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121-692: Sidon ( / ˈ s aɪ d ən / SY -dən ) or Saida ( / ˈ s aɪ d ə , ˈ s ɑː ɪ d ə / SY -də, SAH -id-ə ; Arabic : صيدا , romanized :  Ṣaydā ) is the third-largest city in Lebanon . It is located on the Mediterranean coast in the South Governorate , of which it is the capital. Tyre , to the south, and the Lebanese capital of Beirut , to the north, are both about 40 kilometres (25 miles) away. Sidon has

242-770: A Roman colony was established there. During the Byzantine Empire , when the great earthquake of AD 551 destroyed most of the cities of Phoenice , the law school of Berytus took refuge in Sidon. The town continued quietly for the next century, until the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 636. On 4 December 1110, Sidon was captured after the siege of Sidon , a decade after the First Crusade , by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem and King Sigurd I of Norway . It then became

363-401: A Sidon native, conceived the idea to establish a treatment plant for the city's decades-old chronic waste problem. He established the privately funded IBC Enviro and the treatment plant became operational in 2013. The Ministry of Environment came up with a $ 50,000+ plan to clean the whole area and transform the dump into a green space, along with other heaps in the country. Qamla beach in Sidon,

484-576: A coast in close proximity to the Sea Castle, witnessed a large municipal cleanup in May 2011, as it was an easy target of rubbish being washed up by the Makab. These plans aim to revive the former glory of the city's coasts and attract tourists who avoided swimming in Sidon's sea before. The project of cleaning the region where the waste dump has already started, and currently a waves-barrier is being built, and

605-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as

726-583: A core of loyal adherents since the middle of the 20th century. While the El-Bizri were Levantine in their Arabism (namely focused mainly on Bilad al-Shaam in regional politics), and the Solh being also similar to them in this, the Saad were leaning more towards a broader pan-Arabism (Nasserite, Libyan, and then Syrian). The Hariri family started to rise to political and economic prominence in the 1980s and became perhaps

847-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By

968-405: A country composed of unequally developed regions. This legacy remains a heavy load to bear socially, culturally, economically and politically. Even though the public policies elaborated by the young Lebanese State were attempting to have regional perspectives, the early urban planning schemes reveal a development approach exclusively axed on Beirut and its suburbs. The post war development policy of

1089-561: A cultural center by the municipality). In the 2000 and 2005 parliamentary elections, the Sidon District along with the Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts formed the first electoral district of South Lebanon. However, in the 2009 elections – and due to the reactivation of the 1960 electoral law – the city of Sidon was separated from its district to form a separate electoral district. The overwhelming majority of Sidon's population belong to

1210-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to

1331-592: A fishing port, while a small quay was constructed to receive small commercial vessels (see "Old City" and the "Architecture and landscape" sections below). Saida Municipal Stadium was inaugurated in 2000 for the Asian Football Confederation's Cup 2000 . This sectarian and demographic division rose to the surface during the Lebanese Civil War , when armed clashes erupted between Sunni Muslims and Christians. The clashes ended with

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1452-429: A great Mediterranean commercial empire was founded. Homer praised the skill of its craftsmen in producing glass, purple dyes, and its women's skill at the art of embroidery. It was also from here that a colonising party went to found the city of Tyre . Tyre also grew into a great city, and in subsequent years there was competition between the two, each claiming to be the metropolis ('Mother City') of Phoenicia . During

1573-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic

1694-703: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb  [ ar ] {{main other| ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak

1815-644: A population of about 80,000 within the city limits , while its metropolitan area has more than a quarter-million inhabitants. The Phoenician name Ṣīdūn ( 𐤑𐤃𐤍 , ṢDN ) probably meant "fishery" or "fishing town". It is mentioned in Papyrus Anastasi I as ḏjdwnꜣ . It appears in Biblical Hebrew as Ṣīḏōn ( Hebrew : צִידוֹן ) and in Syriac as Ṣidon ( ܨܝܕܘܢ ). This was Hellenised as Sidṓn ( Ancient Greek : Σιδών ), which

