The ancient history of Libya, the "undiscovered country”,
is mainly known to us through a few scattered ancient Egyptian
references and loose Greek and Roman descriptions, such as those
of Herodotus, Diodorus and Sallust, who impolitely, in his Jugurthine
War, said that: "Africa was in the beginning peopled
by the Gaetulians and Libyans, rude and uncivilized tribes, who
subsisted on the flesh of wild animals, or on the herbage of the
soil like cattle. They were controlled by neither customs, laws,
nor the authority of any ruler; they roamed about, without fixed
habitations, and slept in those shelters to which night drove them."
The
more recent hypo-thesis regarding the history and the origin of
the Libyans are no better than Sallust's hallucinations. Some say
the ancient Libyans came from Asia, supremacists say
they arrived from North Europe, Aryans purport they were
Greek colonists, while we must not forget those who say
they came from Libyan Poseidon's Atlantis, which Plato located
near the Atlas Mountains in North Africa.
Other more interesting sources of Libyan history come from the
largest library of rock drawings and engravings in the world:
the Sahara desert, which are yet to be studied and interpreted.
Libya’s rich archaeological remains were first noticed during the
Italian occupation, where preliminary excavations produced some
outstanding results. But although the Second World War quickly
brought an end to this period of excavation, steps were taken afterwards
by the British administration and the Libyan government
to build up an Antiquities Department. The most ancient of these
archaeological remains, namely stone-age implements and Neolithic
tools, like grain mortars, still lay scattered around the surface
of the desert, looted by visitors and buried by sand for future
generations to rediscover.
Full scientific and archaeological survey
of Libya will take decades, if not centuries, to materialise, and
until then, it is difficult to conclude an archaeological history
of Libya. Therefore, proper history of Libya remains to be written,
and must include the recent genetic evidence, presented in a symposium
of European geneticists, historical linguists and anthropologists,
held recently in Madrid, in which scientists concluded that the
various theories put forward regarding the origin of the ancient Libyans have no scientific foundation, and that genetic results
prove their continuous existence in North Africa for the last
50,000 years. Moreover, archaeology further extends this continuous
existence to 100,000 years (see
McBurney,
below).
Libya and the whole of North African littoral was originally inhabited
by an indigenous group of ancient Berber tribes, whose linguistic
unity proves that an ethnic sub-stratum of "autochthones" single
race existed in North Africa, from the Mediterranean to the Sudan
and from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, covering 11 countries, including
Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Canary Islands, Mauritania,
Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad. This linguistic
unity is part of a larger union which includes ancient Egyptian,
Chadic, Ethiopian, Semitic and Omotic languages of East Africa,
in what is originally known as Hamito-Semitic and now renamed Afro-Asiatic or Afrasiatic.
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55,000,000 to 35,000,000 Years Ago:
The 55 million years old fossil of a primate found in
Morocco, and the 35 million years old Aegyptopithecus found
in Fayyum, in Egypt, are considered the oldest
primate remains ever found in Africa. The earliest known
hominoid (man-like) fossil, dubbed Oligopitchecus
Savagei and which
was also found in Fayyum, is 33 million years old. About seven
million years ago, proto-humans diverged into a separate evolutionary tree, and soon afterwards, about five million years
ago, Africa itself began to crack along its eastern section, leading
to the formation of the Red Sea and the emergence of the great
Rift Valleys: one running from Abyssinia to Lake Victoria, and
the other from Victoria to the Zambesi. It was suggested that the
subsidence is continuously creating new lakes, which by trapping
more sediments preserve more fossils and hence the abundance of
fossil records in East Africa.
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4,000,000 To 3,000,000 Years Ago:
About 3.7 million years ago, the Australopithecus have
evolved to become the first ancestor who marked the beginning of
human culture, symbolised by tool making, the use of fire, and
organised settlements into perhaps what we now know as "society". The
discoveries at Ain Hanech in North Africa, when most
archaeologists believed no human artifacts older than the Pleistocene
(3.5 to 1.3 million years ago) can be found, confirmed that tool-making
humans had lived in North Africa in the Pliocene. They made hand-axes,
and polygonal nodules and cores of limestone with many flakes removed.
Stone tools connected with the east African Olduvai
Gorge, from
Tanzania, were said to be the same as those found in
Ain Hanech, suggesting an East African origin of the settlers.
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2,000,000 To 1,000,000 Years Ago:
Until now, Africa was considered the only continent our early
ancestors inhabited. Around 2 million years ago, they were advanced
enough to initiate the greatest journey of all times: the exploration
of planet earth. The Homo Erectus left Africa to
colonise Asia and Europe. Their bones were found in North Africa,
as far west as Casablanca, Rabat and Ternifine,
and in Asia, as far as China. Since their earliest remains in Europe
and Asia date back to about 700,000 years ago, anthropologists
have concluded that their journey must took them more than half
a million years. Those ancestors who remained in Africa evolved
into our own species, the Homo Sapiens, who also
went on to colonise Asia and Europe.
