killed during the siege, while Alexander's troops suffered only about four hundred casualties. After Alexander's victory, he granted pardon to King Azemilcus and the chief magistrates. Yet according to Arrian, approximately 30,000 citizens were sold into slavery.

Alexander's legacy still lives on today, since Tyre has remained a peninsula instead of an island ever since.

After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, his empire was divided and Phoenicia was given to Laomedon of Mytilene. Ptolemy of Egypt soon annexed the region to his territory but held it only for a few years.

In 315 BCE, Alexander's former general Antigonus began his own siege of Tyre. The city had recovered rapidly after Alexander's conquest, but was still taken a year later. Antigonus' son Demetrius ruled Phoenicia until 287 BCE, when it once again passed over to Ptolemy. It remained under the control of his successors for almost seventy years, until the Seleucids under Antiochus III invaded Phoenicia in 198 BCE.

Despite those renewed devastations, Tyre regained its standing under Alexander's successors and as a privilege continued to mint its own silver coins. While some of the trade in the Eastern Mediterranean diverted to Alexandria, Tyre profited from the developing Silk Road commerce. In terms of culture,

Tyre rapidly became Hellenized. Festivals in the Greek manner with offering of sacrifices, gymnastic contests, pageants and processions became part of the life of Tyre.

Some Arabian authors claim that Tyre was the birth-place of Euclid, the "Father of Geometry" (c. 325 B.C.). Other famous scholars from Tyre during the Hellenistic period included the philosophers Diodorus of Tyre, Antipater of Tyre, and Apollonius of Tyre.

In 275 BCE, Tyre abandoned the concept of monarchy and instead became a republic.

During the Punic Wars, Tyre sympathised with its former colony Carthage. Therefore, in 195 BCE, Hannibal, after his defeat by the Romans, escaped by ship to Tyre before moving on to Antioch.

As the power of the Seleucid Empire started to crumble and Seleucid leaders engaged in dynastic fights, the royal rivals increasingly sought the support of Tyre. In this context, King Alexander Balas gave the city the right to offer asylum in 152. Anyhow, the grip of the Seleucid rulers over Phoenicia increasingly weakened during the next quarter of a century:

Independence from Seleucid Empire (126–64 BCE)

In 126 BCE, Tyre regained its independence from the fading Seleucid Empire. One year later, the toppled Seleucid King Demetrius II Nicator fled to Tyre:

Demetrius .was unpopular among his troops and subjects. His pride was his downfall, and he was deposed and imprisoned several times. Defeated and deserted by his wife and children, the king left Syria, taking a boat to Tyre. He planned to devote himself to the service of the god Hercules, who had a temple there. He arrived safely at the port, but the prefect of Tyre had him killed as he left his ship.

Also still in 125 BCE, Tyre adopted its own lunar-solar hybrid calendar, which was used for 150 years. The coins of independent Tyre became the standard currency in the eastern Mediterranean.

After the start of the Mithridatic Wars between the expanding Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Pontus in 88 BCE, Tyrian trade activities increasingly suffered from the instability which persisted in the region.

Five years later the ruling classes of the Levant asked Tigranes II, king of Armenia, to become the ruler of Phoenicia in 83 BCE and restore order. Nevertheless, Tyre succeeded in preserving its independence.

Following the 69 BCE defeat of Tigranes' army in the Third Mithridatic War against Roman troops led by Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Antiochus XIII Asiaticus nominally restored the Seleucid rule over the region. However, as a client king thanks to Lucullus' approval he apparently did not wield any actual power over Tyre. Lucullus' successor Pompey had Antiochus assassinated and thus ended the Seleucid dynasty for good.

Roman period (64 BCE – 395 CE)

In 64 BCE the area of "Syria" finally became a province of the late Roman Republic, which was itself about to become the Roman Empire. Tyre was allowed to keep much of its independence as a "civitas foederata". A decree found at Tyre implies that Marcus Aemilius Scaurus — Pompey's deputy in Syria — played the key role in granting Tyre the privileged status of remaining a free city. Scaurus did apparently so "against a certain payment".

Thus, Tyre continued to maintain much of its commercial importance. Apart from purple dye, the production of linen became a main industry in the city as well as garum fish sauce, "comparable to caviar in our days".