1936-681: A prominent feature on the city's coinage. At the end of the Persian era, in 351 BC, Phoenicia was invaded by Artaxerxes III . Like other Phoenician city-states, Sidon suffered from a succession of conquerors, first by the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, ending with its occupation by Alexander the Great in 333 BC, and the start of the Hellenistic period of Sidon's history. The Persian influence seems to have been profound, as

2057-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from

2178-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",

2299-470: A separate legal and political status which made them into a kind of enclaves. At the same time, the remaining Jews of the city fled, and the Jewish cemetery fell into disrepair, threatened by coastal erosion. On Easter Sunday , 19 April 1981, at least sixteen people were killed in Sidon after the ( South Lebanon Army ) SLA's long-range artillery indiscriminately shelled the city centre. It was reported that it

2420-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for

2541-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means

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2662-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as

2783-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted

2904-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic

3025-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak

3146-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It

3267-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in

3388-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon

3509-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and

3630-650: Is highly debated. During his reign Akhenaten repeatedly asked for his personal presence in Egypt, which he repeatedly delayed, citing Hittite presence in Nuhasse and fear of Hittite action against Amurru. Aziru's messengers to the Egyptian court were repeatedly detained or delayed, and soon Aziru himself, finally departing to Egypt, was detained as well, with rumors circulating that he was never going to get out of Egypt. Eventually, Aziru returned to Amurru, and soon defected to

3751-608: Is limited to a region of 786 hectares in area and 5 meters in elevation, while each of the city's suburbs is administered by its own independent municipal council. Sidon is the center of the Governorate of South Lebanon , and hosts the seat of the Governor of Southern Lebanon. The city is also the center of the Sidon District and the Union of Sidon and Zahrani Municipalities (founded in 1978 and contains 15 municipalities). Sidon hosts

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3872-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference

3993-513: Is observed in the change of the architectural style of the city. In exchange for supporting his conquest of Egypt , King Cambyses II of Persia awarded Sidon with the territories of Dor , Joppa , and the Plain of Sharon . Under the Diadochi or successors of Alexander, it enjoyed relative autonomy and organised games and competitions in which the greatest athletes of the region participated. In

4114-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not

4235-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As

4356-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that

4477-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into

4598-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while

4719-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary

4840-620: The Acheulean , whilst finds at Sidon III include a Heavy Neolithic assemblage suggested to date just prior to the invention of pottery . Around 1350 BC, Sidon was part of the Egyptian Empire and ruled by Zimredda of Sidon . During the Amarna Period, Egypt went into decline, leading to uprising and turmoil in the Levant. There was rivalry between Lebanese coastal city-states fighting for dominance, with Abimilku of Tyre in

4961-467: The Ain al-Hilwa refugee camp. Studies in 2000 showed a population of 65,000 in the city, and around 200,000 in the metropolitan area. The little level land around the city is used for cultivation of wheat, vegetables, and fruits, especially citrus and bananas. The fishing in the city remains active with a newly opened fishery that sells fresh fish by bidding every morning. The ancient basin was transformed into

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5082-510: The Amorite language , an extinct early Northwest Semitic language classified as a westernmost or Amorite-specific dialect of Ugaritic . The kingdom shares a name with the eponymous god Amurru . However, the exact relationship between the two is unclear, as the god Amurru functioned as the divine personification of the Amorites and their stereotypes for the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and

5203-509: The Book of Genesis , Sidon was the first-born son of Canaan , who was a son of Ham , thereby making Sidon a great-grandson of Noah . In antiquity, Sidon held prominence as a significant Phoenician city. Nestled on a mainland promontory and boasting two harbors. Throughout ancient history, Sidon had many conquerors: Assyrians , Babylonians , Egyptians , Persians , Greeks , and finally Romans . Under Persian rule, it eclipsed Tyre to become

