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14 benghazi

al-Qadhdhf (r. 1969–2011) Barqa was intiql al-khilfa al-Fimiyya il Mir att
disadvantaged—despite having produced nihyat ahd Ban Mar, 361–580H/971–
1184M, Cairo 2013; Douglas L. Johnson,
most of the country’s crude oil since the Jabal al-akhdar, Cyrenaica. An historical geography
1960s—and, consequently, a hotbed of of settlement and livelihood, Chicago 1973; Sean
opposition activity. In 2011, the uprising Kane, Barqa reborn? Eastern regionalism
against the al-Qadhdhf regime started and Libya’s political transition, in Peter Cole
and Brian McQuinn (eds.), The Libyan revolu-
here. tion and its aftermath (London 2015), 205–28;
Since 1963, Barqa has not been an Mostafa Minawi, The Ottoman scramble for
administrative unit of the Libyan state Africa. Empire and diplomacy in the Sahara and
but is still considered a region. In 2012–3, the Hijaz, Stanford 2016; Ester Panetta,
Cirenaica sconosciuta, Florence 1952; Emrys
local leaders, including members of the L. Peters, The Bedouin of Cyrenaica. Stud-
Sans family, declared its autonomy and, ies in personal and corporate power, Cambridge
in the following years, it has become the 1990; Amad Muammad Qall, Sanawt
area of influence of the “Libyan” govern- al-arb wa-l-idra al-askariyya al-Barniyya f
Barqa (1939–1949), Benghazi 2003; Monika
ment based at Tobruk. Rekowska, In pursuit of ancient Cyrenaica….
Two hundred years of exploration set against the
Bibliography history of archaeology in Europe (1706–1911),
Lafa Bashr, Jizyat ahl Barqa, Majallat trans. Anna Kijak, Oxford 2016; Erwin M.
al-buth al-tarkhiyya 32/1 (2010), 115–36; Ruprechtsberger, Die Kyrenaika als römische
Frédéric Bauden, The Islamic coinage of Provinz. Mit Blick auf Urgeschichte und frühisla-
Cyrenaica (Barqa) from the Arab conquest mische Zeit, Linz 2012; Eileen Ryan, Religion
up to the advent of the Fatimids, in Michele as resistance. Negotiating authority in Italian Libya,
Asolati (ed.), Le monete di Cirene e della Cire- New York 2018; Muft Khall al-Sann,
naica in Mediterraneo. Problemi e prospettive. Atti al-Umar min ahl Barqa wa-l-ar. Bath
del V Congresso internazionale di numismatica tall wa-dirsa tafliyya wathiqiyya f tarkh
e di storia monetaria (Padua 2016), 387–412; wa-ul wa-arakat al-mujtama al-badaw f
Muammad Muaf Bzma, Tarkh Barqa, Barqa wa-l-ar, Alexandria 2011; Enzo
vol. 1, F l-ahd al-Uthmn al-awwal, vol. 2, F Santarelli et al., Omar al-Mukhtar e la ricon-
l-ahd al-Qaramnl, vol. 3, F l-ahd al-Uthmn quista fascista della Libia, Milan 1981; Jsim
al-thn, Nicosia 1994; Roy H. Behnke, The Muammad Shab al-Ubayd, Iqlm Barqa
herders of Cyrenaica. Ecology, economy, and kin- bayn al-ukm al-Uthmn al-thn wa-l-dawa
ship among the Bedouin of eastern Libya, Urbana al-Sansiyya, 1835–1911, Amman 2018;
1980; David Bramoullé, L’émirat de Barqa Muammad Fud Shukr, al-Sansiyya.
et les Fatimides. Les enjeux de la naviga- Dn wa-dawla, ed. Ysuf al-Mijrs, Oxford
tion en Méditerranée centrale au XIe siècle, 2005; Sulaymn Khab Suwaykir, al-Jliya
REMMM 139 (2016), 73–92; Abd al-Fatt al-yahdiyya f iqlm Barqa tata al-istimr al-l,
Rajab Muammad B Lab, Tarkh Barqa 1911–1942, Benghazi 2005; Knut S. Vikør,
al-Islm f l-fatra min al-qarn al-khmis att Sufi and scholar on the desert edge. Muammad b.
al-rub al-awwal min al-qarn al-shir al-hijr, Al al-Sans and his brotherhood, London 1995;
Tripoli 2009; Federico Cresti, Città, soci- Niql Ziyda (Nicola A. Ziadeh), Barqa. Al-
età ed economia urbana del bild Barqa dawla al-Arabiyya al-thmina, Beirut 1950.
nelle descrizioni dei viaggiatori italiani
dell’ottocento, Africa 43/1 (2008), 1–30; Jakob Krais
Federico Cresti, Non desiderare la terra d’altri.
La colonizzazione italiana in Libia, Rome 2011;
Enrico De Agostini, Le popolazioni della Cirena-
ica. Notizie etniche e storiche, Benghazi 1922–3; Benghazi
E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica,
repr. London 1973; Rodolfo Graziani, Cire-
naica pacificata, Milan 1932; usayn asan Benghazi (Banghz) is a city in Libya,
Muaf Imqw, Barqa wa-arbulus mundhu on the Mediterranean coast east of the
benghazi 15

