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Revision as of 23:02, 14 August 2005 by 209.6.170.62 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Sidon, also written Saida in English (Arabic صيدا ) is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is on the Mediterranean coast, about 25 miles north of Tyre and 30 miles south of the capital Beirut. Its name means a fishery.
History
It was one of the most important Phoenician cities, and may have been the oldest. From here, and other ports, a great Mediterranean commercial empire was founded. Homer praised the skill of its craftsmen in producing glass and purple dyes. It was also from here that a colonising party went to found the city of Tyre.
In 1855, the sarcophagus of King Eshmun’azar II was discovered. From a Phoenician inscription on its lid, it appears that he was a "king of the Sidonians," probably in the 5th century BCE, and that his mother was a priestess of ‘Ashtart, "the goddess of the Sidonians." In this inscription the gods Eshmun and Ba‘al Sidon 'Lord of Sidon' (who may or may not be the same) are mentioned as chief gods of the Sidonians. ‘Ashtart is entitled ‘Ashtart-Shem-Ba‘al '‘Ashtart the name of the Lord', a title also found in an Ugaritic text.
Sidon has had many conquerors: Philistines; Assyrians; Babylonians; Egyptians; Greeks and Romans in the years before Jesus (Herod the Great visited Sidon; both Jesus and Saint Paul are said to have visited it; see Biblical Sidon below), and Arabs during the Muslim expansion in the seventh century of the common era. Today, as for the past fourteen centuries and like the rest of Lebanon, its population is Arab and predominately Muslim.
On December 4, 1110 Sidon was sacked in the First Crusade. During the Crusades it was sacked several times: it was finally destroyed by the Saracens in 1249. It became the centre of the Lordship of Sidon, an important seigneury in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1260 it was again destroyed by the Mongols. The remains of the original walls are still visible.
After Sidon came under Ottoman Turkish rule in the seventeenth century, it regained a great deal of its earlier commercial importance. The Egyptians, assisted by England and France, captured and held the city in the nineteenth century. During WWI, the British took Sidon; after the war it became part of the French Protectorate in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Sidon today
In 1900 it was a town of 10,000 inhabitants; in 2000 its population was around 100,000 composed mostly of Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. Although there is little level land around the city, some wheat and vegetables are grown and there is much fruit also; some fishing is carried on. The heavily-silted ancient port is now used only by small coastal vessels. There is also a refinery here.
- Sanchuniathon makes Sidon a goddess, daughter of Sea son of Nereus.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)- additional notes taken from Collier's Encyclopedia (1967 edition)
External links
- Sam Houston State University: Nicholas C. J. Pappas: The Inscription on the Sarcophagus of the Phoenician King Eshmunazar
- Notes on Sidon