Its geographical location made Tyre the "natural" port of Damascus, to which it was linked through a road during the Roman period, and an important meeting point of the Silk Road. Thus the Tyrians extended their areas of hegemony over the adjoining regions, such as in northern Palestine region, settling in cities such as Kedesh, Mount Carmel and north of Baca.

It is stated in the New Testament that Jesus visited the region of Sidon and Tyre, where he performed the exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter. Some sources tell that he drank water with John sitting on a rock by the spring of Ain Sur (Source of Tyre), which is also known as Ain Hiram, named after the Phoenician king. According to the Bible, Jesus healed a Gentile; and from this region many came forth to hear him preaching. Apparently, some of those who followed him hailed from Tyre.

A Christian congregation was founded in Tyre soon after the death of St. Stephen. Paul the Apostle, on his return from his third missionary journey, spent a week in conversation with the disciples there. According to Irenaeus of Lyon in ''On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis'', the female companion of Simon Magus came from here.

In the early second century CE, Emperor Hadrian, who visited the cities of the East around 130 CE, conferred the title of Metropolis on Tyre: "great city" mother of other cities. This status was of "utmost importance", as it settled the ancient rivalry with Sidon in Tyre's favour - for the time being. According to the Suda encyclopedia, the orator Paulus of Tyre, who served as an ambassador to the Imperial court in Rome, played the main role in securing this prestigious title. Hadrian also allowed Tyre to mint its own coins.

Subsequently, the famous Triumphal Arch and the Tyre Hippodrome, one of the largest hippodromes in the world (480m long and 160m wide), were constructed. The amphitheater for the horse-racetrack could host some 30,000 spectators. An aqueduct of about 5 km length was built to supply the city with water from the Ras Al Ain basins in the South.

In the middle of the second century, the cartographer Marinus of Tyre became the founder of mathematical geography, paving the way for Claudius Ptolemy's ''Geography.'' Other famous scholars from Roman Tyre include the pre-eminent jurist Ulpian, as well as the philosophers Maximus of Tyre and Porphyry of Tyre.

When in 193 CE Septimius Severus and Pescennius Niger competed against each other for the throne of Rome, Tyre sided with Severus, who was born in Tyre's former colony Leptis Magna. Niger's troops in retaliation looted Tyre and killed many of its inhabitants. Yet after the defeat of his rival, Severus rewarded Tyre's loyalty with the status of a Colony, which enabled the city to regain some of its wealth as it granted Tyrians Roman citizenship, with the same rights as Romans themselves. In 198 CE Tyre became the capital of the province Syria Phoenice.

During the third century CE the Heraclia games — dedicated to Melqart-Heracles (not to be confused with the demigod Heracles, hero of the 12 labors) — were held in the Tyrian hippodrome every four years.

Faced with the growth of Christianity in the third century, the Roman authorities supported paganism and encouraged the practise of Tyre's ancient cults, especially the worshipping of Melqart. When Emperor Decius ordered a general prosecution of Christians in 250–251 CE, followers of Jesus in Tyre suffered as well. According to the ancient bishop and historian Eusebius, the Christian scholar Origen died in Tyre around 253 CE due to injuries from torture.

In the wake of the Diocletianic Persecution as the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, followers of Jesus in Tyre were harshly affected as well. According to religious accounts, one of the most prominent martyrs was 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, some 500 Christians were reportedly persecuted, tortured and killed in Tyre. Around the same time, a heavy earthquake struck the city once again, causing death and destruction.

However, less than a decade later "the young, and very rich" Bishop Paulinus had a basilica constructed upon the ruins of a demolished church, which in turn had probably been built upon the ruins of the ancient Temple of Melqart. Reportedly, Origen was buried behind the altar. In 315 CE, just two years after the Edict of Milan about the benevolent treatment of Christians, the cathedral was inaugurated by Bishop Eusebius, who recorded his speech and thus a detailed account of the site in his writings. Not only is this considered the oldest description of a church, but:

The Cathedral of Paulinus is considered the oldest in Church history.

Subsequently, Tyre became ''caput et metropolis'', "head and capital" of the churches of the region.

Saint Frumentius, born around that time in Tyre, became the first bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, after he and his brother Edesius sailed with an uncle to the Red Sea and were shipwrecked on the Eritrean coast. While Edesius returned to Tyre to become a priest, Frumentius has been credited with bringing Christianity to the Kingdom of Aksum.

