Sidon

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View of the new city the Sea Castle. Part of the Sea Castle in front.

Sidon, Zidon or Saida, (Arabic صيدا Ṣaydā; Hebrew צִידוֹן, Standard Hebrew Ẓidon, Tiberian Hebrew Ṣîḏōn صيدا.com) is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km (25 mi) north of Tyre and 50 km (30 mi) south of the capital Beirut. Its name means a fishery.

1 History
2 Sidon and the Middle East conflict
3 Sidon today
4 The Biblical Sidon
5 References
6 External links

[edit] 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 CE, 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 Sea Castle

In the years before Jesus Sidon had many conquerors: Assyrians; Babylonians; Egyptians; Greeks and finally Romans. Herod the Great visited Sidon; both Jesus and Saint Paul are said to have visited it (see Biblical Sidon below). The city was eventually conquered by the Arabs and then the Ottoman Turks.

On December 4, 1110 Sidon was sacked in the First Crusade. It then became the centre of the Lordship of Sidon, an important seigneury in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. During the Crusades it was sacked several times: it was finally destroyed by the Saracens in 1249. 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. After World War I it became part of the French Mandate of Lebanon. During World War II 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.

[edit] Sidon and the Middle East conflict

Following the Nakba in 1948, a considerable number of Palestinian refugees arrived in Sidon, as in other Lebanese cities, and were settled at the large refugee camps of Ein el-Hilweh and Mia Mia. At first these consisted of enormous rows of tents, but gradually houses were constructed. The refugee camps constituted de-fact neighborhoods of Sidon, but had a separate legal and political status which made them into a kind of enclaves. Among the inhabitants were the later well-known Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali and his family.

Various incidents and riots at Sidon in 1975, especially police brutality in putting down protests by poor fishermen, contributed to the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. Throughout the war, the city was dominated by Sunni militias acting in loose alliance with the Palestinians.

During the First Lebanon War (1982), the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) landed north of Sidon and the city was subjected to a heavy aerial bombing, causing heavy casualties among the civilian population. There was prolonged fighting in the Palestinian refugee camp Ein el-Hilweh which is a de-facto neighborhood of Sidon, culminating with the Palestinians making a last stand at a mosque which was thereupon blown up by the IDF.^{[citation needed]} Israeli historian Gil'ad Be'eri gives the following account

(...) The Refugee camps were heavily fortified, full of bunkers and fire positions. The Palestinian defence at Ein El Hilweh and other refugee camps was based on hand-carried anti-tank weapons such as the RPG (Rocket propelled grenade). (...) The IDF was not prepared for this kind of fighting, having at hand mainly armoured forces intended for use in open areas. The built-up area inhibited long-range weapons, created an equality between the tank and the RPG (often wielded by 13- or 14-year old boys), and increased the number of Israeli casualties. (...) Palestinian resistance seriously disrupted the timetable of the planned rapid advance to Beirut. It took eight days before the final crushing of resistance in Ein El Hilweh. The method adopted by the army was to use loud-speakers to call upon the civilian population to move away, search the houses one by one, surround points of remaining active resistance and subdue them by overwhelming fire.^[1]

In the following years there was considerable guerrilla activity in Sidon by the Sunni militias, as well as by Shi'a militias like Amal and Hezbollah, then in its early stages. The Israeli forces and security services tried counter insurgency tactics and Sidon was considered by Israeli soldiers a dangerous posting due to its great size and the militancy of much of its population.

In the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Sidon was less heavily damaged in bombings than other locations in Lebanon, and remained untouched by the Israeli ground invasion. However, the Ein El Hilweh Refugee camp remains the focus of internecine power struggles between factions and militias, sometimes bursting into violence (see Ein El Hilweh).

In October 2006 the Israeli website DEBKAfile reported that Sidon had been taken over as a Russian-Syrian spy base and Hezbollah stronghold having had two Russian Chechen GRU platoons deployed to Southern Lebanon some time earlier.^[2]. There was no confirmation of the item in any mainstream news outlet.

[edit] Sidon today

In 1900 it was a town of 10,000 inhabitants; in 2000 its population was around 200,000. 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 there.

A state-of-the-art stadium was inaugurated in 2000 for the Asian Football Confederation's Cup 2000.

[edit] The Biblical Sidon

The Bible describes Sidon at various places:

It received its name from the "first-born" of Canaan, the grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:15, 19).
It was the first home of the Phoenicians on the coast of Canaan, and from its extensive commercial relations became a "great" city. (Joshua 11:8; 19:28).
It was the mother city of Tyre. It lay within the lot of the tribe of Asher, but was never subdued (Judges 1:31).
The Sidonians long oppressed Israel (Judges 10:12).
From the time of David its glory began to wane, and Tyre, its "virgin daughter" (Isaiah 23:12), rose to its place of pre-eminence.
Solomon entered into a matrimonial alliance with the Sidonians, and thus their form of idolatrous worship found a place in the land of Israel (1 Kings 11:1, 33).
Jezebel was a Sidonian princess (1 Kings 16:31).
It was famous for its manufactures and arts, as well as for its commerce (1 Kings 5:6; 1 Chronicles 22:4; Ezekiel 27:8).
It is frequently referred to by the prophets (Isaiah 23:2, 4, 12; Jeremiah 25:22; 27:3; 47:4; Ezekiel 27:8; 28:21, 22; 32:30; Joel 3:4).
Elijah sojourned in Sidon, performing miracles (1 Kings 17:9-24;Luke 4:26).
Jesus visited the "coasts" of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21; Mark 7:24) and from this region many came forth to hear him preaching (Mark 3:8; Luke 6:17).
From Sidon, at which the ship put in after leaving Caesarea, Paul finally sailed for Rome (Acts 27:3, 4).

Sanchuniathon makes Sidon a goddess, daughter of Sea son of Nereus.

[edit] References

^ גלעד בארי, מלחמת לבנון - נגד פלסטין הקטנה Gil'ad Be'eri, "The Lebanon War" - "Confronting "Little Palestine" in Lebanon" at [1]
^ DEBKAfile Exclusive: S. Lebanon’s largest town, Sidon, is taken over as Russian-Syrian spy base and Hizballah stronghold. Debka.com (2006-10-09). Retrieved on 2006-10-09.

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
additional notes taken from Collier's Encyclopedia (1967 edition)