5324-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to

5445-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic

5566-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In

5687-728: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c.  8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Amurru kingdom The inhabitants spoke

5808-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to

5929-520: The 18th century, the city was dominated by the Hammud family of notables, who monopolized the production and exporting of cotton in the region and built numerous palaces and public works in the city. The Hammuds also served as government customs agents and tax collectors for various Ottoman religious foundations. During the Egyptian–Ottoman War , Sidon, like much of Ottoman Syria , was occupied by

6050-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of

6171-847: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ    [ ar ] {{main other|. Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized

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6292-687: The El-Bizris was at times intimidating on the local scene, but they were also known for their goodwill and dignified public service. The Saad family developed their links with Nasserism in the 1950s and engaged in the uprising and armed protest of 1958 against the government of the Lebanese President Chamoun. They also became involved in the civil war as part of the left wing politics of the Lebanon (Al-Haraka al-Wataniyya) with PLO connections, and they actively contributed to resisting

6413-778: The Hellenistic period necropolis of Sidon, important finds such as the Alexander Sarcophagus (likely the tomb of King Abdalonymus rather than Alexander), the Lycian tomb and the Sarcophagus of the Crying Women were discovered, which are now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul . When Sidon fell under Roman domination, it continued to mint its own silver coins. The city

6534-603: The Hittite King Suppiluliuma I . Around this time, Aziru signed a treaty with Niqmaddu, the king of Ugarit. Seti I , the second pharaoh of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty , aimed to restore Egyptian authority over the Levant, launched a military campaign and brought Kadesh and Amurru back under Egypt's sphere of influence. Amurru later participated in the Battle of Kadesh on the side of the Egyptians. After

6655-574: The Hittite and Amurrite royal family. Ammistamru never specified what her exact crime was, only saying that she stirred trouble and intended to cause harm. The divorce was eventually settled and she returned to Amurru with her original dowry. However, Ammistamru later demanded her extradition to Ugarit, which involved the intervention of both the Hittite King and the King of Carchemish. Her extradition

6776-434: The Hittites became overlords in the north. The oldest testimony documenting words in the Phoenician language of Sidon, is also from this period. The Book of Deuteronomy (3, 9) reads: "the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion". In other words: Mount Hermon was called "Sirion", in (the Phoenician language of) Sidon. Sidon was one of the most important Phoenician cities, and it may have been the oldest. From there and other ports,

6897-426: The Israeli occupation after 1982. The Saads remained populist in their politics and focused on the grassroots, while the El-Bizri were generally appealing to the middle and upper classes. In the middle 1980s, the Hariri family began to rise to prominence and became the most influential in Sidon in political and financial terms, even though the presence of the Saad and the El-Bizri in local politics remained significant at

7018-479: The Jewish community of Sidon. By 1830, the community, comprising around twenty-five families of primarily Arabic-speaking merchants, had customs akin to those of Judean Jews . Starting in 1850, the community witnessed growth as Maghrebi Jews , initially settled in the Chouf Mountains above Beirut, migrated to Sidon and Beirut amidst escalating Druze - Maronite tensions and the ensuing 1860 war. With roots in mountain traditions, they introduced citrus cultivation on

7139-403: The Lebanese state as government ministers, officials and mayors. The Saad politicians tended to be populist and became engaged in violent protests in the 1940s, 1950s and then during the Lebanese civil war as Nasserites (populist followers of Nasser in Lebanon). The local political conflict between these two families was always resolved through amicable means and ties of kinship. Their hold over

7260-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around

7381-413: The Palais de Justice, Sidon's main courthouse, and shot dead three magistrates and a chief prosecutor. The attackers escaped. No group claimed responsibility but suspicion focused on Osbat al-Ansar whose leader had been sentenced to death in absentia for the murder of the head of the Sufi Al-Ahbash movement and the attempted assassination of the mufti of Tripoli . He was believed to be in hiding in