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1,000,000 To 100,000 Years Ago:
Around 800,000 years ago, the Sahara was hot, tropical, very damp
and covered with swamps, lakes and rivers. There were herds of
elephants and antelopes, hippopotami in the lakes, crocodiles in
the rivers, and vegetation everywhere. This period of heavy rain
lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. Then around 450,000
years ago, the earliest type of pebble-tool in Tokra (Cyrenaica)
and Bir
Dufan (Tripolitania) was replaced by the hand-axe.
About 200,000 years ago, the Neanderthals evolved, and were still
in existence when modern humans emerged about 50,000 years ago. For some
reason the two species did not co-exist and the Neanderthals went
extinct about 29,000 years ago. However, about 125,000
years ago the hand-axe was replaced by the Levallois or Prepared-Core technique. Evidence from this period indicates humans were well
familiar with fishing techniques, and painted their faces with
red ochre.
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100,000 Years Ago:
The most important Neanderthal site from Libya is the
Cave of Haua Fteah', near Marsa Sousa, in eastern
Libya; other North African sites include Jebel
Irhoud, Temara and
Tangier. The Neanderthals were fairly short and had long
skulls, protruding at the back, and heavier brows and jaws. They
were the first humans to design clothes out of animal skin and
the first in line to bury their dead. The Haua Fteah' in
eastern Libya is one of the largest prehistoric cave-sites in the
world and certainly the largest in the Mediterranean basin. A super-massive
structure, providing continuous archaeological record from 100,000
years ago to the present. According to C.B.M
McBurney (Libya in History, p. 7), "During
the Last Interglacial period
some 90,000 years ago Cyrenaica was occupied by an exceptionally
inventive and advanced group of Paleolithic hunters, among the
most technologically progressive communities so far known to have
existed at the time.” These ancient Libyan hunters lived on
wild cattle, gazelle, snails and marine molluscs, and made tools
far in advance of anything known at the time, including a bone
flute. This hardly known discovery, which McBurney brought to the
attention of the international community way back in the 1950s,
remains one of the best evidences that humans have
existed continuously in one site in Libya for 100,000 years.
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50,000 BC to 30,000 BC:
About 37,000 years ago, Libya, and much of North Africa, was occupied
by a tall, large-brained, and powerfully built humans, known as
the Cro-Magnon. The remains of this type were found to be
older than other Cro-Magnon samples from other sites (Europe
and Middle East), and it was widely believed that they were the
direct ancestors of the Berbers and the Iberians.
Cultural evidence from Fezzan, the home of the classical Garamantes
Kingdom,
then the most advanced people in the Sahara, goes back to more
than 30,000 years. Stone implements dated to the late Acheulean
and the Aterian (named after Bir el-Ater) cultures (100,000
- 30,000 BC) were found in numerous sites from the Fezzan area,
and, according to most sources, many more await discovery. The
dating of Fezzan's rock drawings to 12000 BC is widely disputed
and many scholars call for pushing this date farther back in
time on the light of the recent discoveries, and also strongly
criticised the old techniques originally used to date the work
some 40 or 50 years ago.
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20,000 BC to 5,000 BC:
Hundreds of millions of years ago the Sahara desert was covered
by great seas. As the seas drifted away, land slowly gave way
to a great desert, much larger than the one we have now.
Since then, the Sahara comes and goes just as the ice ages do elsewhere.
During Europe's merciless Ice Ages, the Sahara was a warm shelter
for many European refugees, who fled their homes for the luxurious
and exotic paradise of North Africa. [{(Maybe Europe now can
return the favour by accepting more refugees from stricken East
and sub-Saharan Africa)}]. One of these most recent cycles, between
12,000 and 10,000 years ago, brought heavy rainfalls to the area,
and slowly turned the Sahara to wet green land, covered with lakes
and rivers, most suitable for water-thirsty animals like hippopotami,
rhinoceroses, crocodiles and elephants. This lost paradise was
the home of several extinct civilizations, traces of which
still are preserved across the Sahara’s galleries of cave art,
and which now are the focus of many scientific
institutions from around the world, in search of human’s primeval
past!
The cultures
were so advanced of anything known elsewhere, and had advanced
stone tools, art and dramatic anthropomorphic symbolism.
