oasis in Libya, courtesy, Libyan Landscape Travel Agency on Facebook |
The indigenous
Libyans consist of several tribal and language affiliations: the Awjla of the Awjla
Oasis in the Cyrenaica region in the eastern half of Libya (see
also, the posting on Cyrenaica.), Zuwara of the town of Zuwara, Nafusi of
the Nafusa Mountains, Sokna of the oasis town of Sokna in
western-central Libya, and Fezzan of the Fezzan region comprising the southwestern
quarter of Libya. The Ghadames inhabit the area in and around the town of Ghadames
in the extreme west where the borders of Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia meet.
The popular annual Ghadames Festival, attended by thousands of local and
international visitors, is a lively celebration of local Berber culture.
Another popular celebration of Berber culture, Tuareg specifically, is the annual
Ghat Festival, held in the town of Ghat in the extreme southwest of
Libya next to the border with Algeria and inhabited by the Tamahaq-speaking
Northern Tuareg. One aspect of their culture was the trade in salt, long an
important commodity. Several salt mines dot the landscape such as the Tin
Garaban Salt Mines near Ghat which are controlled by the Azjar Tuareg
Confederacy. Presently, Tuareg territory is divided among Libya, Algeria,
Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
People
settled in what is now Libya in prehistoric times as is evidenced by their rock
art as observed in Tadrart Acacus in the Libyan Desert. The earliest known Libyan Amazigh tribe was
the Garamantes, based in Germa but the earliest tribe that was written
about in Egyptian hieroglyphs dating back to the Eighteenth Dynasty and Pharaoh
Amenhotep III was the Meshwesh who lived alongside the Libu and Tehenu. During
the 19th and 20th dynasties (c. 1295 – 1075 BC), the
Meshwesh were in almost constant conflict with Egypt. It was at this time that
the name “Libya” first appeared, in an inscription of Pharaoh Ramesses II and written as rbw in
hieroglyphic. The name derived from a generalized identity given to a large
confederacy of ancient east "Libyan" Berbers, African people(s) and tribes who lived
around the lush regions of Cyrenaica and Marmarica. The Hebrew Bible referred to this
region as “Luv”.
During the
reign of Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah (1208 BCE), a confederacy of tribes known
as the "Great Chiefs of the Libu"
and numbering 40,000 men, were led by King Meryey who fought a war against Egypt but
resulted in his defeat. During the late 21st
Dynasty, increasing
numbers of Meshwesh began to settle in the Western Delta region of Egypt. They
would ultimately take control of the country, beginning with Osorkon the Elder, and continue to dominate throughout
the 22nd and 23rd Dynasties under such powerful pharaohs as Shoshenq I, Osorkon I, Osorkon II, Shoshenq III and Osorkon III. Beginning in 630 BCE, Libya came under
the control of the ancient Greeks, then the Persians, Phoenicians, and the
Greeks again but as part of the Egyptian kingdom. Under the Greeks, the
Phoenicians, based in Carthage, continued to settle in, and rule over, Libya and
established strategic colonial cities in many Berber areas, including Oea, Leptis
Magna, and Sabratha, thus making Libya an autonomous area
in the Greek/Egyptian kingdom. Even though considered second class by the
Phoenicians, the Berbers maintained their own identity, culture and traditions,
and continued to develop their own agricultural and village skills. But they
were still required to pay half of their crops
as tribute especially during the First Punic War
against Rome. Eventually, coastal Libya came under Roman rule. However, not all Berber tribes in Libya would be dominated
by foreign empires. Between 400 BCE and 600 CE, Garamantia, a
notable Berber kingdom that flourished in the Fezzan area, was located
just outside the southern borders of the succeeding empires.
From the 1st to 3rd centuries CE, Libya was
an early center of Christianity. Many believe
that the theologian Arius, who was deemed a
heretic by the Christian Church, was of Libyan Berber descent. Sabellius, a third-century
priest and theologian who most likely taught in Rome, may also have been of
Berber descent. Basil and others call him a Libyan from Pentapolis, but this seems to rest on the fact that Pentapolis was
a place where the teachings of Sabellius thrived, according to Dionysius of Alexandria, c. 260. However, not all Berbers were
Christian. Byzantine authors mention the Mazikes (Amazigh) as
tribal people raiding the monasteries of Cyrenaica.
