Last month the Institut de recherche sur le maghreb contemporaine (IRMC) in Tunis hosted an international conference entitled Patrimoine matériel (archéologique et manuscrit) et immatériel en Libye et dans les pays voisins. The conference featured quite a number of presentations, and fortunately, the live-streams are available online on the IRMC’s youtube channel, in French and in Arabic, for those interested in hearing some of the presentations.
The program is at this link.
A recent (open-access!) article by our colleague Paul Love of Ibadi Studies based on local and colonial archives as well as fieldwork with the community:
Love, Paul M. 2025. M’addibs and Migrant Laborers: Migration from Ottoman Trablus al-Gharb to Djerba, Tunisia in the Early 20th Century. International Journal of Middle East Studies 57(2). 294–312.
Abstract: This article follows the history of migration from the mountain villages of the Jebel Nafusa in Ottoman Trablus al-Gharb (in today’s northwestern Libya) to the southern Tunisian island of Djerba in the early 20th century. It situates this local history of migration within the broader framework of Maghribi migration both before and during the colonial era in Libya (1911–43), while tracing the histories of two categories of migrants, in particular, manual laborers and Qur’an teachers (m’addibs). The article makes three claims: (1) Nafusi migration was as much the result of local historical circumstances as it was a response to colonialism; (2) the historical experience of migration of Nafusis differed according to social class; and (3) local circumstances shaped the dynamics of migrant integration in the Maghrib. In doing so, I demonstrate how Nafusi migration to Djerba both conforms to and diverges from the larger history of late Ottoman and colonial-era migration in Tunisia. By shifting the focus away from the colonial moment, I make the case for foregrounding longer-term regional connections and migrations that linked different spaces across the Maghrib and also attend to local histories and what they offer in the way of caveats and exceptions.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Libya office has published a report by Asma Khalifa entitled Libya’s Imazighen: Identity Formation During Conflict.
Abstract: This paper explores the trajectory of Libya’s Amazigh population from systemic repression under the Gaddafi regime to their cultural and political resurgence following the 2011 uprising. It examines the deliberate erasure of Amazigh identity through state policies and the subsequent reassertion of their cultural and political presence during the post-revolutionary period, commonly referred to as the “Amazigh Renaissance.” Despite notable advancements, Amazigh communities continue to face exclusion within a fragmented and volatile political environment. The study argues that meaningful recognition and autonomy for the Amazigh are contingent upon an inclusive constitutional framework, resolution of national conflicts, and internal community cohesion. Their inclusion is presented as crucial for sustainable peacebuilding and the broader democratic transformation of Libya.
The latest issue—the Heirloom Edition—of Afikra’s quarterly online magazine Daftar has a couple of articles on Libyan food: one on ‘asida by the artist Marwa Ben Halim and one on rishta by Hala Ghellali (author of a recent book on Libyan jewelry).
A dossier entitled “Responding to Invasion: Afro-Asian Reactions to the Italo- Ottoman War, 1911-1912” edited by Carlotta Marchi and Massimo Zaccaria has appeared in the journal Africa. Rivista semestrale di Studi e Ricerche (VI/2, 2024). The dossier’s abstract states:
This dossier provides a comprehensive examination of the social, cultural, and material consequences of the Italo-Ottoman War (1911–1912) within a global historiographical perspective. It explores how the Italian invasion of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica sparked widespread solidarity across non-European regions. While the historiography of the conflict has hitherto focused on its European ramifications, this dossier investigates the unexplored reactions from non-European societies, particularly in those regions connected to the Ottoman Empire, such as North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean. The articles examine global opinion and transnational networks of anti-imperialist and pan-Islamist activists, as well as alternative perspectives supporting Italy. By conducting such an analysis, the articles unveil intricate dynamics that supersede the conventional colonial dichotomy, emphasising collaborative endeavours and mediation initiatives.
Articles
Vanda Wilcox, “Towards a Global History of the Italo-Ottoman War”
Though often overshadowed by the events of the First World War, the Italo- Ottoman War deserves closer attention. Its study might be revitalized by drawing on recent historiographical trends within First World War studies, which emphasize both global perspective and a re- evaluation of chronological boundaries. Future studies might also draw on diverse methodological approaches, including military, social, political, and cultural histories, to deepen our understanding of the war’s multifaceted dimensions. The fields of African and colonial history can suggest further possible future avenues of approach, as can the Second Italo- Ethiopian War. The article calls for a nuanced re-evaluation of the Italo-Ottoman War that transcends Eurocentric perspectives and acknowledges its significance as a pivotal moment in global history, and concludes with a short evaluation of the war’s impact in British India.