Byzantine period (395–640)

In 395, Tyre became part of the Byzantine Empire and continued to flourish. Its traditional industries remained prominent during this period but the city prospered most from Tyre's strategic position on the Silk Road, which also allowed it to profit from establishing silk production after the secret procedures had been smuggled out of China.

The necropolis on mainland Tyre with more than three hundred sarcophagi from the Roman and Byzantine periods grew to be one of the largest in the world. A main road of some 400m length and 4,5m width paved with limestone was constructed there during Byzantine times. Close by, two churches with marble decorations were built in the 5th and early 6th century CE respectively, when construction in ancient Tyre reached its zenith.

During the entire period of Byzantine rule, the archbishopric of Tyre had primacy over all the bishops of the Levant. Yet, while Christianity was the main religion, some people reportedly continued to worship the Phoenician deities, especially Melqart.

Over the course of the 6th century CE, starting in 502, a series of earthquakes shattered the city and left it diminished. The worst one was the 551 Beirut earthquake which was accompanied by a Tsunami: it destroyed the Great Triumphal Arch on the mainland, while the Egyptian harbour and parts of the suburb on the Southern part of the peninsula were submerged in the sea.

In addition, the city and its population increasingly suffered during the 6th century from the political chaos that ensued when the Byzantine empire was torn apart by wars.

The city remained under Byzantine control until it was captured by the Persians under the Sassanian shah, Khosrow II at the turn from the 6th to the 7th century CE, and then briefly regained until the Muslim conquest of the Levant, when in 640 it was taken by the Arab forces of the Rashidun Caliphate.

Early Muslim period (640–1124)

As the bearers of Islam restored peace and order, Tyre soon prospered again and continued to do so during half a millennium of caliphate rule. This was despite the fact that the city stayed reduced to a part of the old island after the devastations of the earthquakes in the 6th century.

In the late 640s, the caliph's governor Muawiyah launched his naval invasions of Cyprus from Tyre, but the Rashidun period only lasted until 661. It was followed by the Umayyad Caliphate (until 750) and the Abbasid Caliphate. Tyre became a cultural center of the Arab world which hosted many well-known scholars and artists.

In the course of the centuries, Islam spread and Arabic became the language of administration instead of Greek, though some people reportedly continued to worship the ancient cult of Melqart. As in previous centuries, there were also Jewish residents, some of whom engaged in trade.

During the Ismaili Shia Fatimid Caliphate, a Grand Mosque was constructed in the place that probably had been the location of the Temple of Melqart before. Meanwhile, Tyre's economy remained part of the Silk Road and continued its traditional industries of purple dye and glass production. Excavation at the Al Mina site have revealed glass furnaces from the early Islamic period that had the capacity to produce in a single-melt session over fifty tonnes of glass. In addition, sugar production from cane fields around the city became another main business.

In the Revolt of Tyre (996–998), the populace rose against Fatimid rule, led by an ordinary sailor named 'Allaqa. However, the caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah sent his army and navy to blockade and retake the city. A Byzantine squadron's attempt to reinforce the defenders was repulsed with heavy losses. After two years of siege, the Fatimids looted the city and massacred the insurgents.

In 1086 it fell into the hands of the Seljuks who lost it in 1089 to the Fatimids. By that time, some estimates put the number of inhabitants at around 20,000. The majority of that population were apparently Shiites.

Ten years later, Tyre avoided being attacked by paying tribute to the Crusaders who marched on Jerusalem. In late 1111, King Baldwin I of Jerusalem laid siege on the city, which in response put itself under the protection of the Seljuk military leader Toghtekin. Supported by Fatimid forces, he intervened and forced the Franks to raise the siege in April 1112, after about 2,000 of Baldwin's troops had been killed. A decade later, the Fatimids sold Tyre to Toghtekin who installed a garrison there.

Crusader period (1124–1291)

On 7 July 1124, in the aftermath of the First Crusade, Tyre was the last city to be taken by the Christian warriors – a Frankish army on the coast and a fleet of the Venetian Crusade from the sea side – following a siege of five and a half months that caused great suffering from hunger to the population. Eventually, Seljuk leader Toghtekin negotiated an agreement for surrender with the authorities of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

on condition that those citizens who wished to be allowed to depart freely with their wives and children and all their substance, while those who preferred to remain at Tyre should be granted permission to do so and their homes and possessions guaranteed them.

