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Rh governed Tripoli as a regency, the claims of the Porte being recognized by the payment of tribute, or “presents.” In the early part of the 19th century the regency, owing to its piratical practices, was twice involved in war with the United States. In May 1801 the pasha demanded from America an increase in the tribute ($83,000) which the government of that country had paid since 1796 for the protection of their commerce from piracy. The demand was refused and a naval force was sent from America to blockade Tripoli. The war dragged on for four years, the Americans in 1803 losing the frigate “Philadelphia,” the commander (Captain William Bainbridge) and the whole crew being made prisoners. The most picturesque incident in the war was the expedition undertaken by (q.v.), with the object of replacing upon the Tripolitan throne an exiled pasha, elder brother of the reigning sovereign, who had promised to accede to all the wishes of the United States. Eaton at the head of a motley assembly of 500 men marched across the desert from Alexandria, and with the aid of American ships succeeded in capturing Derna. Soon afterwards (June 3, 1805) peace was concluded, the reigning pasha relinquishing his demands but receiving $60,000 (about £12,000) as ransom for the “Philadelphia” prisoners. In 1815, in consequence of further outrages, Captains Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur, at the head of an American squadron, again visited Tripoli and forced the pasha to comply with the demands of America. In 1835 the Turks took advantage of a civil war to reassert their direct authority, and since that date Tripoli has been an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, rebellions in 1842 and 1844 being unsuccessful. After the occupation of Tunisia by the French (1881) the Turks increased their garrison in Tripoli considerably. After the Anglo-French agreement of 1889 recognizing the central Sahara as within the French sphere, various disputes arose as to the extent of the Tripolitan hinterland, which the French endeavoured to circumscribe (see ). The French, on their part, believed that their opponents in Wadai and elsewhere in the central Sudan received support from the Turks.

The khouan (ikhwán) or semi-religious semi-political Moslem fraternities are powerful in Tripoli. The most remarkable is that of the Senussites. The explorers Rohlfs, Nachtigal and Duveyrier found their passage barred by Senussite agents. (See .)

—Sir R. L. Playfair, Bibliography of the Barbary States, pt. i., “ Tripoli and the Cyrenaica " (London, 1892); H. M. de Mathuisieulx, A travers la Tripolitaine (Paris, 1903); Sheik el Hachaichi, Voyage au pays des Senoussia à travers la Tripolitaine (Paris, 1903); G. de Martino, Cirene e Cartagine (Bologna, 1908); A. Medana, Il Vilayet di Tripoli di Barberia nell’ anno 1902 (Italian Foreign Office, Rome, 1904); G. Rohlfs, Von Tripolis nach Alexandrien (Bremen, 1871); and Küfra: Reise von Tripolis nach der Oase Küfra (Leipzig, 1881); M. Bisson, La Tripolitaine et la Tunisie (Paris, 1881); M; Fournel, La Tripolitaine, éfc., (Paris, 1887); F. Borsari, Geografia, &c., della Tripolitania, &c. (Naples, 1888); H. S. Cowper, The Hill of the Graces (London, 1897); “Notes on a journey in Tripoli,” Geographical Journal (February, 1896); and “Further Notes on the Tripoli Hill Range,” Geographical Journal (June, 1897); P. V. de Regny, “La Tripolitania,” in La Rassegna italiano for 1908; F. W. and H. W. Beechey, Proceedings of the Expedition to Explore the Northern Coast of Africa from Tripoli Eastwards (London, 1828). Admiral W. H. Smyth's Mediterranean, (London, 1854), contains a description of the coast. The Letters (London, 1819) of Richard Tully, consul at Tripoli from 1783 to 1793, throw a strange and vivid light on Tripolitan life during the 18th century. See also the British Foreign Office reports on the trade of Tripoli and Bengazi and consult the bibliography under Cynenaica.

TRIPOLI (Tarabulus el-Gharb, i.e. Tripoli of the West), capital of the Turkish vilayet of Tripoli, North Africa, situated in 32° 53′ 40″ N. and 13° 11′ 32″ E. on a promontory stretching out into the Mediterranean and forming a small crescent-shaped bay which shelters the harbour from the north winds. Its crenellated enceinte wall has the form of an irregular pentagon. A line of small ancient forts is supposed to protect one side of the harbour, and the citadel the other. This citadel, dating from the time of the Spanish occupation, now serves as the residence of the governor. The harbour has a depth of water varying from 15 to 24 ft.; steamers drawing 21 ft. can anchor inside, but Shoals render the entry difficult. At the quayside the depth of water is from 2 to 5 ft. only. The desert almost touches the western side of the city, while on the east is the verdant oasis of Meshia, where are still to be seen the tombs of the Caramanlian sultanas and the twelve-domed ḳubba of Sidi Hamonda. The aspect of the city is picturesque; the houses (many possessing beautiful gardens) rise in terraces from the seashore. The Turkish quarter contains numerous mosques whose minarets and cupolas break the monotony of the flat-roofed and whitewashed houses. The Grand mosque and the Pasha mosque (originally a church built by the Spaniards) both have octagonal rninarets. By the harbour are several houses built in European style, but the general aspect of the city is Oriental. Many of the streets are arcaded; the suks or markets are the scene of much animation. Near the port stands a Roman triumphal arch. This arch, quadrifrontal in form, is made entirely of white marble, the blocks being held together with cramps, and is richly embellished with sculpture. It was begun in the reign of the emperor Antoninus, according to a still unmutilated 'dedicatory inscription, and finished in that of Marcus Aurelius. In the arch, now partly buried in débris, a cabaret has been installed. A few small manufactures of carpets and silks as well as “Cordova leather ” are carried on, but Tripoli is essentially a trading town, being the chief Mediterranean gateway to the Sahara. The population, about 60,000, is very mixed-Berber, Arab, Turk, ]ew, Maltese, Italian and Negro. The Maltese inhabitants number about 4000, the Italians 1000 and the Jews 8000. The local trade is almost entirely in the hands of the Jews and Maltese; the shipping in the port is largely Italian.

See H. M. de Mathuisieulx, A travers la Tripolitaine (Paris, 1903).

 TRIPOLI, or (anc. Tripolis), the chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the Beirut vilayet of Syria, situated about 2 m. inland from its port, al-Mina. 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.” In the 2nd and 1st centuries, under Seleucid and Roman influences successively, it struck autonomous coins. These are succeeded by imperial coins ranging from 32 to  221. 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. Moawiya 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. 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 Nāsir Khosrau, who visited it in 1047, it lay on the peninsula of Al-Mīnā, 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 ʽAmmār, which founded a library of over 100,000 volumes. Under the crusaders Tripoli continued to flourish, exported glass to Venice, and had 4000 looms. In 1289 it was taken and destroyed by the sultan Kolāʽūn of Egypt, and a new city was begun on the present site, which rapidly rose to importance. Its medieval prosperity has obliterated most relics of remoter antiquity. Tripoli had a troubled existence during the period of Ottoman weakness (the 18th and early 19th centuries), being frequently in dispute between the pasha of Aleppo and the rebel pashas of Acre. After the Egyptian conquest of Syria it was made the capital of a province in 1834; but in 1840 it reverted to the minor position which it now holds. It is connected by a 