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7502-438: The Phoenician era, Sidon thrived on two pivotal industries: glass manufacturing and purple dye production. The city's glass production operated on an extensive scale, while the manufacturing of purple dye held nearly equal importance. The magnitude of Sidon's purple dye production was evident through a considerable mound of discarded Murex trunculus shells discovered near the southern harbor. These shells were broken to extract

7623-474: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from

7744-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With

7865-575: The Saad political practices were bent on social justice and on local service in public affairs. The El-Bizri were since the Ottoman rule bent on serving the state, and this continued with their loyalty and support to the successive governments of Lebanon since the times of independence. They also helped eminent politicians and statesmen from Sidonian descent such as the Prime Ministers Riad Solh , Takieddine el-Solh and Rashid Solh, they also gave their support to former Prime Minister Saeb Salam , father of Tamam Salam , Prime Minister 2014–2016. The presence of

7986-508: The State, promoted by Hariri government (1992–1998), was centered around balanced development and is widely inspired by the 1943 Pact and the 1989 Taef agreement (LABAKI1993: 104). However the application of this policy aims mainly at the rehabilitation and construction of roads and infrastructures (electricity, telephone, sewage). Another of its components is the rehabilitation of government buildings (airport, port, schools, universities and hospitals). Transportation projects (mainly concentrated on

8107-486: The Sunni sect of Islam, with a small number of Shiites and Christians. Sidon is the seat of the Greek Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Sidon and Deir el Qamar , and has housed a significant Catholic population throughout its history. Sidon also hosts the seat of the Shiite Ayatollah of South Lebanon. In the 1930s, when Lebanon was still under the French mandate, Sidon had the largest Jewish population in Lebanon, estimated at 3,588, compared to 3,060 in Beirut , however by

8228-498: The area indicate settlements from the earliest prehistorical ] times. Sidon I, II and III are prehistoric sites, while Sidon I is the tell of ancient Sidon starting from the Early Bronze Age. Sidon I is an archaeological site located to the east of the city, south of the road to Jezzine . An assemblage of flint tools was found by P. E. Gigues suggested to date between 3800 and 3200 BC. The collection included narrow axes or chisels that were polished on one side and flaked on

8349-414: The author discusses the development predominance of Beirut over the rest of the regions of Lebanon (North, South and Beqaa) is a well-known imbalance that can be dated to the early 19th century. With the expansion of Beirut in the 1870s, urban growth in the future capital outpaced Tripoli and Saida. Transportation routes, missionary schools, universities and hospitals as well as the Beirut port development and

8470-400: The battle of Kadesh, Amurru was brought back to the Hittite fold by Muwatalli II , where King Benteshina was held responsible for the revolt and removed from the throne and was subsequently replaced by Shapili. However, Benteshina may not have had much of a choice when he surrendered to the Egyptian side. Later, under Urhi-Teshub , Benteshina was restored to the throne of Amurru presumably with

8591-402: The center of the Lordship of Sidon , an important vassal-state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem . Saladin captured it from the Crusaders in 1187, but German Crusaders restored it to Christian control in the Crusade of 1197 . It remained an important Crusader stronghold until it was destroyed by the Ayyubids in 1249. In 1260, it was again destroyed by the Mongols led by Kitbuqa . The remains of

8712-612: The city, together with the rest of Lebanon, was captured by British forces fighting against the Vichy French , and following the war it became a major city of independent Lebanon . Following the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight , Palestinian refugees arrived in Sidon, as in other Lebanese cities, and were settled at the large refugee camps of Ein el-Hilweh and Mieh Mieh . At first these consisted of enormous rows of tents, but gradually houses were constructed. The refugee camps constituted de facto neighborhoods of Sidon, but had

8833-516: The coastal line) constitute 25% of the budget of 10-year economic plan developed by the CDR (BAALBAKI 1994: 90). However, all these projects are predominantly concentrated around Beirut, ignoring the regions. Near the southern entrance to the city used to be a 'rubbish mountain' called at the time by the locals the Makab ; namely, a 600,000 cubic metre heap that reached the height of a four-story building. It