The skeletal remains of a population anthropologists
named
"Mouillans"
were said to date between 15,000 and 10,000 BC. These settlements
were typically small, of about 100 individuals, mostly of women
and children! They posed the largest cranial capacity of any
population the world has ever seen; indicating, perhaps, their
relation to the earlier, large-brained Cro-Magnons. Dr Carleton
Coon has pointed out that the Mouillan features have never before
evolved in such combinations in any race at that time in human's
history. The breathtaking treasures of the Sahara's prehistoric
drawings and engravings are perhaps the best measure for the
level of civilisation attained by these peoples.
Sadly though, this human world heritage material is largely neglected
and still remains to this day disdainfully scattered across
the Sahara desert as if it were garbage.
Almost during
the same time, about 12,000 years ago, the same heavy rainfall
flooded Lake Victoria and created the river Nile, which became
the home for several Saharan immigrants after the Sahara was
turned dry about 7000 years ago. After the return of the Sahara
desert, between 7000 and 5000 years ago, humans began immigrating
out of the area and, according to the latest genetic evidence,
headed for Iberia, Egypt, Middle East, and south into the heart
of Africa. Today, mainly the Tuareg confederacies remain
the keepers of the great Sahara Desert.
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The Garamantian Period:
("Some years ago Diole
wrote: "The name of the Garamantes . . . does little
more, really, than designate our ignorance." C. Daniels.)
The cave drawings and engravings found in Fezzan were
said to be at least 12,000 years old; although, according to
other sources, as aforementioned, the dating process needs to
be revised. However, the archaeological artifacts and stone tools
discovered in various sites from Fezzan, which were dated to
the late Acheulean and the Aterian cultures (circa 100,000 -
30,000 BC.), confirm the existence of human cultures well before
12000 BC. Hence it is not surprising that many archaeologists
believe that the Garamantes and their descendants were responsible
for the rock art of Tadrart Acacus, the Messaks and the surrounding
areas.
The Garamantes were placed by Pliny twelve days journey
from the Augilae, and ten days by Herodotus, in the interior
of Libya. They occupied the most habitable region of the Sahara:
the Wadis el-Agial and Sciati and the oases from
Murzuk to Zuila. According
to some sources, the Garamantes had been living on the shores
between Zwara (Libya) and Gabes (in Tunisia), an area
that includes the legendary Lake Tritonis where Libyan Poseidon
allegedly ruled sunken Atlantis, in total agreement with lbn
Khaldun who stated that Germanah (Germa)
was first settled by the Lauta or Luwwatah tribe,
who also inhabited the coastal regions of Tripolitania.
The
Garamantes were considered to be Libya's first indigenous empire.
They initially run their kingdom from the nearby capital Zinchecra (on
the hills of Messak Settafet),
then from Germa or Garama (today's
Jerma or Germa) in the first century AD, so named after their
eponymous ancestor Garamas ("the
first of men")
who was, according to Greek mythology, the son of the glorious
Sun, and who, according to Libyan Berber mythology, offered
Mother Earth a sacrifice of the sweet acorn. Herodotus
informs us that the Garamantes were a very numerous tribe of
people, who spread soil over the salt to sow their seeds in,
and hunt in four-horse chariots. Archaeological discoveries
indicate the Garamentian cities were thriving
urban centres, with markets and public entertainment forums.
The
Garamantes appear to have had an advanced system
of religion and mythology, in which sacrificial stones and pyramid-like
burial chambers played an important role. More than 50,000 pyramidal
tombs were discovered in Fezzan so far. Most of the Garamentian
architecture is now in ruins, except the royal pyramid tombs
of Ahramat
al-Hattia,
which, like the pyramids of Egypt, are designed to stay. From
the archaeological remains of Germa, the city appears to have
had six towers and a square market, used as a transit point for
caravans and for the horses the Garamentes then exported to Rome.
The above inscriptions, written in the Berber script Tifinagh,
were collected from sites in the
vicinity of Germa, the Garamentian capital of what is now known as
Fezzan. According
to Charles Daniels, they comprise the first collection of
Garamentian inscriptions ever to be attempted. They were found
inscribed, or cut or painted on dark grey amphorae,
in the tombs of Garamantian cemeteries, such as those
of Saniat
ben Howedi. The
tombs were badly destroyed, but a number of vessels survived
in the graves. But despite having been
discovered long time ago, no
one has, yet, managed to
decipher them. Many of Germa's archaeological finds can also
be found in
Germa Museum, famous for the time-graph, showing
the different periods of cave art in the area.
Perhaps one of the best achievements of the Garaments, namely
their agricultural genius, was said to have brought their downfall.