Carlotta Marchi, “‘Arab Voices’: Press, Public Opinion and the Intellectual Response in Egypt on the Italo-Ottoman War”
During the Italo-Ottoman conflict of 1911-1912, Egypt played an important moral and material role. It was the scene of a series of manifestations and reactions of solidarity that took place in the press, in public opinion, and in literary and intellectual production. This response reflected the circulation of shared sentiments and ideals, of which Egypt became one of the centres of reference, based on a tangible trans-colonial perspective. In this sense, this paper aims to analyse the construction of awareness of the Italo-Ottoman war in Egypt, focusing on the role of “Arab voices” in promting a common sense of Ottoman, Arab and Islamic identity and solidarity, and a shared critique of Western “civilisation”. The study of newspapers, poems, discourses, reactions, and their impact and circulation favour a broader analysis of the expansion of anti-colonial solidarity, both geographically and temporally.
Massimo Zaccaria, “Courting African Public Opinion: Echoes of the Italo-Ottoman War along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean”
The Italo-Ottoman war played an important role in mobilising public opinion. In the Americas as well as in Asia, the war aroused a great deal of participation, generated polemics and protests and, to a much lesser extent, gathered support. The study of the reactions to the Italian aggression in Africa has mainly concerned the northern part of the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the great absentee, implicitly conveying the message that this region’s involvement in the conflict was minimal. Indeed, the area was not short of reactions, but one has to use the right sources and look beyond the newspapers. This is the only way to understand the profound impact that the war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire had on the Horn of Africa. Reactions were not clear-cut: the article explains why Pan-Islamism was not the only option available and why in some areas the Ottoman appeal was deliberately ignored.
Çiğdem Oğuz, “Beyond the Nationalist Propaganda: Rethinking Ottoman Literary Production on the Italo-Ottoman War of 1911”
As the last African territory of the Ottoman Empire, Tripolitania was of great importance to the Ottoman government in maintaining its prestige in the Muslim-Arab world. This paper examines the short stories mostly published in the new genre of “national literature” at the time of the Italo-Ottoman War of 1911. The stories provide insights into Ottoman-Turkish perspectives on Turkish-Arab solidarity, especially around the figure of the Caliph, as an Ottomanist strategy. While most of the stories aimed to illustrate the economic and social struggles of the empire and to evoke a sense of voluntarism to save the crumbling empire, they also served the practical purpose of responding to Italian claims of a “civilizing mission” that reduced the Ottoman Empire to colonial status, despite its recent attempt at political reform in 1908 with the Young Turk Revolution.
Silvia Pin, “The Reaction to the Italo-Ottoman War in the Hebrew Press of Jerusalem: A Reading of the Newspapers Ha-’Or and Ha-Ḥerut, October-November 1911″
The Italo-Ottoman war of 1911-1912 sparked bitter reactions in the contemporary press across the Ottoman Empire, as well as indignation and mobilisation against Italy. Amongst the Ottoman press, the Hebrew language newspapers of Jerusalem broadly covered the war, providing local Jewish perspectives on this much-debated event. This article aims to analyse the initial press coverage of the Italo-Ottoman war in two Zionist Hebrew-language newspapers of Jerusalem, the Ashkenazi Ha-’Or and the Sephardi Ha-Ḥerut. In the first months of war, the two Hebrew journals strongly though with some contradictions condemned the Italian invasion of Tripolitania, professed – and promoted – Jewish loyalty to the Empire and in so doing defended the harmless ends of Zionism. They denied that Jews in Tripoli supported the Italians and, in covering pro-Ottoman demonstrations in and out of Palestine, notably in Egypt, Ha-Ḥerut also took note of a burgeoning pan-Islamic sentiment triggered as a reaction to the Italian assault.
Chiara Pagano, La politica berbera nella Libia coloniale. Identità, reti e conflitti (1835-1924) (Carocci, 2025).