8954-561: The commerce of silk participated to the fortification of Beirut as a major trade center for Mediterranean exchange (ARNAUD 1993; LABAKI 1999: 23). However, the establishment of Great Lebanon in 1920, under the French mandate, added the poorer areas of the North (Akkar), Beqaa (Baalbak-Hermel) and the South (Jabal Aamel) to the relatively affluent cities of Mount Lebanon. This addition made of Lebanon

9075-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after

9196-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of

9317-507: The end of 1990s most of the Jewish population had emigrated leaving their cemitery and other sites in a state of abandonment. Sidon is home to numerous educational facilities ranging from public elementary schools to private universities. According to a 2006 study, the city is home to 29 schools that serve a total of 18,731 students: 37% are in public schools, 63% are in private schools. Sidon also contains 10 universities, 5 of which are private universities. The following archaeological sites in

9438-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around

9559-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From

9680-553: The following day by firing 60–80 rockets into the security zone and northern Israel. According to UNIFIL observers the missiles appeared to be targeted at uninhabited areas. The attack on Sidon is credited with leading to a truce between Hizbollah and Amal and increased cooperation between the two groups and the Lebanese Army . This was evident in the Ansariya ambush the following month. On 8 June 1999 two gunmen entered

9801-661: The forces of Muhammad Ali of Egypt . His ambitions were opposed by the British Empire, which backed the Ottomans. The British Admiral Charles Napier , commanding a mixed squadron of British, Turkish and Austrian ships, bombarded Sidon on 26 September 1840, and landed with a column. Sidon capitulated in two days, and the British went on to Acre . This action was recalled in two Royal Navy vessels being named HMS  Sidon . The 19th century brought significant changes to

9922-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and

10043-724: The god Assur and the city of Assur freely interchange in Old Assyrian texts. The Mari archives also mention Amurru, which may have been the name of a federation. Eventually, following the expansion of Egypt into Syria, Amurru became a well-defined geopolitical unit between the Middle Orontes and the Central Levantine. Detailed documentation about the Kingdom of Amurru mainly comes from sources from Egypt and Ugarit . The first documented leader of Amurru

10164-404: The governor of Amurru guarding Egyptian interests, perhaps because Egypt did not recognize Amurru as a legitimate state. After Abdi-Ashirta’s death, Sumur , an Egyptian stronghold in the area, was captured by Abdi-Ashirta's sons. Abdi-Ashirta' successor, Aziru , continued to stylize himself as the governor of Amurru for Egypt. Aziru also sent to Egypt a series of letters, the chronology of which

10285-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward

10406-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about

10527-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c.  603 –689)

10648-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA

10769-498: The level of visibility and activism. The Saad family developed its original politics from within the sphere of influence of the El-Bizri family and then became a power to reckon with on its own after 1948, and most powerfully in 1958, then in the civil war and until the present today. Maarouf Saad, the leader of his family, and a local influential politician, was assassinated at the eve of the Lebanese civil war in 1975. The Saads retained their populism and grassroots appeal, and attracted

10890-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya

11011-528: The most influential family in Lebanon by the mid-1990s, following modern forms of political practice through a large party (Future Movement) that cuts across various economic classes. According to a 2013 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report "data also point to an increase in urban poverty especially in Lebanon's largest cities suburbs such as Beirut, Tripoli and Saida, as illustrated by poverty-driven symptoms (child labour, over-crowding and deteriorated environment conditions)." In another UNDP report,

11132-795: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum  [ ar ] {{main other| (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve

11253-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on

11374-564: The original walls are still visible. During the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela noted the presence of approximately twenty Jews, possibly families, in Sidon, which he described as a "large city." After Sidon came under Ottoman Turkish rule in the early 16th century, it became the capital of the Sidon Eyalet (province) and regained a great deal of its earlier commercial importance. In 1521, Moses Basola encountered twenty families of Musta'rabi Jews during his visit to Sidon. During

