Tripolitania
Tripolitania ( Greek Τρίπολης Tripolis , German 'Dreistadt' ; Arabic طرابلس Tarabulus ) was an ancient landscape in what is now Libya and is one of the three historical great provinces of the country, next to Cyrenaica in the east and Fessan in the south. The capital is Tripoli , the capital of Libya. It was named after the three Phoenician colonies Leptis Magna , Sabrata and Oea, which today bears the name Tripoli.
geography
Tripolitania is located in the northwest of Libya and stretches about 800 km along the Mediterranean coast . In the west Tripolitania borders on Tunisia and Algeria , in the south on Fessan , in the east on the Cyrenaica and in the north on the Mediterranean Sea. The landscape is divided into a coastal plain and the mountainous region of Jabal Nafusa . Behind the coastal plain, the mountainous area extends over 300 km to the area of Leptis Magna. 3,642,999 inhabitants live in an area of 272,090 km² (as of 2003). By raining down the clouds in the heights of the mountains (up to 968 m), agriculture in the coastal plains is possible without expensive irrigation systems.
Important industries are in addition to agriculture , the oil production , tanneries and soap factories .
Until 2007, 16 of the 32 municipalities of Libya were located in the territory of the former Greater Province of Tripolitania:
| No. | شعبية | Shaʿbiyya | 2003 residents |
Area km² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | الجفارة | al-Jifara | 289,340 | 1,940 |
| 9 | المرقب | al-Margub | 328.292 | 3,000 |
| 10 | النقاط الخمس | an-Nuqat al-Chams | 208,954 | 5,250 |
| 13 | الزاوية | az-Zawiya | 197.177 | 1,520 |
| 15th | بنى وليد | Bani Walid | 77,424 | 19,710 |
| 18th | غدامس | Ghadames | 19,000 | 51,750 |
| 19th | غريان | Gharyan | 161,408 | 4,660 |
| 21st | مزدة | Mitzda | 41,476 | 72,180 |
| 22nd | مصراتة | Misrata | 360.521 | 2,770 |
| 23 | نالوت | Nalut | 86,801 | 13,300 |
| 24 | تاجوراء والنواحي الأربع | Tajura 'wa-n-Nawahi al-Arbaʿ | 267.031 | 1,430 |
| 25th | ترهونة و مسلاته | Tarhuna wa-Msalata | 296.092 | 5,840 |
| 26th | طرابلس | Tripoli | 882.926 | 400 |
| 28 | سرت | Surt | 156.389 | 77,660 |
| 29 | صبراته و صرمان | Sabratha wa-Surman | 152,521 | 1,370 |
| 32 | يفرن | Yafran | 117,647 | 9,310 |
| طرابلس | Tripolitania | 3,642,999 | 272.090 |
According to other sources, Ghadames is included in the Fezzan.
population
The population of Tripolitania consists mainly of Arabs and Arabized Berbers . The main language is Arabic; Berber languages are also used.
history
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Originally Tripolitania was inhabited by Libyan Berber tribes . Herodotus reports in the 5th century BC The tribes of Makers, Gindans and Lotophages . In the 7th century BC The Phoenicians founded the colonies of Oea, Leptis Magna and Sabrata, but they soon came under the control of Carthage . After his defeat in the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), the country came in 161 BC. Under the rule of Numidia .
Under Roman rule (from 46 BC) the cities experienced a great economic and cultural boom due to the flourishing agriculture and the Trans-Saharan trade . In addition, was that the cities of the imperial dynasty of Severus , a native of Tripoli, have been stepped up at the beginning of the third century. With the Limes Tripolitanus and a sophisticated border protection program initiated with it, the Romans secured the area north of the Sahara from military incursions. In addition, the "small border traffic" with the cattle-driving nomads could be regulated. With the fall of the Roman Empire and the conquest of the late Roman province of Tripolitania by the Vandals , the economic decline began as long-distance trade largely collapsed. From then on, the country was repeatedly exposed to the attacks of the camel nomads due to the bared borders . But apparently the vandals also tried to protect their national borders. Finds, for example, document the continued existence of the Gheriat el-Garbia fort, which was pushed to the edge of the desert, as an inhabited place beyond the Vandal times until the middle of the 6th century. After Tripolitania came under Byzantine rule in 535, border protection came back into focus with the construction of some old Limes forts and barriers. In 590, the Byzantine rule established its own, relatively independent administrative district with the exarchate of Carthage , but Constantinople , weakened on all fronts by ongoing defensive battles, had to capitulate in Tripolitania in 647 to the incursions of the Islamic fighters.
The Muslim Arabs made Oea the new center of the country, which was renamed Tripoli a short time later. Even if the coastal cities were quickly subjugated by the Muslims, the Berber resistance in Jabal Nafusa continued under the banner of Islam when the tribes joined the Kharijite Ibadis under Abu l-Khattab al-Maafiri . The defeat of the Kharijites led to the destruction of the Malzūza- Berber in 772. With the Muslim occupation of the country, a comprehensive cultural transformation of Tripolitania began through Arabization and Islamization. In addition to the downfall of Christian culture, this also included the eradication of the Punic language, which was documented from the late Roman period. It was replaced by Arabic along with the other lingua franca, just as many Arabs settled with their culture in the newly conquered areas. Tripolitania was part of Ifrīqiya and, after the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, ruled by the Aghlabids (800–909), Fatimids (909–972), Zirids (972–1027) and Hafsids (1229–1510).
After Spanish troops under Ferdinand II had occupied Tripoli in 1510, the Spaniards could not be driven out by the corsairs under Dragut Pascha until 1551 with Ottoman support. Until the Italian conquest, the country was under Ottoman suzerainty, even if the Qaramanli dynasty (1711–1835) was able to achieve extensive independence. As the Qaramanli promoted piracy, a French fleet destroyed Tripoli in 1728 . After the conquest of Libya by Italy in the Italo-Turkish War (1911/12) and the suppression of the resistance of the tribes, thousands of Italian colonists were settled in Tripolitania and built up agriculture there. After Italy's defeat in World War II and the failure of the Bevin-Sforza Plan , Tripolitania gained independence with the Cyrenaica and Fessan in 1951. In 1963 Tripolitania was dissolved as a Greater Province in order to strengthen the power of the Libyan central government under King Idris I.
See also
literature
- David Mattingly : Tripolitania. Batsford, London 1995, ISBN 0-7134-5742-2 .
- Philip Kenrick: Tripolitania. Silphium Press, London 2009, ISBN 1-900971-08-9 ( Libya Archaeological Guides ).
- Joyce M. Reynolds (Ed.): The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania. British School at Rome, Rom u. a. 1952.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania: IRT 880 (with photos and drawings) , accessed April 23, 2020.
- ↑ Olwen Brogan : Hadd Hajar, a clausura in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa . In: Libyan Studies , 11, 1980, pp. 45-52; here: p. 50.
- ↑ Rudolf Haensch , Michael Mackensen: The Tripolitan Fort Gheriat el-Garbia in the light of a new late antique inscription: On the day when the rain came . In: Chiron 41, 2011, pp. 263-286; here: p. 268.
- ↑ Erhard Gabriel : Libya . In: Jacob Mabe (Ed.): Das Afrika-Lexikon. A continent in 1000 keywords . Hammer, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-476-01538-9 , p. 349.
- ↑ Sabine Ziegler, Michael Mackensen: Late antique ostraka from Gheriat el-Garbia (al-Qaryāt al-Garbīyah) in the Tripolitana province (Libya). Evidence for a regional variant of Punic . In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department 120, 2014, pp. 313–340; here: pp. 315-316; here: p. 320.