Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Libyan History

If you are interested in history, particularly the Ottoman Empire, you might want to check out this book I found online:

Essential Histories: The Ottoman Empire 1326 - 1699

The pirate king called Khair ad-Din, who is also known as Barbarossa or Red Beard, conquered Tripoli in 1538 and the Ottomans arrived to occupy Tripoli in 1551. The Ottoman Empire's rule in Libya ended in 1911 when Italy invaded.

March 2nd is a public holiday in Libya. It's the anniversary of the amendment of the country's constitution and the establishment of popular congresses and people's committees - a part of more recent history (March 2, 1977). The kids have the day off school and I'm going to take the day off too. Hopefully I will spend it reading about the Ottoman Empire.

The book looks wonderful; 94 pages with lots of pictures. It covers more than just the Libyan part of their Empire, but reading it will give a good idea about the influence this part of Libya's history has on life today. One's past always influences one's present, and future too, doesn't it?

I also found this book: A Historical Archaeology of the Ottoman Empire. I'm still downloading it.



5 comments:

  1. Salam,
    Thankx for da books!

    I´m into Ottoman history myself these times, so I bought loads of books in IStanbul (overpriced!) and thru Amazon and ABbooks to read.

    So nice you´ve discovered the Ottoman history yourself. It´s fascinating and even more important for world history than I thought.

    Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  2. in schools they thaught us that the ottoman rule is the reason why we are still backward countries....

    inything in the book regarding this

    ReplyDelete
  3. Greetings, Sister Teri, and a couple of remarks. Your intro makes it sound like the Ottomans took over Libya from Khair ud-Din Pasha. Actually, he was working for Ottoman interests, and mostly in Algeria then Tunisia. I don't know that he ever ruled over "Libya." The Ottomans acquired Barqa in 1521, and thirty years later they took over Tripoli from the Knights of the Order of St. John.

    My other remark is about your use of "constitutional amendment" to label what is more often called "Declaration of Beoble's Bower." I think there is some sugar coating in your terminology. Usually, speaking of an amendment presupposes the existence of a constitution, not to mention the implication of a "constitutional democracy," because I suppose an amendment can be decreed by fiat. Suffice it to say that this "constitutional amendment" was carried out live on Libyan TV, so a lot of Libyans witnessed what really went on, myself included. And for good measure the proceedings were witnessed by international icon of democracy, Mr. Fidel Castro, who is--no doubt-- an expert on such "constitutional amendments."

    ReplyDelete
  4. Correction - The otmans did not conquer Libya but rather they came to liberate Tripoli from occupation of the St. Johns Knights ..
    I 'm offended by the wrong and false presumtions that you mistakingly re-itertaed in the post .. since my great - great -great (tenth)grandfather was one of the Othman liberators who settled in Libya and got married to a local Libyan ...

    ReplyDelete

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