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Libya
Index
In Cairo the Fatimid caliph reacted by inviting the Bani Hilal
and Bani Salim, beduin tribes from Arabia known collectively as the
Hilalians, to migrate to the Maghrib and punish his rebellious
vassals, the Zirids. The Arab nomads spread across the region, in
the words of the historian Ibn Khaldun, like a "swarm of locusts,"
impoverishing it, destroying towns, and dramatically altering the
face and culture of the countryside.
The Hilalian impact on Cyrenaica and Tripolitania was
devastating in both economic and demographic terms. Tripoli was
sacked, and what little remained of urban life in once-great cities
like Cyrene was snuffed out, leaving only ruins. Over a long period
of time, Arabs displaced Berbers (many of whom joined the
Hilalians) from their traditional lands and converted farmland to
pasturage. Land was neglected, and the steppe was allowed to
intrude into the coastal plain.
The number of Hilalians who moved westward out of Egypt has
been estimated as high as 200,000 families. The Bani Salim seem to
have stopped in Libya, while the Bani Hilal continued across the
Maghrib until they reached the Atlantic coast of Morocco and
completed the Arabization of the region, imposing their social
organization, values, and language on it. The process was
particularly thorough in Cyrenaica, which is said to be more Arab
than any place in the Arab world except for the interior of Arabia.
The Norman rulers of southern Italy took advantage of the
Zirids' distress in North Africa to invade Sicily in 1060 and bring
it back under Christian control. By 1150 the Normans held a string
of ports and fortresses along the coast between Tunis and Tripoli,
but their interests in North Africa were commercial rather than
political, and no effort was made to extend the conquest inland.
Data as of 1987
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