The hundreds of underground channels, known as foggara,
which were used to direct water from underground reserves to
their farms, were said to have ultimately drained underground
reserves. But, according to other sources, the disappearance
of the Garamantes around the fifth century coincides more with
the invasions than with drying up of underground reserves. Soon
After the Garamentes came in contact with the Romans and Byzantines,
and after they were subdued by Oqba-ibn-Nafi, they appear to have
mysteriously disappeared into the Upper Niger,
where they may have survived today, as Graves was the first to
point out, in the village of Koromantse.
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The Libyan Amazons:
According to several historical records, the Libyan birthplace
of the Goddess Neith, whom the Greeks adopted as
Athena, as has been pointed out by Plutarch, Diodorus, Herodotus and (indirectly) Plato, was also the traditional homeland of the warrior
women known as the Libyan Amazons, in the western parts
of Libya, particularly around the legendary Lake Tritonis;
where the Libyan Poseidon's son Theseus married the queen
of the Amazons. The world of the Amazons was ruled by women
warrior, in which they followed a manner of life
unlike that which prevailed among other races of the time.
The Libyan Gorgon Medusa, who often led the Libyans
of Lake Tritonis in battle, against Her enemies, was said to have once
been a beautiful maiden until Poseidon lay with her
and incurred the enmity of the goddess Athena, who turned
Medusa's lovely hair into serpents and made her face so hideous
that a glimpse of it would instantly turn men to stone. Jealous Athena helped
Perseus, who was coming from Argos with an army, to behead Medusa,
and the drops of blood that fell from Medusa's severed head into
the Libyan desert were transformed into snakes.
According to Robert Graves, Diodorus Siculus' legend regarding
the Libyan Atlantians,
from whom Libyan Amazons seized their city Cerne, cannot
be archeologically dated, but he makes it precede a Libyan invasion
of the Aegean Islands and Thrace, an event which cannot have
taken place later than the third millennium BC.
There is no doubt that the Athena of Herodotus, whom the Amazon
worshipped around Lake Tritonis, was none other than the Libyan
Goddess Tannit: the Goddess
of War, as shown by the two spears she carries in various depictions.
The Libyan Goddess Tannit (Neith)
at Assaraya Alhamra Museum, Tripoli, Libya.
The following Arabic text, also displayed under the stone,
describes the above symbol of Tannit
.
Temehu.com's translation of the Arabic text at the
Museum:
"The Goddess Tannit. Tannit is regarded as one of
the most famous and important Punic goddesses in
Tripolitania. She is the wife of the Punic god Bal Hamon. She was the
goddess of sowing, harvest and fertility, and a sky goddess essentially
associated with the moon. Her symbol, known as the symbol of Tannit, is
a triangle representing the human body, surmounted by a circle representing
the head, and separated by a horizontal line which represents the hands.
The worship of the goddess Tannit emerged after the 5th century BC. She
appears to be of Libyan origin. This piece is from the 2nd century BC.
"
[End of translation.]
Poets and scholars of all ages knew Her as the Goddess
Neith, whom the ancient Egyptians adopted as
Nit or Net eons before the Phoenicians returned, and whom the ancient Greeks loved
as Athena.
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The Ancient Egyptian Period: 3300 BC to 750 BC:
Egyptian records inform us that many parts of Libya and Egypt
itself were inhabited by various Libyan
tribes, the most prominent of which were the Temehu
,
the Tehenu, the Ribu, and the Meshwesh.
From the extent of the Temehu's territories, it is evident that
they were made of a number of tribes, occupying much of the Sudan
and possibly all the way to Fezzan. Several historians have pointed
out that the Temehu and the Tehenu were the ancestors of the
present day Tuareg. When Greek and Roman historians arrived in
Libya and Egypt, the name Ribu became Libu, whence
present day “Libya”, and the name Meshwesh became Masuch (Herodotus),
Maschouacha (Chabas), Maksiz (Ptolemy) and Mazic (Latin
inscriptions), whence present day Tamazight,
and thus Imazighen, which is the generic name
used to describe the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa as
a whole. The ancient Egyptians and the Berbers are strongly related
tribes and share one common origin. Both languages: ancient Egyptian
(not to be confused with current Arabic Egyptian, which western
TV and History channels misleadingly use to portray ancient Egyptians)
and Berber ('Tamazight') are sister languages belonging to the
same linguistic branch of the Afro-Asiatic linguistic family.
The cultural traits of the ancient Egyptians and Libyan Berbers
and their mythologies and religions are also closely related,
if not the same. Thus recent genetic evidence relates both the
Egyptians and the Berbers, together with other Mediterranean
extinct peoples, to the distant civilizations of the Sahara.