11495-783: The other, similar to ones found at Ain Cheikh, Nahr Zahrani and Gelal en Namous. The collection appears to have gone missing from the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut . Sidon II is said to be "near the church" at approximately fifty meters above sea level . P. E. Gigues suggested that the industry found on the surface of this site dated to the Acheulean . Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )

11616-622: The outskirts of Sidon, leading to the construction of a new synagogue in 1860 to meet the needs of the expanding community. From 1887 the Royal necropolis of Sidon was extensively excavated by the Ottomans, and its treasures transferred to Istanbul (like the Alexander sarcophagus ). Sidon was a small fishing town of 10,000 inhabitants in 1900. After World War I it became part of the French Mandate of Lebanon . During World War II

11737-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on

11858-638: The paramount city in Phoenicia. In the New Testament era, Herod the Great visited Sidon. Both Jesus and Saint Paul are said to have visited it, too (see Biblical Sidon below). The city was eventually conquered by the Arabs and then by the Ottoman Turks . Sidon has been inhabited since very early in prehistory . The archaeological site of Sidon II shows a lithic assemblage dating to

11979-523: The political aspects of the city was similar to that of Mediterranean families in Sicily or to being also influenced by the ties of Arab families, clans, and tribes in traditionalist forms. The most notable figures of the El-Bizri family in the first half of the 20th century were: Ahmad El-Bizri (born 1899), Salah El-Bizri, Eizeddine El-Bizri (commonly known as Eizzo) and Anwar El-Bizri (born 1910). These four brothers were businessmen and politicians who dominated

12100-489: The political life of the city up till the late 1940s, using traditional inherited forms of governance since Ottoman times. With intelligence and strength they maintained their power for over 50 years. It is from their ranks that Maarouf Saad started his public life, and their close cousins, Nazih El-Bizri, Amin El-Bizri, and Fouad El-Bizri became the next generation of politicians and statesmen in Lebanon; holding positions as ministers and members of parliament. The El-Bizri and

12221-499: The precious pigment, so rare that it became synonymous with royalty. In AD 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 BC, 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

12342-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within

12463-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there

12584-673: 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. Nebuchadnezzar II subjugated the city to be part of the Neo-Babylonian Empire . Sidon's navy played a significant role in the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, aligning with the Persian fleet against the Greeks. From the mid-fifth century BC onward, warships became

12705-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of

12826-530: The south, and Rib-Hadda of Byblos in the north. Byblos became significantly weakened as the dominant city on the Lebanese coast. Further north, the Akkar Plain rebelled and became the kingdom of Amurru with Hittite support. The Mitanni Empire, an ally of the Egyptians, had dominated Syria but now fell apart due to the military campaigns of Suppiluliuma I of Hatti . Tutankhamun and his general Horemheb scrambled to keep Egyptian control over southern Levant, as

12947-579: The southern regional headquarters of a series of governmental facilities like the Central Bank of Lebanon, Électricité du Liban, Central Telecommunications Station and others. It is also the home of the Justice Palace of South Lebanon in its new headquarters on East Boulevard (the old headquarters were an old Ottoman Saray that is currently occupied by the LSF and is planned to be transformed into

13068-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of

13189-508: The support of Urhi-Teshub’s uncle, Hattusili III , as he later took credit for the move. Hattusili also promised Benteshina that, despite the past rebellion and resubjugation by the Hittite forces, he would continue to enjoy the terms granted to Aziru and was ensured that his successors would retain the throne. A similar treaty was made for Shaushgamuwa by Tudhaliya IV , who also stressed loyalty and allegiance, perhaps due to feeling insecure about his throne and life since his father, Hattusili,

13310-621: The surrender of the Christian front, and Christians were forced to move to east Beirut . After the war ended in 1990, some Christians gradually returned to their hometowns but in 2000 many fled to Israel. The local politics of Sidon in the 20th century was mainly dominated up till the 1980s by allegiances around two main families, the El-Bizri and Saad. The El-Bizri politicians were known for their business connections, close ties with eminent Lebanese and Levantine leaders, and their bent on serving

