TYRE. The Ilebrew writer, speaking of Tyre, says, Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats : in these were they thy merchants. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold. Baran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants ' (see Ezekiel xxvii. 21-23). • According to Justin, the ancient city of Tyre, the most celebrated of the cities of Phcenicia, and once the emporium of the world, the modern Sur, was founded by a colony of Sidonians, who fied thither when the king of Askelon captured their city, and the date of its foundation was the year before the sack of Troy. The prophet Isaiah calls her the daughter of Sidon." Tradunt historim,' says St. Jerome, quod Tyrus colonia Sidouis sit.' According to Herodotus (lib. 2, c. 44), Tyre was founded B.C. 2760. But the first year of New Island Tyre was B.C. 1254. Its total destruction, which had been foretold by the prophets with extreme minuteness, was effected by the Assyrians under Nebuchadnezzar, B.C. 573, after 13 years' siege, one of the longest recorded in history.
Subsequently, Alexander the Great made him self master of the whole of Syria and a part of Phcenicia, but Tyre (the insular town) still offered an obstinate resistance to his victori ous arms. Irritated by several unsuccessful attempts to storm it by sea, he conceived the bold design of filling up the channel which separated it from the continent. This was effected by sinking piles into the sea, and throwing into the intervening space immense blocks of stone. The ruins of the ancient city afforded ready materials for the purpose. The whole WEIS covered with sand, yet it was only after seven months' close siege that the inhabit ants, attacked simultaneously by sea and by land, and the town being set on fire, surrendered to the Macedonian chief. When Tyre fell irato the U is the 21st letter and fifth vowel of the English alphabet. Its primary sound in Anglo Saxon was the sound it still retains in most of die languages of Europe, as in the letters oo in aool, tool. This sound was changed to that of u
n the words use, tube, etc., and it has now two ather sounds, as in the English words but and aull. The sounds of the letters and v aro ;onfouuded in many languages. Dr. Gilchrist aroposed for the Urdu and other tongues to use short A for the sound of the letter A short. fhis ha.s been followed by many writers on India ind its products, but, though congenial to the aractice in the English language, with many and ;reat inconveniences, the greatest being that of .mploying the letter u to represent the a of other ongues. The English letter a, as repreeenting his ahort vowel, constitutes a sttunbling-block n the way of English articulation, which it is ilmost impossible to overcome. It is verT di1E iult, almost imponible, to induce an English .eader to pronounce Min as if written Mun ; Pin as Pun, Sib as Sub, 'nig as Thug; and ,he only mode of learning the correct pronunci ition is to hear the tongue spoken. The English etter u of all the letters of that alphabet, hands of Alexander °Lc. 3:i2, and about 260 ,. after the time of Ezekiel), that city wax in full t possession of the Indian commerce. It recovered a its commercial importance, and wax a flourishing 1 city under the successors of Alexander. Nor did a it cease with the Roman conqueat. The emperor - Hadrian repaired the fortifications, and nuule it r the metropolis of a province, giving it all the advantages of a Roman colony. From the I dominion of Rome it subsequently fell into the t hands of the Saracens, about s.n. 630, who remained a long while in possession of it. It I was taken by the Crusaders in 1121, after five mouths' siege, but they were forced to surrender it in their turn to the Manduk of Egypt. Frederick the First, surnamed Barbarossa, was interred here. Tyre was the birthplace and residence of many persons celebrated in history. Hiram, one of its kings, was the friend of David and Solomon. He contributed to the construction of the great temple. The place is now known to the natives by its ancient Hebrew name of Sur, corrupted by the Greeks into Tyrus, and by the Romans into Serra.—flobinson's Travels, i.p. 260.