Tri·pol·i·ta·ni·a  (trĭ-pŏl'ĭ-tā'nē-ə, -tān'yə, trĭp'ə-lĭ-)  A historical region of northern Africa bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Originally a Phoenician colony, it was later held by Carthage, Numidia, and Rome (after 46 B.C.). Tripolitania fell to the Vandals in A.D. 435, to the Arabs in the seventh century, and finally to the Ottoman Turks in 1553. Tri·pol'i·ta'ni·an adj. & n. |