Sidon, Or Zidon (Heb. Tzidon, fishery; now Saida), an ancient city of Phoenicia, on the coast, 23 m. N. of Tyre. According to Jose-phus, it was called Sidon after the first born of Canaan, but the name probably has reference to the first occupation of its inhabitants. From its antiquity it was termed the metropolis of Phoenicia. It seems to have been divided into Great Sidon, on the sea, and Little Sidon, some distance inland. The Phoenicians as a nation often designated themselves as Sidonians, and were generally called so by neighboring peoples. The period of the greatest prosperity of Sidon, according to the classical historians, was from about 1600 to 1200 B. C, during which time, as appears from the Egyptian inscriptions, it was more or less under the supremacy of Egypt. At the time of the Hebrew conquest of Palestine, the rule of Sidon extended over the N. W. part of that country. The ancient history of the town is in a measure that of the whole of Phoenicia, at least until the commencement of the supremacy of Tyre. (See Phoenicia, and Tyre.) It flourished under the Persians, but was destroyed in 351 B. C, as a punishment for rebelling against Artaxerxes III. Ochus. It was thenceforth a provincial capital, but retained its own local government until the time of Roman supremacy.

Christianity early found an asylum here (Acts xxvii. 3), and a Sidonian bishop is mentioned as present at the Nicaean council of 325. On the rise of Moslem power it readily submitted to it. In 1108 it was invested by the crusaders, and in 1110 it was taken by Baldwin I. The Saracens captured it in 1187, but the Christians recovered it in 1197. They abandoned it in 1291, and Sultan Malek Ashraf ordered it to be razed. (See Saida).