Scientists have called for these results to be incorporated into
Europe's educational curriculum. Inscriptions from
the Old Kingdom are perhaps the earliest recorded
information we have about the Berbers of Libya (excluding the
recorded pre-history of rock art which goes much farther
back in time). Before
King Menes forcibly unified Egypt and invaded Lower Egypt, the
Delta was primarily inhabited by Libyan Berbers who worshipped
the Goddess Tannit, the Cat-goddess Bast and the Sun-god
Amon. The Palermo
stone further illustrates the antiquity
of Libyans in Lower Egypt by listing a succession of Libyan pre-Dynastic
kings and queens from Lower Egypt. The Libyans however regained control over
Egypt about (ca. 945 BC), by establishing the Libyan Dynasties
on the hands of the Libyan King Shishenq or Shishonk. (See
The
Temehu Tribes
for more on this.)
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The Arrival of the Phoenicians: 1000 BC To 200 BC:
The Phoenicians
originally descended from North Africa as attested by linguistic
evidence, where Proto-Semitic itself diverged from Proto-Berbero-Libyan
(Diakonoff, 1975, 1981) about 7000 years ago. According to the
legend of Dido,
which some sources say was a Roman invention to discredit Carthage:
its main rival, the Berber king Iarbas granted Dido as
much land as could be covered by an ox-hide; on which they settled
among the native Berbers and quickly adopted Berber gods and
traditions, like the Libyan Goddess Tannit whom they loved as
Tanit, and the Libyan Amon whom they worshipped as Bal-Amon, in
the same way the Greeks, later on, made him Zeus-Amon.
Unlike the later arrivals,
the Phoenicians signed treaties of
cooperation with the native Berbers; and when the Persians invaded
Egypt and sent their ambassadors
to Libya asking the Berbers to help the Persians take over Carthage,
the Libyans replied saying that they will not take up arms against
their brothers, and thus succeeded in saving Libya from yet another
foreign rule.
The Phoenicians established several colonies in
Libya, the most famous of which were Leptis Magna, Oea (Tripoli),
Sabratha, and Carthage (Qert Hadasht 'The New Village'),
which was founded in 814 BC. This
Berber-Phoenician empire was gaining influence all around the
Mediterranean, and eventually brought terror and fear to
the Romans' hearts. By 517 BC, the powerful Carthage was the
leading city of North Africa, controlling the entire North
African coast from Tripolitania to the Atlantic Ocean.
When Hannibal managed to invade Italy, in his daring adventure
across the Alps, shattering rocks and obstacle by heating them with fire and pouring wine along their cracks, he reached Rome and successfully laid siege to the capital city for nearly 12 years. During all these years the Roman emperor with his generals and slaves were held prisoners in their own beloved Rome, unable to come out and meet the men of Hannibal to defend their own city.
Here most historians
agree that Hannibal had committed his greatest mistake: not
attacking Rome whilst he was in Rome for nearly 12 years waiting for the Romans to come out of their hiding homes. Apparently historians also say that Hannibal's morality had prevented him from attacking
Roman women and children in their own homes, and instead he hopped the men will
come out and give him a decent fight. But the men never did come out as the stories of Hannibal's daring adventure across the Alps and Italy spread fear in their hearts. Instead of seemingly fighting to death and loosing Rome, their treachery inspired them to plot behind the city walls to divert the war to North Africa and take the fight back to Carthage, where Hannibal's victory would not harm Rome.
When Carthage was attacked by
the Romans the Carthaginian government
fell in the trap and immediately recalled Hannibal from Rome.
Hearing the news, or rather the order to return to Carthage, Hannibal knew exactly what the Romans had in mind, but he decided to stand by his original principle, against the word of most of his closest generals, and returned to defend his homeland - something no Roman emperor or any other general would even think let alone do. This is why Hannibal has a unique position in history no other general can ever attain. Compare the modern generals of today where bombing women and children is a daily routine across the stricken planet!
After the Punic Wars
with Rome, Carthage was
finally reduced to rubble and razed to the ground in 146 BC.
Hannibal was unharmed and left for Syria. From Syria he went to Bithynia, in
Asia, where its king Prusias eventually betrayed him to the Romans. Hearing of the news of the Roman army in their way to arrest him, he, like
Cleopatra, took poison in 183.
With Hannibal and Carthage out of the way, Rome was ready to spread terror around the Mediterranean world and across Europe and the Middle East. The result was total devastation across Europe, where linguists had concluded that 90% of Europe's indigenous languages had gone extinct as a direct result of the Roman invasions, and hence the subsequent spread of Latin across Europe. Imagine what Europe would have been like today had all these languages been allowed to flourish to-day. In fact many of the other languages around the Mediterranean and the Middle East, including ancient Egyptian, have also disappeared except Africa's Berber and Basque's Euskara - both of which are among the oldest languages in the world.