Under its new rulers, Tyre and its countryside were divided into three parts in accordance with the ''Pactum Warmundi'': two-thirds to the royal domain of Baldwin and one third as autonomous trading colonies for the Italian merchant cities: mainly to the Doge of Venice, who had a particular interest in supplying silica sands to the glassmakers of Venice and in the sugar-cane plantations on the mainland. In addition, there were a Genoese quarter, and a Pisan neighbourhood.

In 1127, Tyre was reportedly shaken by a heavy earthquake that caused many casualties. It was followed by the 1157 Hama earthquake and the 1170 Syria earthquake. Although the loss of lives were reportedly small, some towers were damaged in the latter.

Nevertheless, Tyre became one of the most important cities of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as it opened the Silk Road to the Western kingdoms. There was much commercial activity, especially glassware by the Jewish community, Sendal silk cloth, purple dye, and sugar factories. The new rulers also continued to mint "Tyre Dinars" that imitated the Fatimid coins.

The city was the see of a Roman Catholic archbishopric, whose archbishop was a suffragan of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem; its archbishops often acceded to the Patriarchate. The most notable of the Latin archbishops was the historian William of Tyre, who held the office from 1175 to 1184 and was also chancellor of the kingdom.

While the Venetians quickly constructed the church of San Marco in their quarter and the Pisans built a church of San Pietro, the Saint Mark Cathedral was erected upon the ruins of the Fatimid Grand Mosque – which in turn had probably been constructed upon or near the ruins of several iterations of Christian churches and on the lowest level the ancient Temple of Melqart. By 1129, William I of Tyre had also his own cathedral in Tyre dedicated to the Holy Cross, built on the site of a Byzantine church.

Despite this Christian domination, there was peaceful coexistence of religion: the Jewish community was estimated to number some 500 members, many of whom were arabised. Muslims continued to follow Islam, most prominently Um Ali Taqiyya, "one of the first Tyrian women who excelled in poetry and literature". There were reportedly even still followers of the ancient religion of Melqart. Many locals, especially in the surrounding villages, still held Phoenician theophoric names. Contemporary estimates put the number of residents at around 25,000.

After the loss of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, many crusaders escaped to Tyre with its strong fortifications: "The refugee barons of Palestine were now crowded in the city." Saladin put on the Siege of Tyre twice but gave up on New Year's Day 1188. Thanks to Frankish military and naval reinforcements, Conrad of Montferrat was able to organise an effective defense.

Subsequently, Tyre's Cathedral became the traditional coronation place for the kings of Jerusalem and a venue for royal marriages. While the Venetian influence was considerably weakened, their privileges infringed and fiefs confiscated, the position of Genoa and Pisa was strengthened as a reward for their support of Conrad.

When the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, also known as Frederick Barbarossa, drowned in 1190 in Asia Minor while leading an army in the Third Crusade, his bones were reportedly buried in the cathedral of Tyre.

Tyre remained for four years the only city of the Latin Kingdom under Frankish rule - until the reconquest of Acre by Richard I of England on 12 July 1191, when the seat of the kingdom moved there.

On 27 April 1192, Conrad of Montferrat – who had been elected as king of Jerusalem just days before – was assassinated at Tyre by members of the Order of Assassins.

Ten years later, the 1202 Syria earthquake caused very severe damages in Tyre. Most of the towers and walls collapsed and many people died.

In 1210, John of Brienne and his wife Maria of Montferrat were crowned King and Queen of Jerusalem in Tyre.

After the Sixth Crusade, from 1231 onwards, the forces of Riccardo Filangieri occupied Tyre on behalf of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen for more than a decade. They were defeated in 1242 by the baronial party and its Venetian allies. Balian of Ibelin, Lord of Beirut, was appointed royal custodian of Tyre on behalf of Queen Alice of Cyprus. In 1246, King Henry I of Cyprus separated Tyre from the royal domain and assigned the Lordship of Tyre to Philip of Montfort.

In 1257 – one year after the beginning of the War of Saint Sabas between Genoa and Venice over control of Acre – Philip expelled the Venetians from the one third of the city that had been conceded to them more than a century earlier, though its quasi- exterritorial status was eroded already from early on.