“A seguito del crollo del regime di Gheddafi l’etnicità berbera/amazigh ha fornito un efficace dispositivo di affermazione politica ad alcuni gruppi libici che si sono mobilitati in aperta polemica con il paradigma panarabo dominante. L’attivismo amazigh ha ricercato nel passato gli argomenti per legittimarsi nel presente, riaffermando un legame originario con il territorio per rivendicare il riconoscimento come popolo indigeno, più che come minoranza. Eppure, come l’identità nazionale, anche l’identità etnica è un prodotto storico contingente, plasmato da specifici processi politici. Il volume ricostruisce in chiave critica la (ri)produzione dell’etnicità amazigh nella storia della Libia contemporanea, focalizzandosi sul periodo tra la metà dell’Ottocento e l’avvento del fascismo. Vengono così analizzate le rivendicazioni avanzate da attori locali definiti come “berberi” nei confronti delle autorità ottomane prima e coloniali poi. Da queste emerge come la politica berbera promossa dalle autorità italiane, e fatta propria da alcuni notabili tripolitani, individuò nell’etnicità uno strumento privilegiato per l’organizzazione gerarchica della società coloniale. Fu allora che vennero poste le basi delle dinamiche identitarie che, ancora oggi, naturalizzano l’opposizione tra gruppi arabi e berberi proiettandone le origini in un passato indefinito.”
Jan Vansina was a Belgian historian who taught in the US for many years and is considered by many to one of the major figures of African history in the 20th century, pioneering the use of local oral traditions as important historical sources.
In the 1970s he became involved with Libyan scholars and played an important role in setting up what is now the Libyan Studies Center and designing its large-scale project to collect oral histories from participants in the resistance to Italian colonial rule and survivors of the Italian concentration camps. The connection to Libya was undoubtedly through his being on the PhD committee of Mohamed Jerary, one of the founders and long-term director of the Center (thanks to a comment on this post for the tip).*
Although Vansina did not end up writing much or anything about his work with the Libyan oral histories projects and time in Tripoli, the Jan Vansina Papers, held at Northwestern University, contain notes and information about his participation, including some interview designs and trainings he offered to Libyan historians:
Research Notes Libya: Oral History of the Italo-Libyan war (1911-1933)-boxes 2-3: This section contains research methods, procedures, and the interview tool used to collect the oral histories. Also included are maps, general information on the Libyan Studies Centre, and related essays on Libya.
The archive also contains lots of other material about his teaching and research, and exploring it may shed some light on how he became connected with the fledgling Center and helped shape their field research program.
There are also some photos from Libya taken by Vansina held in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Digital Collections.
*Jerary’s PhD thesis was on the ancient history of Libya, not on oral traditions.
Words Without Borders just published a short collection entitled Political Fictions: Contemporary Novels by Libyan Women, with translated excerpts from three recent novels—Box of Sand by Aisha Ibrahim, The Colonel by Kawther Eljehmi, and Concerto by Najwa Bin Shatwan.
The traditional stereotypical narrative about the Arab world tends to exclude the participation of women in the progression of the nation’s politics. This collection presents excerpts from three novels by women writers grounded in Libyan political history.
I have been meaning to post for a while about this documentary, as The Colonel’s Stray Dogs is one of the most insightful and moving documentaries about Libya. Made by Khalid Shamis and released in 2021, it follows the trajectory of Ashur Shamis (the father of the filmmaker), one of the leaders of the resistance against the Gaddafi regime and one of its most serious enemies, and the regime’s efforts to hunt down and assassinate opponents both within Libya and abroad. It is really worth finding and watching, especially given that the various Libyan resistance movements against the regime are so little documented.
The film also has a great score by Tiago Correia-Paulo, available on Bandcamp and worth listening on its own.
Leila Tayeb, “No-Fly Zone: In and out of Libya in the Sanctions Century,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 20/3 (2024), pp. 382–387.
In 2011 I traveled by bus from Cairo northward to the Mediterranean coast and across the land border from Egypt into Libya. Sometime later, I flew the cross-country distance from Benghazi into Tripoli. A few weeks after that, my cousins drove me west through the Ras Jdir border crossing into Tunisia, from Ben Guerdane all the way up into the capital city. These circumstances were extraordinary, in a period of revolution, and to deal with the burdens of long-distance land travel struck me as unsurprising. I was unaware at the time that the impossibility of air travel during this period echoed the early and mid-1990s, when international flights could not land in Libya. I could not have known that, as the result of the ongoing war, this year would preview the decade to come.
The Silphium Gatherer | مجمّع سلفيوم 