The colony expanded after concessions were made from the British colony of Sudan and a territorial agreement with Egypt. The Kingdom of Italy at the 1919 Paris “Conference of Peace” did not receive anything of the German colonies, but as a compensation was given from Great Britain the Oltre Giuba and France agreed to give some Saharan territories to the Italian Libya. After many discussions during the 1920s, it was only until 1935 that the Mussolini-Laval agreement was reached and Italy received the Aouzou strip that was added to Libya, but this agreement was not ratified later by France.
Libya was lost as a colony in early 1943 when it was occupied by the Allied powers near the end of the North African Campaign.
The picture on Gaddafi’s chest is of a Libyan resistance fighter, Omar al-Mukhtar, hanged by the Italian colonialists in 1931. Gaddafi even bought along the man’s elderly son
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Omar Mukhtar (Arabic عمر المختار ‘Umar Al-Mukhtār) (1862 – September 16, 1931), of the Mnifa,[1] was born in the small village of Janzour, near Tobruk in eastern Barqa (Cyrenaica) in Libya. Beginning in 1912, he organized and, for nearly twenty years, led native resistance to Italian colonization of Libya. The Italians captured and hanged him in 1931.
Early life
Omar Mukhtar was born in eastern Cyrenaica, Al Butnan District, in the village of East Janzur east of Tobruk. He was orphaned early and was adopted by Sharif El Gariani nephew of Hussein Ghariani, a political-religious leader in Cyrenaica. He received his early education at the local mosque and then studied for eight years at the Senussi university at Al-Jaghbub, which was also the headquarters of the Senussi Movement. In 1899 he was sent with other Senussi to assist Rabih az-Zubayr in the resistance in Chad against the French.
Italian invasion
Main articles: Italo-Turkish War and Italian Libya
In October 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, an Italian naval contingent under the command of Admiral Luigi Faravelli reached the shores of Libya, then a territory subject to Ottoman Turkish control. The admiral demanded that the Libyans surrender their territory to the Italians or incur the immediate destruction of the city of Tripoli. The Libyans fled instead of surrendering, and the Italians bombarded the city for three days, then proclaimed the Tripolitanians to be “committed and strongly bound to Italy.” This marked the beginning of a series of battles between the Italian colonial forces and the Libyan armed opposition under Omar Mukhtar.
Guerrilla warfare
Main articles: Libyan resistance movement and History of Libya as Italian colony
A teacher of the Qur’an by profession, Mukhtar was also skilled in the strategies and tactics of desert warfare. He knew local geography well and used that knowledge to advantage in battles against the Italians, who were unaccustomed to desert warfare. Mukhtar repeatedly led his small, highly alert groups in successful attacks against the Italians, after which they would fade back into the desert terrain. Mukhtar’s men skillfully attacked outposts, ambushed troops, and cut lines of supply and communication. The Italian army was left astonished and embarrassed by his guerrilla tactics.
In the mountainous region of Ghebel Akhdar (“Green Mountain”) in 1924, Italian Governor Ernesto Bombelli created a counter-guerrilla force that inflicted a severe setback to rebel forces in April, 1925. Mukhtar then quickly modified his own tactics and was able to count on continued help from Egypt. In March, 1927, despite occupation of Giarabub from February 1926 and increasingly stringent rule under Governor Attilio Teruzzi, Mukhtar surprised Italian troops at Raheiba. Between 1927 and 1928, Mukhtar fully reorganized the Senusite forces, who were being hunted constantly by the Italians. Even General Teruzzi recognized Omar’s qualities of “exceptional perseverance and strong will power.”
Pietro Badoglio, governor of Libya from January 1929, after extensive negotiations concluded a compromise with Mukhtar (described by the Italians as his complete submission) similar to previous Italo-Senusite accords. At the end of October, 1929, Mukhtar denounced the compromise and reëstablished a unity of action among Libyan forces, preparing himself for the ultimate confrontation with General Rodolfo Graziani, Italian military commander from March 1930.
A massive offensive in June against Mukhtar’s forces having failed, Graziani, in full accord with Badoglio, Emilio De Bono (minister of the colonies), and Benito Mussolini, initiated a plan to break Cyrenian resistance: the hundred-thousand population of Gebel would be moved to concentration camps on the coast and the Libyan-Egyptian border from the coast at Giarabub would be closed, preventing any foreign help to the fighters and depriving them of support from the native population. These measures, which Graziani initiated early in 1931, took their toll on the Senusite resistance. The rebels were deprived of help and reinforcements, spied upon, hit by Italian aircraft, and pursued on the ground by the Italian forces aided by local informers and collaborators. Mukhtar continued to struggle despite increased hardships and risks, but on September 11, 1931, he was ambushed near Zonta.
Mukhtar’s final adversary, Italian General Rodolfo Graziani, has given a description of the Senusite leader that is not lacking in respect: “Of medium height, stout, with white hair, beard and mustache. Omar was endowed with a quick and lively intelligence; was knowledgeable in religious matters, and revealed an energetic and impetuous character, unselfish and uncompromising; ultimately, he remained very religious and poor, even though he had been one of the most important Senusist figures.” Today Mukhtar is a famous man in Libya.
Capture and execution
Omar Mokhtar’s arrest
Mukhtar’s struggle of nearly twenty years came to an end on September 11, 1931, when he was wounded in battle near Slonta, then captured by the Italian army.[2][3] The Italians treated the native leader hero as a prize catch. His resilience had an impact on his jailers, who later remarked upon his steadfastness.[citation needed] His interrogators stated that Mukhtar recited verses of peace from the Qur’an.[citation needed]
In three days, Mukhtar was tried, convicted, and, on September 14, 1931, sentenced to be hanged publicly (historians and scholars have questioned whether his trial was fair or impartial[4]). When asked if he wished to say any last words, Mukhtar replied with a Qur’anic phrase: “Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.” (“To God we belong and to Him we shall return.”). On September 16, 1931, on the orders of the Italian court and with Italian hopes that Libyan resistance would die with him, Mukhtar was hanged before his followers in the concentration camp of Solluqon at the age of 70 years.[5]
Aftermath
Today, Mukhtar’s face appears shown on the Libyan ten-dinar bill.
His final years were depicted in the movie Lion of the Desert (1981), starring Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, and Irene Papas. It was based on the struggles of Mukhtar against Rodolfo Graziani’s forces.
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Mukhtar
Omar Mokhtar arrested by Italian Fascists
Roughly half of Libya was superficially annexed from the collapsing Ottoman empire by the growing Italian colonial empire in 1910. Its tribes resisted fiercly, and Italy was unable to secure a full colony much like it was humiliated in Ethiopia. The strongman Mussolini sought to prove Italian Roman majesty, and initiated a full-scale conquest of the Libyan tribes. Islamic Mujahidin fought a Jihad against the Italian colonialists for the establishment of an independent Muslim Libya (under the Wahhabi/Salafist Sanussis, still influential today). Islamic assaults on Italian civilian settlers and soldiers were met with brutal scorched-earth attacks. The rebellion was led by Umar Mukhtar. The uprising was unsuccessful, but became a heroic model for Muslims across the world. Libya was the first nation in North Africa to break from colonial rule. The Libyan revolution — like the later Islamic revolution of Mumar Qadafi — was under the banner of Islam, heavily influenced by Wahhabism and “Sanussism”.
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