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The Arrival of the Greeks:
The Greeks established 5 colonies in Cyrenaica, around the
seventh century BC, which became known as the Pentapolis:
the Five Cities of Cyrene, Apollonia, Ptolemais,
Taucheira and Berenice (Benghazi). The Pentapolis enjoyed a
significant degree of autonomy, and Greek influence was limited
to the coastal regions. The Berber areas, further south, remained
free from Greek rule. Apparently, the city of
Cyrene was founded upon
the oracular advise of Apollo at Delphi, by the Greeks
of Thera (modern Santorini), and thus their arrival
was portrayed as a divine mission, rather than a military conquest, to secure foreign property. The fertile Green Mountain
(Jebel al-Akhdar) supplied Greece with livestock, grain, wine
and the unique Cyrenaican plant silphium. The level of civilization
attained by Cyrene was so high that it quickly became one of
the most cultural, philosophical and academic cities in North
Africa and produced some of the finest scholars of the time.
The popular philosophy of Cyrene was that of moral cheerfulness
and happiness. Shortly after the death of Alexander the Great in 323
BC, only eight years after his armies arrived in Cyrenaica,
his empire was divided among his Macedonian generals and thus
Cyrene and Egypt went to Ptolemy. Just over two hundred years
later, the Greek influence began to dwindle and the last Greek
ruler, Ptolemy Apion, finally surrendered Cyrenaica to Rome. The tribes mentioned by Herodotus as Atarantes and/or Atlantes,
who inhabited the regions of the Atlas Mountain (then Mauritania,
whence Moors ‘Berbers’), were associated by Plato with the inhabitants
of the lost Atlantes, whose chief God was the Libyan Sea-god
Poseidon. By the time of al-Ya'qubi (9th century) and Ibn Khaldun
(14th century), the ancient tribes of the Greek era became (not
replaced by) the Hawwara (or Zwara), Botr, Baranes, Sanhaja,
Zanata and Aurigh (which some sources say became Tuareg). As
the /gg/ is often changeable to /ww/ in various Berber languages,
the Tripolitanian Hawwara were thus identified with Hoggar, who
are thus the Tuareg of the present day Hoggar Mountain in the
Sahara.
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Hannibal
The Arrival of the Romans:
When the Roman arrived in North-West Africa, there were a number
of Berber Kingdoms in existence, the most influential
of which was Numidia or Numidae. According to Herodotus,
the Libyans comprised two major groups: the agricultural
population of the coastal regions, and the shepherds or the
Nomads, of which Numidae is the Latin form. The
Numidae of the Second Punic War were essentially the Berber tribes
of the Masaesyli and the Massyli, the subjects
of the Berber kings Syphax and Masinissa respectively.
The Numidian kingdom of Masinissa eventually included all of
Tripolitania. When the Romans took over North Africa, Libya came
under the
administration of Africa Proconsularis,
Shortly after the Carthaginian-Roman battle at
Zama, the Berber kingdoms began to suffer the impact of
the Roman invasions, and by 46 BC, Julius Caesar deposed the
final Numidian king, Juba I; and thereafter Tripolitania
was incorporated into the province of Africa
Proconsularis to begin the export of goods to Rome.
Once the coastal regions were under Roman control, the Roman
generals wanted to do what no invader of Libya has done before:
to conquer the Sahara. After their initial expeditions
into the Garamantian empire, the Romans, in 20–19 BC, and
later on in 69–70 AD, signed a trade and military treaty with
the Garamantian chiefs and the two became trading partners, as
evidenced by the pottery
shreds and other artifacts unearthed in Fezzan.
By the end of
the first century AD Rome had completed the pacification of Sirtica
(the region now know as the Gulf of Sert), and Cyrenaica was
handed over to them by the Greeks. Under the influence of the
Libyan-Berber emperor
Septimius
Severus
Libya enjoyed a massive
development as witnessed by the spectacular achievements built
in Leptis Magna, Tripoli and Sabratha - sites which were already
advanced Phoenician ports long before the Roman arrival. According
to several respected historians, the Romans learned a lot from
Carthage and that without Hannibal's attacks on Rome, as described above, there
would have been no Roman empire.
Hannibal ( (247-183 BC):
219: Siege of Saguntum
218: Capture of Saguntum ,Declaration of War.
218 : Hannibal sets out from New Carthage.
218 : Hannibal crosses the Alps, Battle of R. Ticinus.
218 : Battle of R. Trebia .
218 : Hannibal crosses the Apennines, Roman successes.
217 : Elections in Rome,Hannibal crosses R. Arno.
217 : Battle of Lake Trasimene.
217 : Hannibal's escape from Campania , Hannibal at Gereonium.
217: Minucius's successes against Hannibal.
216 : Elections in Rome, Hannibal at Capua.