13431-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to

13552-581: The vast bulk of the waste dump being cleared. The city of Sidon is administered by the Municipality of Sidon. The municipality is constituted of a council of 21 members including the City Mayor and his Deputy. It has administrative and financial independence but remains under the control and supervision of the central government, specifically the Ministry of Interior. The municipality's jurisdiction

13673-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study

13794-648: Was Latinised as Sidon and entered English in this form. The name appears in Classical Arabic as Ṣaydūn ( صَيْدونْ ) and in Modern Arabic as Ṣaydā ( صَيْدَا ). As a Roman colony , it was notionally refounded and given the formal name Colonia Aurelia Pia Sidon to honour its imperial sponsor . During the crusades , Sidon was known in Latin as Sagittus and in Old French as Saete , Sayette or Sagette . In

13915-495: Was Abdi-Ashirta in the 14th century BCE, who united the Habiru and brought much of Amurru under his sway through conquest. This prompted Rib-Hadda, the king of Gubla (Byblos) , to send a series of letters to Amenhotep III asking for intervention. Rib-Hadda also claimed that Abdi-Ashirta was conspiring with the king of Mitanni . However, this was likely made up to garner support from Egypt. Meanwhile, Abdi-Ashirta styled himself as

14036-582: Was a usurper. In addition, Shaushgamuwa was supposed to enforce a trade ban with Assyria , as Assyria and Hatti were at war. Perhaps the most well known incident from Shaushgamuwa's reign was the divorce between his sister and Ammistamru II, the king of Ugarit. The case involved Tudhaliya himself and the Ini-Teshub, the king of Carchemish (long established Hittite cadet branch in Syria), who were both related to Shaushgamuwa's sister due to intermarriage between

14157-615: Was decided and compensation for Shaushgamuwa was decided on 1400 gold shekels. References to the Kingdom of Amurru disappeared along with the Hittite state and Ugarit, and presumably Amurru also fell around the end of the Bronze Age. The term Amurru continued to be used as a geographical designation for both the west in general and to the more specific area where the Kingdom of Amurru once was. 34°34′11″N 36°13′55″E  /  34.56972°N 36.23194°E  / 34.56972; 36.23194 This Lebanon -related article

14278-544: Was embellished by Herod , king of Judaea , who built there a theatre. By the First Jewish–Roman War , Sidon sheltered enough Jews that local pagans hesitated to attack them during the broader massacre of Jews in Greco-Syrian towns in 66 CE, as documented by Josephus . The Romans built a theater and other major monuments in the city, and an underground Mithraeum was discovered. In the reign of Elagabalus ,

14399-557: Was in response to a request from Bashir Gemayel in connection with ongoing Syrian attacks on Phalangist positions around Zahle . Israel denied involvement. After the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon Sidon was occupied by the Israeli army for almost two and a half years. On 18 August 1997, following a roadside bomb near Jezzine which killed two teenage members of a SLA leader's family, SLA artillery shelled Sidon killing seven civilians and wounding thirty-five. Hizbollah responded

14520-420: Was not an Amorite god. Amurru was first mentioned in the third millennium BCE as a geographical designation for the west from Mesopotamia . Texts from Ebla also refer to a place spelled Mar-tu, with sources in the 24th century BCE mentioning a king of Mar-tu. The name Amurru appears in the Old Assyrian period as a geographical designation, often with the divine determinative prefix, bearing similarities to how

14641-616: Was originally created to dispose of the remains of buildings destroyed in Israeli air strikes during the 1982 invasion, but it then became the main dump for the city. Growing out of the sea, it became an environmental hazard, with medical waste and plastic bags polluting nearby fishing grounds. Sidon politicians, including the Hariri family, failed for decades to resolve the Makab crisis—which has endangered residents' health (especially during episodic burning). In 2004, Engineer Hamzi Moghrabi,

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