Tyre

(tir.) (Heb. Tsoor:L. Tyrus; Ar. Soor.] (Anc. Geog.) The greatest commercial city of antiquity, in Phoenicia, near Sidon, chiefly celebrated for its splendid dyes, especially of scarlet and purple. The earliest notices of it occur in the Old Testament; and in those times it was besieged by the greatest powers in the world, for many years at a time, before it fell. A new city was built on an island near the shore, which was taken and destroyed by Alexander the Great after a siege of more than half a year, B. c. 332, and it never recovered its former importance. T. was taken from the Saracens by the Crusaders, after a siege of five months and a half, June 20, 1123. Salad in sought in vain to retake it in 1187. The prosperity of T. was not finally destroyed until the conquest of Syria by the Turks in 1516. At present it is a poor town, called Sur, or Soor, with a pop. of about 3,000. It occupies the E. U. the 21st letter and 5th vowel of the English alphaU, bet, is commonly pronounced like eu, shortened and blended, and with a greater extension of the lower lip. Sometimes it is sounded acutely as in brute; at others, when preceded by t, it has a somewhat obscure sound, as in venture (pron. văn'chur). In some words, as in full, pu , & c., the sound of Uis that of the Italian u, or French ou, but shortened. Occasionally it is articulated like a double oo, as in true; while, in the beginning of many words, such as unity, unison, & c., it has the sound of yoo. It is short in such words as rub, rum, and long in others, as in June. Uoften forms an interchange with a, e, i, and o, and is but seldom used as an abbreviation; standing, however, for urb is in the letters A.U.C., Anno Urbis Comditæ (in the year from the building of Rome); and for United in the letters U. S. (United States.) [s. 916]