Beirut (Arabic: بيروت translit: Bayrūt) is the capital, largest city, and chief seaport of Lebanon. It is sometimes known by its French name, Beyrouth. The city has a population of 1.2 million people in the city proper and 2.1 million people in the surrounding metropolitan areas.
It is the commercial center of the region and was sometimes called "the Paris of the Middle East" because of its cosmopolitan atmosphere prior to the Lebanese Civil War. Beirut has undergone major reconstruction in recent years and is set to host the Jeux de la Francophonie (Francophone Games) in 2009.
Beirut is being considered as a possible candidate for the 2024 Summer Olympics games. The massive $1.2 billion Sannine Zenith project is currently under way to make Lebanon capable of holding the games.
The city is home to numerous international organizations. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is headquartered in downtown Beirut while the International Labour Organization (ILO) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) both have regional offices in Beirut covering the Arab world. The Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) is also headquartered in Beirut.
History
Originally named Bêrūt "The Wells" by the Phoenicians, the first historical reference to Beirut dates from the 15th century BC, when it is mentioned in a cuneiform tablet that is one of the "Amarna letters." The most ancient settlement was on an island in the river that progressively silted up. The city was known in antiquity as Berytus (see also List of traditional Greek place names); this name was taken in 1934 for the archaeological journal published by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the American University of Beirut.
In 140 BC, the city was taken and destroyed by Diodotus Tryphon in his contest with Antiochus VII Sidetes for the throne of the Seleucid monarchy. Beirut was soon rebuilt on a more regularized Hellenistic plan, renamed Laodicea in Phoenicia (Greek: Λαοδικεια ή του Φοινίκη) or Laodicea in Canaan, in honor of a Seleucid Laodice. The modern city overlies the ancient one and little archaeology had been accomplished until after the end of the civil war in 1991; now large sites in the devastated city center have been opened to archaeological exploration. A dig in 1994 established that one of Beirut's modern streets, Souk Tawile, still follows the lines of an ancient Hellenistic/Roman one.
Mid-first century BC coins of Berytus bear the head of Tyche, goddess of fortune; on the reverse, the city's symbol appears: a dolphin entwines an anchor. This symbol was taken up by the early printer Aldus Manutius in 15th century Venice.
Under the Romans it was enriched by the dynasty of Herod the Great, then made a colonia, Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix, in the late 1st century AD. Beirut's school of law was widely known at the time. Two of Rome's most famous jurists, Papinian and Ulpian, both natives of Phoenicia, taught at the law school under the Severan emperors. When Justinian assembled his Pandects in the 6th century, a large part of the corpus of laws were derived from these two jurists, and Justinian recognized the school as one of the three official law schools of the empire (533). Within a few years, as the result of a disastrous earthquake (551), the students were transferred to Sidon.
Beirut passed to the Arabs in 635. As a trading centre of the eastern Mediterranean Beirut was overshadowed by Akko during the Middle Ages. From 1110 to 1291 it was in the hands of Crusader lords. No matter who was its nominal overlord, whether Turk or Mamluk, Beirut was ruled locally by Druze emirs. One of these, Fakr ed-Din Maan II, fortified it early in the 17th century, but the Ottomans retook it in 1763 and thenceforth, with the help of Damascus, Beirut successfully broke Akko's monopoly on Syrian maritime trade and for a few years supplanted it as the main trading centre in the region. During the succeeding epoch of rebellion against Ottoman hegemony at Akko under Jezzar and Abdullah pashas, Beirut declined to a small town (population about 10,000), fought over among the Druze, the Turks and the pashas. After Ibrahim Pasha captured Akko in 1832, Beirut began its early modern revival. In 1888 Beirut was made capital of a vilayet in Syria, including the sanjaks Latakia, Tripoli, Beirut, Akko and Bekaa. Beirut became a very cosmopolitan city and had close links with Europe and the United States.
Beirut became a centre of missionary activity, which was generally very unsuccessful in conversions (a massacre of Christians in 1860 was the occasion for further European interventions), but did build an impressive education system. This include the Syrian Protestant College, which was established by American missionaries and eventually became the American University of Beirut (AUB). Beirut became the centre of Arab intellectual activity in the nineteenth century. Provided with water from a British company and gas from a French one, the city thrived on exporting silk grown on nearby Mount Lebanon. After French engineers established a modern harbor (1894) and a rail link across Lebanon to Damascus, and then to Aleppo (1907), much of the trade was carried by French ships to Marseille, and soon French influence in the area exceeded that of any other European power. In 1911 the population mix was reported in the Encyclopædia Britannica as Moslems, 36,000; Christians, 77,000; Jews, 2500; Druze, 400; foreigners, 4100.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War, Beirut, along with all of Lebanon was given to the French. The French administration showed great preference for the Christian community, leading to religious strains in the city. Lebanon was given its independence following the Second World War and Beirut became its capital city. Beirut remained the intellectual capital of the Arab world and a major commercial and tourist centre until 1975 when a brutal civil war broke out in Lebanon.
Since the end of the war in 1989, the people of Lebanon have been rebuilding Beirut, and the city has regained its status as a tourist, cultural and intellectual centre of the Middle East, as well as the center for commerce, fashion and media. Beirut is home to the international designer, Elie Saab and to some of the most popular and successful satellite television, such as Al-Manar, New TV, LBC and Future TV. The city was host to the Asian Basketball Championship and the Asian Football Championship. Beirut also successfully hosted the Miss Europe pageant twice.
The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, in 2005 in Beirut shook the entire country. The last Syrian troops withdrew from Beirut on April 26, 2005. The city's future looks bright, and Beirut may one day regain the dominant position as the cultural and economic center of the eastern Mediterranean and the Arab world.
Beirut is one of the most diverse cities of the Middle East, with Christians (Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholics, Roman Catholics, Syriacs, Copts, Methodists, Protestants), Muslims (Sunni and Shi'ite), and Druze all have a significant presence. (Most of the Jews of Beirut emigrated to the United States when the Lebanese Civil War started in 1975).
Beirut was torn apart during the Lebanese Civil War and was divided between the Muslim West Beirut and the Christian East. The city today has been reunited and rebuilt, and represents its Christian-Muslim balance in its architecture and way of life.
Colleges and universities
In Beirut there are twenty-one universities including the University of Balamand, American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University (originally the first women's college in the Middle East), Université de Saint-Joseph, Global University, Haigazian University, Lebanese University, American University of Science and Technology, Middle East University, Beirut Arab University and the Middle East Canadian Academy of Technology (MECAT)....
National Anthem
Koullouna Lilouataan Lil Oula Lil Alam
English Translation
Us all! for our nation, for our emblem and glory!
Our valor and our writings are the envy of the ages.
Our mountains and our valleys, they bring forth stalwart men.
And to Perfection all our efforts we devote.
Us all! For our nation, for our emblem and glory!
Our Elders and our children, they await our Country's call,
And on the Day of Crisis they are as Lions of the Jungle.
The heart of our East is ever Lebanon,
May God preserve her until the end of time.
Us all! For our nation, for our emblem and glory!
The Gems of the East are her land and sea.
Throughout the world her good deeds flow from pole to pole.
And her name is her glory since time began.
Immortality's Symbol--the Cedar--is her Pride.
Us all! For our nation, for our emblem and glory!.