In May 1269, the Mamluk Sultan Baibars led an abortive raid upon Tyre after failed negotiations about a truce. In September of that year, Hugh III of Cyprus was crowned King of Jerusalem in Tyre. A year later, Philip was killed by an assassin, apparently in the employ of Baibars, and succeeded by his eldest son, John of Montfort. He entered a treaty with Baibars, transferring control over five villages to him. In 1277, he also restored Venetian privileges.

After John's death in 1283 and the death of his brother Humphrey of Montfort in 1284, John's widow Margaret of Antioch-Lusignan – the sister of Hugh III – became the Lady of Tyre. Two years later she entered into a land control treaty with Baibars' successor Al-Mansur Qalawun.

In 1291, Margaret ceded the Lordship of Tyre to her nephew Amalric of Lusignan and retired to the monastery of Our Lady of Tyre in Nicosia.

Mamluk period (1291–1516)

In the same year of Dame Margaret's retirement – in 1291 – Tyre was again taken, this time by the Mamluk Sultanate's army of Al-Ashraf Khalil. Reportedly, the whole population had evacuated the city by ship on the day that Acre as one of the last Crusader strongholds had fallen after two months of siege, so that the Mamluks found Tyre mostly empty. Amalric, the last Lord of Tyre, escaped as well.

Sultan Khalil had all fortifications demolished to prevent the Franks from re-entrenching. The Crusader cathedral, which had been damaged before by the 1202 earthquake, got further destroyed by the conquerors as well. The city was subsequently governed from Acre and thus became part of Palestine.

The traditional pottery and glassware industry in Tyre continued its production of artful objects during the early Mamluk period. However, the purple dye industry, which had been a major source of income for the city throughout its previous history, did not get started again, since new dyes entered the market that were cheaper, like for example Turkey red.

While the sultanate was rocked by factional struggles after Khalil's death in 1293 and political instability, Tyre – "the London" or "New York City" of the Old World – lost its importance and "sank into obsurity." When the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta visited Tyre in 1355, he found it a mass of ruins. Many stones were taken to neighbouring cities like Sidon, Acre, Beirut, and Jaffa as building materials.

In 1610, the English traveller George Sandys noted about his visit to Tyre:

This once famous Tyre is now no other than a heap of ruins; yet have they a reverent respect: and do instruct the pensive beholder with their exemplary frailty.

Ottoman period (1516–1918)

Maan clan rule

The Ottoman Empire conquered the Levant in 1516, yet Tyre remained practically untouched for another ninety years until the beginning of the 17th century, when the Ottoman leadership at the Sublime Porte appointed the Druze leader Fakhreddine II of the Maan family as emir to administer Jabal Amel (modern-day South Lebanon) and Galilee in addition to the districts of Beirut and Sidon.

One of his projects in Tyre was the construction of a residence for his brother, Prince Younis Al-Maani. Its foundations were evidently built upon ruins from the Crusader period. The ruins of the palace are still standing in the centre of today's Souk marketplace area and are known as Khan Abdo El-Ashqar, or Khan Al-Askar as well as Khan Sour.

Fakhreddine also encouraged Shiites and Christians to settle to the East of Tyre to secure the road to Damascus. He thus laid the foundation of modern Tyre demographics as many of those settlers – or their descendants respectively – later moved to the town. Those development efforts were over-shadowed though when the Emir aspired to establish an independent state - which has been widely viewed in the public discourse as the earliest vision of Lebanon as a country:

In 1608, Fakhr al-Din signed a treaty with Ferdinand, the Medici grand duke of Tuscany, which included a secret article clearly directed against the Porte.

At the core of this alliance with Florence was the plan to rebuild the harbour for naval support. In this context, he converted the remains of Tyre's former Crusader's Cathedral in 1610 into a military fortress. Notwithstanding, he was chased out by the Turkish army and went into exile in Tuscany.

In 1618, Fakhreddine (also spelled Fakhr-al-Din) returned to the Levant thanks to the removal of some of his enemies within the Ottoman regime. He then also entertained political relations with France: after a diplomatic mission sent by King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu the Maani palace in Tyre "became the property of the Franciscan fathers." By 1631, Fakhreddine dominated most of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, but the Maan era ended when Sultan Murad IV had the Druze Emir executed together with one or two of his sons in 1635 for his political ambitions.