Beginning in the mid-7th century,
Arab Muslims began to occupy and colonize North Africa, spreading the new
religion of Islam in the process. Some Berber tribes willingly accepted the new
religion, others did not. Those who did not, were eventually subjugated. Thus,
most Berbers became Muslim. However, they did not necessarily practice Islam
like the Arabs but instead, mixed their own indigenous culture with the new
religion. And in fact, the Libyan Berbers in the Nafusa and Zuwara areas
for example, were primarily adherents of the Ibadi Muslim
denomination. But Muslim or not, they were often treated as second class
citizens by the Arabs and would often resist Arab political rule. This forced
the Arab occupation authorities to form strategic alliances with some of the
Berber tribes and would often appoint members of elite families among them, as
governors over certain territories. In the
10th century for example, the Shiite Fatimids of Egypt who also controlled Libya
beginning in 972, appointed Bologhine ibn Ziri, a Sanhaja Berber, as governor of Tripolitania in the northwestern quarter of the country. The Zirid dynasty ultimately
broke away from the Fatimids, and recognized the Sunni Abbasids of Baghdad as
rightful Caliphs. In retaliation, the Fatimids brought about the migration of
thousands of Arabs, mainly from the Qaisi tribes of the Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal to North Africa. This act drastically
altered the fabric of the Libyan countryside, and cemented the cultural and
linguistic Arabization of the region that lasts to this day.
Zirid rule in Tripolitania was short-lived. Already in 1001 the
Berbers of the Banu Khazrun broke
away. But Tripolitania remained under their control until 1146, when the region
was overtaken by the Normans of Sicily. It was not
until 1159 that the Moroccan Berber Almohad leader Abd al-Mu'min reconquered Tripolitania. For the
next 50 years, Tripolitania was the scene of numerous battles between Kurdish Ayyubids, the Almohad
rulers and insurgents of the Sanhaja Berber Banu Ghaniya of the Almoravid
dynasty. Later, a general of the Almohads, Muhammad ibn Abu Hafs, ruled Libya from
1207 to 1221 before the later establishment of the Tunisian Hintata Berber
Hafsid dynasty independent from the Almohads. The Hafsids ruled
Tripolitania for nearly 300 years. By the 16th century the Hafsids became
increasingly caught up in the power struggle between Spain and the Ottoman Empire.
In the mid-20th century, many of the
Arabized Berbers in Libya considered themselves part of the wider Arab people
and identified with the pan-Arab movement taking place throughout the Middle
East and North Africa. With the independence of Libya, the teaching and even
use of indigenous Berber
language was strictly forbidden, even the giving
of Berber names. In 1969, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, himself of Arabized Berber
ancestry, came to power. He continued the ban on the teaching of Berber
languages, and often threatened un-Arabized Berber leaders if they didn’t
comply. This and other persecutions prompted many Berbers to join the opposition during
the “Arab Spring” in 2011which resulted in Gaddafi’s overthrow. It was followed
by a civil war that continues to this day. At the same time, efforts by the indigenous Libyans who
remained un-Arabized to gain some political influence, bore fruit in 2017 with
the founding of the Libu Party also
known as The Nation Party by
the former World Amazigh Congress president Fathi Ben
Khalifa. The main headquarters of the party is in Zuwara with other branches in Tripoli, Ubari and other cities. According to its founder, the party supports
the establishment of a secular democratic
Libyan state, defends Amazigh (Berber) Libyan identity instead of Arabism, and calls for the recognition of the Berber language (Tamazight) as
an official language of the State of Libya.
Indigenous sites
in Libya aside from those mentioned above include: Messak Settafet and Mellet in southern Libya, the Slontha Grotto, the Ghirza farming
community about 150 miles southeast of Tripoli, the Qasr Alhaj granary in the Nafousa Mountains, the village of Jado (also the site of a Nazi-built slave labor camp for Jews during World
War II), the Janzur Catacombs, and
the Jalo oasis.
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