216 : Carthage receives news of Canna.
216 : Hannibal repulsed at Nola, Siege of Casilinum.
216 :Roman army destroyed by Boii.
216 : Hasdrubal stopped from leaving Spain.
215 : Elections in Rome, Alliance between Carthage and Macedon.
215 : Capture of Carthaginian generals in Sardinia.
214 :Conspiracy in Syracuse, Marcellus in Sicily.
214 : Massacre at Henna.
213 : Roman overtures to king Syphax
212 : Hannibal enters Tarentum, Carthaginians take Thurii.
212 : Tiberius Gracchus killed.
212 : Plague at Syracuse, death of Archimedes.
212 : Death of the Scipios.
212 : Lucius Marcius rallies Roman remnant in Spain.
212 : Marcellus victorious at Agrigentum.
211 : Hannibal marches to relieve Capua, Battle of R. Volturnus.
211 : Hannibal's march on Rome, Battle of R. Anio.
211 : Hasdrubal's escape from Nero in Spain.
210 : Alliance between Rome, Aetolian League , and Pergamum.
210 : Fire in Rome ,Hannibal destroys Herdonea .
210 : Envoys from Syphax in Rome, raid on African coast.
208 : Raid on African coast, Plilip V intervenes in Greece.
207 : Hasdrubal crosses the Alps, Hasdrubal besieges Placentia.
207 : Hannibal routed at Grurnentum.
207 : Hasdrubal's letter to his brother Hannibal intercepted.
207 : Death of Hasdrubal (Hannibal's brother).
207 :Successful raid on Utica.
206 : Livy's tribute to Hannibal, Masinissa joins the Romans.
206 : Scipio and Hasdrubal meet Syphax, Slaughter at Astapa .
206 : Meeting between Scipio and Masinissa , surrender of Gades.
205 : Elections in Rome, Fabius's attack on Scipio in Senate.
205 : Laelius raids African coast .
204 : General peace in Greece.
204 : Pact between Carthage and Syphax.
204 : Scipio crosses to Africa, Masinissa comes to join Scipio.
204 : Hannibal defeated near Croton.
203 : Burning of Carthaginian camp at Utica .
203 : Syphax defeated at Great Plains.
203 : Naval battle off Carthage, final defeat and capture of
Syphax .
203 : Masinissa enters Cirta and meets Sophonisba.
203 : Sophonisba's death.
203 : Carthaginian envoys ask for peace, Rome rejoices over African
victories.
203 : Mago and Hannibal recalled from Italy.
203 : Hannibal leaves Italy, Hannibal lands at Leptis.
202 : Hannibal marches to Zama, meeting with Scipio.
202 : Battle of Zama : Rome wins.
195 : Hannibal's reforms in Carthage, Hannibal's flight
to Antiochus
193 : Hannibal's agent Aristo in Carthage.
191 : Hannibal's advice to Antiochus.
189 : Battle of Magnesia, senate ratifies peace with Antiochus
.
187 : Prosecution of Scipio Africanus and his death.
183 : Death of Hannibal: he left to Asia from Syria, where Prusias,
the King of Bithynia, betrayed him to the Romans. Hannibal took
poison rather than surrender.
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The Arrival of the Muslims:
After submitting most of the Arabian tribes to the will of Allah
by 631 AD, Muslim generals moved on towards the Middle East
and North Africa. In 642 AD, U'mr ibn al-A's,
under the command of the Caliph U'mr I, arrived in Cyrenaica,
where he established his base at Barqa, and then a few years
later he moved on towards Tripolitania, where he removed the
remaining Byzantine garrisons and took control of Tripoli.
After
U'mr, the Caliph sent Uqba bin Nafi, who moved
towards Fezzan in 663 and took Germa, and then the Roman province
of Africa in 670 AD, where he established another military
base at Kairouan (al Qayrawan) in preparation to attack Byzantine
Carthage, which they
finally took in 693 AD.
Shortly afterwards, the Muslims arrived
in Morocco, from where they opened Spain, under the command
of Tariq Bin Zayyad. By the seventh century, a power
struggle ensued between the supporters of rival claimants to
the caliphate, thereby splitting Islam into two sects: the Sunni
and the Shia. About 200 years later, Shia missionaries of the
Ismaili sect succeeded in converting the Kutama of Kabylia
and set them against the Sunni Aghlabids, where they took Kairouan
in the following year, and soon afterwards the wars broke out
again between the Shia Fatimids of North Africa and the Sunni
of Baghdad; eventually leading the Fatimids caliph to
invite Bani Hilal and Bani Salim bedouin tribes
from the Arabian peninsula.
