Tripoli Eyalet

Tripoli Eyalet (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت طرابلس شام Eyālet-i Ṭrāblus-ı Şām‎;Arabic: طرابلس الشام‎) was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. The capital was in Tripoli. Its reported area in the 19th century was 1,629 square miles (4,220 km²).

It extended along the coast, from the southern limits of the Amanus mountains in the north, to the gorge of al-Muamalatayn to the south, which separated it from the territory of the sanjak of Sidon-Beirut.

Along with the chiefly Sunni Muslim coastal towns of Latakia, Jableh, Baniyas, Tartus, Tripoli, Batrun and Byblos, the eyalet included the An-Nusayriyah Mountains, inhabited by Alawites, as well as the northern reaches of the Lebanon range, where the majority of inhabitants were Maronite Christians.

History

Ottoman rule in the region began in 1516, but the eyalet wasn't established until 1579, when it was created from the north-western districts of the eyalets of Damascus and Aleppo. Previously, it had been an eyalet for a few months in 1521.

From the time of the Ottoman conquest in 1516 until 1579, the affairs of the sanjak were under the control of the Turkoman ‘Assaf emirs of Ghazir in Kisrawan. When the eyalet was reconstituted in 1579, a new Turkoman family was put in charge, the Sayfas, and they held power until the death of the family's patriarch, Yusuf, in 1625. The Sayfas were frequently dismissed as governors, mainly for failing to meet their financial obligations to the state, rather than for being rebellious.

Tripoli

Tripoli (Arabic: طرابلس‎, Ṭarābulus; Berber: Ṭrables) is the de jure capital city and the largest city of Libya. Tripoli, with its metropolitan area, has a population of about 3,200,000 million people. The city is located in the northwestern part of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean and forming a bay.

Tripoli includes the Port of Tripoli and the country's largest commercial and manufacturing centre. It is also the site of the University of Tripoli. The vast Bab al-Azizia barracks, which includes the former family estate of Muammar Gaddafi, is also located in the city. Colonel Gaddafi largely ruled the country from his residence in this barracks.

Tripoli was founded in the 7th century BC by the Phoenicians, who named it Oea. Due to the city's long history, there are many sites of archaeological significance in Tripoli. "Tripoli" may also refer to the shabiyah (top-level administrative division in the current Libyan system), the Tripoli District.

Rotten stone

Rotten stone, sometimes spelled as rottenstone, also known as tripoli, is fine powdered porous rock used as a polishing abrasive for metalsmithing and in woodworking. It is usually weathered limestone mixed with diatomaceous, amorphous, or crystalline silica. It has similar applications to pumice, but it is generally sold as a finer powder and used for a more glossy polish after an initial treatment with coarser pumice powder. Tripoli particles are rounded rather than sharp, making it a milder abrasive.

It is usually mixed with oil, sometimes water, and rubbed on the surface of varnished or lacquered wood with a felt pad or cloth. Rotten stone is sometimes used to buff stains out of wood. Some polishing waxes contain powdered rotten stone in a paste substrate. For larger polishing jobs, rotten stone mixed with a binder is applied to polishing wheels.

It has also been used to polish brass, such as that found on military uniforms, as well as steel and other metals. Plates used in daguerreotypes were polished using rotten stone, the finest abrasive available at the time.

Tripoli, Lebanon

Tripoli (Arabic: طرابلس‎ / ALA-LC: Ṭarābulus;Lebanese Arabic: Ṭrāblos;Greek: Τρίπολις / Tripolis; Turkish: Trablusşam) is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated 85 kilometers (53 miles) north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Tripoli overlooks the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and it is the easternmost seaport in Lebanon. It holds offshore a string of four small islands, the only surviving islands of Lebanon. The largest of these islands, the Island of Palm Trees, was declared a protected reserve by UNESCO in 1992 for its rich ecosystem of trees, green sea turtles, and exotic birds.

With the history of Tripoli dating back to the 14th century BCE, it is home to the largest fortress in Lebanon (the Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles), and continues to be the second largest city (behind Cairo) in Mamluk architectural heritage. In ancient times, it was the center of a Phoenician confederation which included Tyre, Sidon and Arados, hence the name Tripoli, meaning "triple city" in Greek. Later, it was controlled successively by the Assyrian Empire, Persian Empire, Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Caliphate, the Seljuk Empire, Crusader States, the Mamluks, the Ottoman Empire and France. The Crusaders established the County of Tripoli there in the 12th century.