Tyre, known in Arabic as Sur, is a major port city in South Lebanon, Lebanon. It was founded by the Phoenicians in 2750 BC as Sur, meaning "rock", as the city was built on a rocky formation along the Mediterranean coast. During the 17th century BC, Tyre fell under the rule of Ancient Egypt, but, as early as the 13th century BC, Tyrian sailors ventured to the British Isles to purchase tin to produce bronze for arms and artifacts. During the 11th century BC, Tyre became a merchant republic, and the 9th century BC saw Tyre pay tribute to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In 814 BC, colonists from Tyre founded Carthage in North Africa, and they also settled Cyprus before the Cypriots successfully revolted in 709 BC. The Assyrians and Babylonians' repeated sieges of the city led to the decline of Tyre and the empowerment of its historic rival, Sidon, and Tyre's independence was finally ended by the Achaemenid Persian shah Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. In 332 BC, the Macedonian king Alexander the Great conquered Tyre from the Persians, and it became an independent vassal of Macedon before becoming a republic in 275 BC. In 126 BC, Tyre asserted its independence from the Seleucid Empire, only to be annexed by the Roman Republic in 64 BC. Jesus preached to the people of Tyre and Sidon during the early 1st century AD, and it became the capital of Syria Phoenice in 198 AD. From 250 to 251 AD, the city's Christian population was persecuted by the Roman emperor Decius, and Bishop Origen died of his torture wounds in 253 AD. In 304 AD, 500 Christians were tortured and killed in Tyre, and an earthquake that same year again devastated the city. After the Byzantine Empire legalized Christianity, Tyre was gradually converted to Christianity, becoming an important city along the Silk Road. Its archbishopric had primacy over the other Levantine bishoprics under Byzantine rule, but a series of earthquakes and wars led to Tyre's decline in the 6th century AD. In 640 AD, it was conquered by the Arab Rashidun Caliphate, and the city was gradually Islamized, even as notable pagan and Jewish communities persisted. From 996 to 998, the population rose in revolt against Fatimid rule, but the revolt was soon put down. During the Crusades, the Crusaders conquered the city in 1124, and it came to have Venetian, Genoese, and Pisan merchant and residential communities. From the Ayyubid capture of Jerusalem in 1187 to the Siege of Acre in 1191, Tyre was the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and it ultimately fell to al-Ashraf Khalil's Mamluk army in 1291. The whole population had evacuated the city on the day of the Fall of Acre, leading to the Mamluks taking what was now a deserted city. In 1516, Tyre became part of the Ottoman Empire, and many Shia and Christian settlers were encouraged to move into the city by Emir Fakhr-al-Din II. In December 1831, the city fell to Egypt, but it was devastated by the 1837 Galilee earthquake and was recaptured by the Turks in 1839. Tyre had 5,000 inhabitants by 1874, half of them being Shi'ites and the other half Catholics, with a small number of Protestants. By 1908, Tyre had a population of 2,800 Shi'ites, 2,700 Christians, and 500 Sunnis, while the district as a whole had 40,000 Shi'ites and 8,000 Christians. Tyre was occupied by the British on 4 October 1918 at the end of World War I, and it later became part of Lebanon. In 1921, 83% of the Tyrians were Shi'ites, 4% Sunnis, and 13% Christians. In May 1940, Tyre was taken over by Vichy France, but it was liberated by the Allies (including the Free French) on 8 June 1941. Starting in 1948, during the Nakba, Tyre came to have a large Palestinian refugee population. By the 1960s, Tyre had a population of 15,000 inhabitants, and, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War of 1967, Tyre became home to 25,000 Palestinian refugees. Tyre was devastated during the Lebanese Civil War, and growing mass-poverty led to emigration to Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal. Even after the war's end in 1991, Tyre and South Lebanon continued to be depressed. By 2016, Tyre had a population of 200,000 people, with around 75% being Shia Muslim and 15% being Christian.
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