Tripoli

Tripoli is a city of the North African coast, modernly within Libya.

It was founded by the classical Phoenicians, and gained prominence under the Romans, where it became the capital of a province.

After the fall of Rome, it was conquered by the Muslims in the 8th century, and became one of the bases of operations for the Barbary Coast pirates. It remained within the Muslim aegis until 1510, when Spanish forces, under the Count of Oliveto, took the city. In 1523 it was passed to the Knights of St.John (who had lost their base on Rhodes, having been forced to quit the Holy Land but in 1551 they were obliged to surrender it to Ottoman Turks led by Dragut Reis. The pirates then returned and the city remained under local self-government throughout period, being famed as a pirate hangout.