Top of Page
The Arrival of The Spaniards & The Turks:
After a short lull in Libya's history, it was the turn of the
Spaniards and the Turks to share the spoils of the Great White
Sea. During the 14th and 15th centuries the Spaniards were wrecking
havoc across the waters of the Mediterranean. The genocide of
the natives of the Canary Islands was completed in 1500
AD, and the survivors were sold as first-class slaves in Europe.
And soon after that, they destroyed Tripoli in 1510 AD
and built a fortified naval base from the rubble. Throughout
the 16th century, Spain and the Ottoman Turks were fighting over
the control of the Mediterranean, just as the Phoenicians
and the Romans did before. Chaos was the king and piracy, which
was already in existence, became an established business on
both side of the Great White Sea. By 1551 AD the knights were
driven out of
Tripoli by
the Turkish pirates, and by 1580 AD the chiefs of Fezzan finally
allied with the Turks. By the early 18th century, the Karamanli
dynasty rose to fame, mainly in trafficking slaves and piracy,
activities which eventually invited the European powers to take
control of Africa. They British began sending a series of expeditions
to all parts of Africa, collecting maps and information about
the treasures lay hidden in Africa, with master plans to abolish
the slave trade and establish a different kind of economy.
Top of Page
Modern Colonial Period:
The spread of the Ottoman Empire saw Libya come under a state
of disarray and chaos, where corruption and cruelty were the
main characteristics of the period. In September 1911 Italy accused
Turkey of arming tribesmen in Libya and soon afterwards declared
war and captured Tripoli in October the 3rd and occupied Cyrenaica's
Tobruk and Benghazi. The initial resistance of the Turks soon
disappeared and instead they settled for peace in 1912, while
Italy began its wars against the Libyans. The powerful Sanusi
religious order managed to unite the rival bedouin tribes of
Cyrenaica and form a strong opposition to the Italians. But when
the Italians forcibly united Cyrenaica with Tripolitania in what
is now know as Libya in 1931 and thus the Libyan resistance came
to an end, the Libyans were driven to join forces with
the Allied and finally succeeded in defeating the Italians.
Erwin Rommel's campaigns with
the allies marked a bloody period of Libya's history, which eventually
led the British to pave the way for Libya to join the international
community. Under the supervision of the United Nations, King
Idris was chosen from the Sanusi clan to become the king of Independent
Libya in 1951. However, true independence
that is free from European rule did not arrive until 1969 when
Gaddafi toppled King Idris from the throne and claimed
Libya as a republic of the free people.
Top of Page
Gaddafi's White Revolution: 1st of September 1969:
After
Gaddafi's
White Revolution of the First of September
1969, the Kingdom
of Libya became known as the Libyan Arab
Republic. The new era of Libya's history was characterised
by massive political, economical and social developments and an
agricultural revolution culminating in the Great Man-Made River.
The main slogan of the revolution was: "Freedom,
Socialism & Unity", in reference to the freedom the Libyan
people enjoy under the new regime through the "people's
committees"; the
socialism achieved through promoting industrialization and agricultural
splendour; and the unity with the Arab world.
Muammar al Qaddafi was
born in a tent in Sert in 1942. As a boy, he was deeply affected
by the major events taking place in the Arab world, after which
he showed interest in studying history. He joined the Libyan
military academy at Benghazi in 1961. Soon after the great revolution,
Gaddafi's striking personality and progressive ideological style
earned him front headlines around the world, and within a space
of a few years he became the most charismatic leader Libya has
ever seen. His powerful vision of pan-Arabism brought him into
constant conflict with the colonial forces of imperialism, while
leaving internal affairs to his revolutionary command and to
the Libyan people.
In 1973 he declared the Cultural or Popular Revolution, in
which he outlined his ideas to combat bureaucracy, corruption,
and the lack of public participation, and strongly urged the
Libyan people to take over the various governmental institutions,
and thus the "people's
committees" were created across Libya as regional administrations,
in what is known as "direct democracy" as
described in his Green Book. These local committees are run by
the central General People's Congress (GPC), also know as the
General People's Committee, which, in March 1977, declared the Libyan
Arab Republic as the Great
Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. After he
completed establishing his new vision of Libya, Gaddafi officially
handed power over to the newly formed GPC and he distanced himself
from any presidency-ship, and thereafter he was known as the "Leader
of the Revolution." From there on, Libya is run by Libyans
in a new kind of democracy known as Popular Democracy, in which
the country is run by the people.
www.temehu.com . Author: Nesmenser ©
2008.
This work (Brief History & Prehistory of Libya, www.temehu.com) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. (Note: please do not remove this licence if you intend
to share this article. Doing so violates the terms of this agreement. This paragraph must remain intact including this active link to the original article at http://www.temehu.com/History-of-Libya.htm).
End of Article.
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