Gulf of Sirt. The second-largest city of central position in commerce between the
Libya, with a population of approximately Mediterranean and Africa, the port city
800,000 (in 2018), it has been one of the attracted merchant communities of Jews,
country’s major ports and the most impor- Maltese, Armenians, and Italians.
tant city of the historic region of Cyre- Benghazi had been occupied by the
naica (Barqa) for the last two centuries. Ottoman Empire, for the first time, in
The history of Benghazi goes back 986/1578. When the Sublime Porte rees-
to the sixth century BCE, when Greek tablished direct administration over the
colonists founded the city of Euesper- province of Tripolitania (Ott. Turk., Trab-
ides, which became part of the so-called lusgarp; Ar., arbulus al-Gharb) in 1835,
Cyrenaican Pentapolis (five cities). During it also installed a garrison to Benghazi.
the Ptolemaic period (396–23 BCE), the In 1863, it became the seat of a district
city’s name changed to Berenice (after a governor (mutasarrf/mutaarrif) directly
princess of the dynasty). After the Arab responsible to Istanbul. This administra-
conquest in about 21/642 this name tive status as capital of an independent
remained in use, in its Arabised form, as sancak (sanjaq) continued for most of the
Barnq. Over the following centuries, the period until 1911—from 1879 to 1888 the
town remained small and insignificant; it city was even the seat of a provincial gov-
is possible that it was not even continu- ernor (vali/wl)—and from 1868 onwards,
ously inhabited. Benghazi also had its own municipality.
The modern town of Benghazi, named The Ottoman period saw improvements
after the tomb of a local saint named in the city’s infrastructure and health care
Sd Ghz, developed probably from the as well as the establishment of the first
ninth/fifteenth century on, when mer- modern state schools.
chants from the regions of today’s west- In 1911, Italian forces conquered Beng-
ern Libya and southern Tunisia settled hazi at the beginning of their war with
there to participate in the salt trade. By the Ottoman Empire and made it the
the Karamanl (Qaramnl) period (1123– capital of the new colony of Cyrenaica.
1251/1711–1835), Benghazi had devel- Here, in 1931, Italian authorities held the
oped into an important Mediterranean trial that sentenced the major resistance
port housing foreign diplomatic missions. leader Umar al-Mukhtr (1862–1931)
From here, caravan routes extended to to death. In the 1920s and 1930s, a new
the oases of Awjila and Kufra and from colonial city was built, and many Italians
there further to Wadai, Darfur, and the settled in Benghazi, which was connected
Nile Valley, or to Fezzan and the Lake by railroad with other towns in Cyrenaica
Chad region. Apart from salt, the most and, through a new coastal highway, with
important export goods included esparto Tripoli. In 1939, the city became the capi-
grass, grain, and clothes, while imports tal of the new metropolitan province of
from the south consisted mainly of ani- Bengasi.
mal products, such as ivory and skins. During the Second World War, Beng-
Benghazi was also a major centre in the hazi was taken and retaken several times
trans-Saharan slave trade, until the Otto- by Allied and Axis forces, before being
man authorities enforced its abolition definitively occupied by the British in
in the late nineteenth century. With its late 1942. It served then as the capital
16 burton, richard francis

