Editing Tripoli, Libya (section)

===16th to 19th centuries===
[[File:Tripoli by Piri Reis.jpg|thumb|left|Historic map of Tripoli by [[Piri Reis]]]]

In 1510, the city was conquered by [[Pedro Navarro, Count of Oliveto]] for Spain. In 1530, it was assigned together with Malta to the [[Knights Hospitaller|Knights of St. John]], who had been expelled by the [[Ottoman Turks]] from their stronghold on the island of [[Rhodes]].<ref>Britannica, [https://www.britannica.com/place/Tripoli Tripoli], britannica.com, USA, accessed on 7 July 2019</ref> Finding themselves in hostile territory, the Knights reinforced the city walls and built  defenses. Though built on top of older buildings (possibly including a Roman public bath), much of the earliest defensive structures of the Tripoli castle (or "Assaraya al-Hamra", ''i.e.'', the "[[Red Castle of Tripoli|Red Castle]]") are attributed to the Knights of St John.

Having previously combated [[piracy]] from their base on [[Rhodes]], the  Knights were given charge of the city  to prevent it from being retaken by [[Barbary pirate]]s.  The disruption the pirates caused to the Christian shipping lanes in the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] had been one of the main incentives for the Spanish conquest of the city.

[[File:A Mapp of the Citie and Port of Tripoli in Barbary - by John Seller 1675.JPG|thumb|Tripoli, 1675, map by [[John Seller]] ]]

The knights held the city  until the [[Siege of Tripoli (1551)|Siege of Tripoli]] in 1551 and their surrender to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]], led by the Muslim Turkish commander [[Turgut Reis]].<ref>{{cite book |author= Reynolds, Clark G. |title= Command of the Sea&nbsp;– The History and Strategy of Maritime Empires |publisher= Morrow |year= 1974 |pages= 120–121 |isbn= 978-0-688-00267-1 |quote= Ottomans extended their western maritime frontier across North Africa under the naval command of another Greek Moslem, Torghoud (or Dragut), who succeeded Barbarossa upon the latter's death in 1546.}}</ref> Turgut Reis served as pasha of Tripoli. During his rule, he adorned and built up the city, making it one of the most impressive cities along the North African Coast.<ref>{{cite book |author= Braudel, Fernand |title= The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Volume 2 |publisher= [[University of California Press]] |year= 1995 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/mediterraneanthe01brau/page/908 908–909] |isbn= 978-0-520-20330-3 |quote= Of all the corsairs who preyed on Sicilian wheat, Dragut (Turghut) was the most dangerous. A Greek by birth, he was now about fifty years old and behind him lay a long and adventurous career including four years in the Genoese galleys. |url= https://archive.org/details/mediterraneanthe01brau/page/908 }}</ref> Turgut was buried in Tripoli after his death in 1565. His body was taken from [[Malta]], where he had fallen during [[Great Siege of Malta|the Ottoman siege of the island]], to a tomb in the [[Sidi Darghut Mosque]] which he had established close to his palace in Tripoli. The palace has since disappeared (supposedly it was situated between the so-called "Ottoman prison" and the [[Arch of Marcus Aurelius (Tripoli)|Arch of Marcus Aurelius]]), but the mosque, along with his tomb, still stands, close to the Bab Al-Bahr gate.

After the capture by the Ottoman Turks, Tripoli once again became a base of operation for Barbary pirates. One of several Western attempts to dislodge them again was a Royal Navy attack under [[John Narborough]] in 1675, of which a vivid eye-witness account has survived.<ref>''The Diary of [[Henry Teonge]] Chaplain on Board HM's Ships Assistance, Bristol and Royal Oak 1675–1679. The Broadway Travellers''. Edited by Sir E. Denison Ross and Eileen Power. London: Routledge, [1927] 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-415-34477-7}}.</ref> [[File:Reinier Nooms - Dutch Ships off Tripoli.jpg|thumb|480px|Dutch ships off Tripoli by [[Reinier Nooms]], ca.1650]] Effective Ottoman rule during this period (1551–1711) was often hampered by the local [[Janissary]] corps. Intended to function as enforcers of local administration, the captain of the Janissaries and his cronies were often the ''de facto'' rulers.

In 1711, [[Ahmed Karamanli]], a Janissary officer of Turkish origin, killed the Ottoman governor, the "[[Pasha]]", and established himself as ruler of the Tripolitania region. By 1714, he had asserted a sort of semi-independence from the Ottoman Sultan, heralding in the [[Karamanli dynasty]]. The Pashas of Tripoli were expected to pay a regular tributary tax to the Sultan but were in all other aspects rulers of an independent kingdom. This order of things continued under the rule of his descendants, accompanied by the brazen piracy and blackmailing until 1835 when the Ottoman Empire took advantage of an internal struggle and re-established its authority.

The Ottoman province (''vilayet'') of Tripoli (including the dependent ''[[sanjak]]'' of [[Cyrenaica]]) lay along the southern shore of the Mediterranean between [[Tunisia]] in the west and [[Egypt]] in the east. Besides the city itself, the area included Cyrenaica (the Barca plateau), the chain of [[oases]] in the Aujila depression, [[Fezzan]] and the oases of [[Ghadames]] and [[Ghat, Libya|Ghat]], separated by sandy and stony wastelands. A 16th century Chinese source mentioned Tripoli and described its agricultural and textile products.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Yuan Julian |date=2021-10-11 |title=Between the Islamic and Chinese Universal Empires: The Ottoman Empire, Ming Dynasty, and Global Age of Explorations |url=https://www.academia.edu/59068575 |journal=Journal of Early Modern History |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=422–456 |doi=10.1163/15700658-bja10030 |s2cid=244587800 |issn=1385-3783}}</ref>