Rise and rivalry of the feudal ''Zu'ama''

In the following decades, Ali al-Saghir – a leader of the discriminated Metwali, the Shia Muslims of what is now Lebanon – established a dynasty

In 1697, the English scholar Henry Maundrell visited Tyre and found only a "few" inhabitants, who mainly subsisted upon fishing. Their situation was made even worse by Tuscan, Maltese and Monégasque pirates, who would sometimes raid the Tyrian coast, as well as by heavy taxation. The hinterland of Tyre "was generally seen as a lawless country where criminals would flee to seek refuge with the Shiites."

Under these conditions, Tyre also became – at least nominally – the center of the schism within the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch: its archbishop of Tyre and Sidon – Euthymios Saif – had been working on regaining communion with the Holy See in Rome since at least 1683. In 1701, the Congregation Propaganda Fide appointed him by secret decree to be the Apostolic Administrator of the Melkites.

In 1724, one year after Saifi's death, his nephew and student Seraphim Tanas was elected as Patriarch Cyril VI of Antioch. He quickly affirmed the union with Rome and thereby the separation from the Greek Orthodox Church. However, only a handful of Christian families actually lived in Tyre at the time. Church services were held in the ruins of Saint Thomas church near the remains of the Crusaders Cathedral.

Around 1750, Jabal Amel's ruler from the Shiite dynasty of Ali al-Saghir (see above), Sheikh Nasif al-Nassar, initiated a number of construction projects to attract new inhabitants to the almost deserted town. His representative in Tyre was the "tax-farmer and effective governor" Sheikh Kaplan Hasan. The main trade partners became French merchants, though both Hasan and Al-Nassar at times clashed with French authorities about the conditions of the commerce.

Amongst Al-Nassar's projects was a marketplace. While the former Maani palace was turned into a military garrison, Al-Nassar commissioned the Serail at the Northern port as his own headquarters, which nowadays houses the police HQ. The military Al Mobarakee Tower from the Al-Nassar era is still well-preserved, too.

In 1752, construction of the Melkite cathedral of Saint Thomas was started thanks to donations from a rich merchant, George Mashakka – also spelled Jirjis Mishaqa - in a place that had already housed a church during the Crusader period in the 12th century. The silk and tobacco trader had been persuaded by Al-Nassar to move from Sidon to Tyre. Numerous Greek Catholic families followed him there. Mashakka also contributed considerably to the construction of a great mosque, which is nowadays known as the Old Mosque.

However, around the same time the resurgence of Tyre suffered some backlashes: the devastating Near East earthquakes of 1759 destroyed parts of the town and killed an unknown number of people as well. In 1781, Al-Nassar was killed in a power-struggle with the Ottoman governor of Sidon, Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, who had the Shiite population decimated in brutal purges. Thus, the Shiite autonomy in Jabal Amel ended for a quarter-century.

At the beginning of the 19th century though, another boom period set in: in 1810 a Caravanserai was constructed near the former palace of Emir Younes Maani and the marketplace area: Khan Rabu. A Khan was "traditionally a large rectangular courtyard with a central fountain, surrounded by covered galleries". Khan Rabu (also transliterated Ribu) soon became an important commercial center.

A few years later, the former Maani Palace and military garrison was transformed into a Caravanserai Khan as well.

In 1829, another Town of Tyre was formed: in the United States of America. An early settler – Jason Smith – was "presumably" inspired by ancient Tyre when he chose the name, according to the Town Historian in the northern Seneca County of the state of New York. The town – like its Mediterranean namesake – featured an aqueduct, a part of which still exists. The Hiram Lay Cobblestone Farmhouse, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was apparently named after the Phoenician king of Tyre.

Egyptian Occupation (1831–1839)

In December 1831 Tyre fell under the rule of Mehmet Ali Pasha of Egypt, after an army led by his son Ibrahim Pasha had entered Jaffa and Haifa without resistance. Subsequently, a number of Egyptians settled in the city, which still today features a "Street of the Egyptians" in its old town. Then, the Galilee earthquake of 1837 brought misery and destruction over Tyre:

The wind had risen to a cold, cross gale

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