Benghazi EI3
Benghazi EI3
Benghazi EI3
al-Qadhdhf (r. 1969–2011) Barqa was intiql al-khilfa al-Fimiyya il Mir att
disadvantaged—despite having produced nihyat ahd Ban Mar, 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-Qadhdhf 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-
Sans family, declared its autonomy and, ies in personal and corporate power, Cambridge
in the following years, it has become the 1990; Amad Muammad Qall, Sanawt
area of influence of the “Libyan” govern- al-arb wa-l-idra al-askariyya al-Barniyya 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
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Lafa Bashr, Jizyat ahl Barqa, Majallat trans. Anna Kijak, Oxford 2016; Erwin M.
al-buth al-tarkhiyya 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 Khall al-Sann,
naica in Mediterraneo. Problemi e prospettive. Atti al-Umar min ahl Barqa wa-l-ar. Bath
del V Congresso internazionale di numismatica tall wa-dirsa tafliyya wathiqiyya f tarkh
e di storia monetaria (Padua 2016), 387–412; wa-ul wa-arakat al-mujtama al-badaw f
Muammad Muaf Bzma, Tarkh Barqa, Barqa wa-l-ar, Alexandria 2011; Enzo
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l-ahd al-Qaramnl, vol. 3, F l-ahd al-Uthmn quista fascista della Libia, Milan 1981; Jsim
al-thn, Nicosia 1994; Roy H. Behnke, The Muammad Shab al-Ubayd, Iqlm Barqa
herders of Cyrenaica. Ecology, economy, and kin- bayn al-ukm al-Uthmn al-thn wa-l-dawa
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1980; David Bramoullé, L’émirat de Barqa Muammad Fud Shukr, al-Sansiyya.
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età ed economia urbana del bild Barqa dawla al-Arabiyya al-thmina, Beirut 1950.
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E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica,
repr. London 1973; Rodolfo Graziani, Cire-
naica pacificata, Milan 1932; usayn asan Benghazi (Banghz) is a city in Libya,
Muaf Imqw, Barqa wa-arbulus 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., arbulus 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 (mutasarrf/mutaarrif) 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
Barnq. 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/wl)—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
Sd Ghz, 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 (Qaramnl) 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-Mukhtr (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