Trota 701Tripoli (Tarabulus, Atrabulus, the western Tripoli) A
city in North AFRICAin present-day LIBYA, Tripoli should
not be confused with the TRIPOLIin LEBANON. Founded
by the Phoenicians, it became a Roman city in the
province of Tripoliltania. During the fifth and sixth cen-
turies, the VANDALSand the BYZANTINESfought over it
until BELISARIUSconquered it in 532. It was raided by
local nomad tribes regularly throughout its history. In
643 it was captured by Muslim ARABS. The FATIMIDS
ruled it, and remains of their building projects there,
especially the Naqah MOSQUE, are extant. In 1150 ROGER
II of SICILYcaptured the city and held it between 1146
and 1158; Norman and Sicilian rule there ended soon
after his death.
Further reading:Edward Rae, The Country of the
Moors: A Journey from Tripoli in Barbary to the City of
Kairwân(London: Darf, 1985).
Tripoli (Tarabulus, Atrabulus, the eastern Tripoli) A
city on the coast of LEBANON, this Tripoli should not be
confused with TRIPOLI or western Tripoli in North
Africa. The town was an important city and legal center
of the BYZANTINEEmpire until its conquest in 640 by
the Arabs. Calip Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan I (r. 661–80)
settled Muslims in the city and a rapid process of
Islamization was carried out. At the beginning of the
11th century Tripoli fell under the FATIMIDSof EGYPT
and was governed by an emir, sent by their government
in CAIRO. It became a flourishing seaport. In 1104 the
crusader RAYMONDIV OFSAINT-GILLESbegan a siege of
the city, after building the nearby castle of Mont Pèlerin,
where he died in 1105. The crusaders did not actually
take the city until 1109, under Bertram (r. 1109–12),
Raymond’s son. It then became the capital of an
autonomous county and was ruled by a collateral branch
of the dynasty of Toulouse until 1187, when it passed to
the princes of ANTIOCH. It was one of the three principal
crusader states located between the Kingdom of
JERUSALEMin the south and the principality of Antioch
in the north. The constitution of the county was mod-
eled on southern French traditions. The main cities of
the state besides Tripoli were Margat, Tortosa, and Jebeil.
Within its boundaries was the famous crusader castle of
KRAKdes Chevaliers.
In the 13th century a commune was established in
the city under the princes of Antioch. It was one of the
last Christian strongholds to fall to the Muslims when the
MAMLUKSdestroyed it in 1289. They initiated an ambi-
tious building and reconstruction program, but on a new
more defensible site. This new planned city was estab-
lished slightly inland from the location of the old town,
which was still vulnerable to raids from Christian CYPRUS.
A new principal mosque was built in 1294 incorporating a
crusader tower. It became a prosperous county of the
Mamluk Empire and maintained much of its commercial
importance in the trade with Christian Europe until its
capture by the OTTOMANSin the 16th century.
See alsoCRUSADES;LATINSTATES INGREECE.
Further reading:Robert Irwin, The Middle East in the
Middle Ages: The Early Mamluk Sultanate, 1250–1382
(London: Croom Helm, 1986); Hayam Salam-Liebich,
The Architecture of the Mamluk City of Tripoli(Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1983); Kenneth M. Setton, ed.,
A History of the Crusades,6 vols. (Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1969–1989).Tristan and Iseult(Tristram, Yseult) This medieval
story was a ROMANCEfrom a Celtic Ireland source, or one
from “Viking Age” Ireland and Britain. It became one of
the most popular love stories in Western Europe from the
end of the 12th century. It is about the love between Tris-
tan, a knight, and Iseult, the wife of King Mark of Corn-
wall. Their passion and fate were aroused and set in
motion by a love potion that caused problems within the
context of marital and knightly loyalty to a husband or
lord. It was first written in French by Béroul in the 12th
century and adapted into German by GOTTFRIEDvon
Strassburg in the 13th. By the later 13th century there
were Italian, English, and Old Norse versions. This tale of
Tristan and Iseult formed a main part of the ARTHURIAN
and chivalric tradition in the later Middle Ages.
See alsoCOURTLY LOVE;MALORY, THOMAS.
Further reading: Béroul, The Romance of Tristan,
trans. Alan S. Federick (London: Penguin Books, 1970);
Sigmund Eisner, The Tristan Legend: A Study in Sources
(Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1969);
Joan M. Ferrante, The Conflict of Love and Honor: The
Medieval Tristan Legend in France, Germany and Italy(The
Hague: Mouton, 1973); Gertrude Schoepperle Loomis,
Tristan and Isolt: A Study of the Sources of the Romance,2d
ed., 2 vols. (1913; reprint, New York: B. Franklin, 1963).Trivium SeeSEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.trobairitz SeeTROUBADOURS.Trota(Trotula) The Trota was a highly influential trea-
tise or compendium on women’s MEDICINE. It may have
been composed or compiled by a female professor, Trota,
at the University of Salerno, a major medical center, in
the 11th or 12th century. It consisted of three works
probably by three different authors. It seemed to synthe-
size the local popular customs of the region around
NAPLESwith the ideas and practices entering Europe from
the newly available texts on Arabic and Greek medicine.
It was full of ideas about COSMETICS, human generation,
gynecology, SEXUALITY, and the workings of the female
body.
See alsoMEDICINE.