of British-administered Cyrenaica and quadro della politica fascista di “ricon-


was the site of Libya’s declaration of quista” della Libia, in Enzo Santarelli et
al., Omar al-Mukhtar e la riconquista fascista
independence in 1951. Under King Idrs della Libia (Milan 1981), 191–278; Fat
al-Sans (r. 1951–69), Benghazi was the Al Sil, Musin Abd al-Ram Turayk,
seat of Cyrenaica’s regional administra- and Ashraf Manr urayd, Quyd udhunt
tion (until 1963) and shared national-cap- al-ankia wa-uqd adam al-mumnaa f aqd
qirn ba al-usar al-banghziyya athna ukm
ital status with Tripoli, although it was the al-dawla al-Uhmniyya, 1264–1325H/1847–
preferred residence of the monarch. In 1907M, Benghazi 2003; Muammad
1955, Libya’s first university (later Jmiat Muaf al-Sharkas, Ba mahir tijrat
Qr Ynis) was founded in Benghazi. arbulus al-Gharb maa al-khrij khilla
al-ahd al-Uthmn al-thn, al-Shahd 11
Under the regime of Muammar (1990), 255–82.
al-Qadhdhf (r. 1969–2011) Benghazi
lost some of its former importance, on Jakob Krais
account of its attachment to the deposed
Sans family, but it remained Libya’s
second city, after Tripoli. In 1986, it was
bombed by the United States air force in
Burton, Richard Francis
retaliation for terrorist attacks ascribed to
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton
the al-Qadhdhf regime. In early 2011, it
(1821–90) was a Victorian writer, transla-
was in Benghazi that the uprising that top-
tor, explorer, soldier, and diplomat. Born
pled al-Qadhdhf began, and it served as
at Torquay, in Devon, Burton spent his
the first seat of the National Transitional
early years with his family in continental
Council (al-Majlis al-Waan al-Intiql).
Europe, where he acquired an extraordi-
nary facility for languages and an ambigu-
Bibliography ous sense of ethnic and national identity
Muammad Muaf Bzma, Banghz abra
that resulted from the expatriate experi-
al-tarkh, Benghazi 1966; Adam Benkato,
The Arabic dialect of Benghazi (Libya). ences of his youth and provided valu-
Historical and comparative notes, ZAL 59 able perspectives on the various cultures
(2014), 57–102; Hadi M. Bulugma, Benghazi he studied. He entered Trinity College
through the ages, Tripoli 1968; Wahb Amad
in Oxford in autumn 1840 but was com-
al-Br, Banghz f fatrat al-istimr al-l,
Benghazi 2004, Sirt 20082; Federico Cresti, pelled to leave less than two years later
Città, società ed economia urbana del bild for an infraction of college rules, provid-
Barqa nelle descrizioni dei viaggiatori ital- ing him a welcome opportunity to obtain
iani dell’ottocento, Africa 43/1 (2008), 1–30;
a commission in the Bombay Army of the
D. Fabrizio, Politica e missione. Tripoli e
Bengasi, Misurata e Derna (1904–1945), East India Company.
Nuova Rivista Storica 88/2 (2004), 425–504;
Slim usayn Kabt, Alm Arab f Banghz, 1. India and Arabia
Benghazi 2010; Ester Panetta, L’arabo par-
During Burton’s seven years in India
lato a Bengasi, vol. 1, Testi con traduzione e
note, vol. 2, Grammatica, Rome 1943; Calo- (1842–9), he was posted first to Baroda,
gero Piazza, Statistiche sul commercio di in Gujarat, with the 18th Bombay Native
Benghz (1828), Africa 39/1 (1984), 57–70; Infantry, then in Sindh, following its
Francesco Prestopino, Una città e il suo foto-
conquest and annexation to the British
grafo. La Bengasi coloniale, 1912–1941, Milan
1999; Romain Rainero, La cattura, il pro- Empire. He also performed staff duty in
cesso e la morte di Omar al-Mukhtar nel the survey of the newly acquired province

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