LIBYA

oasis in Libya, courtesy, Libyan Landscape Travel Agency on Facebook

The Arab-occupied North African country of Libya is in the midst of a civil war as of this writing. It is bordered on the north by the Mediterranean, on the east by Arab-occupied Egypt, on the southeast corner by Arab-occupied Sudan, on the west by Arab-occupied Algeria and Tunisia, and on the south by the African/Berber countries of Chad and Niger. The indigenous peoples in Libya are, of course, the Amazigh (Berbers), the majority of whom, unfortunately, tend to identify themselves as “Arabized” Berbers, of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry, therefore identifying more with their Arab than with their Berber roots.

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 22^nd and 23^rd 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 1^st to 3^rd 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-7^th 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-20^th 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.