Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica (/ˌsaɪrəˈneɪɪkəˌˌsɪr-/ SY-rə-NAY-ik-ə-,-SIRR-ə) or Kyrenaika (Arabic: برقة, romanized: Barqah, Koinē Greek: Κυρηναϊκή [ἐπαρχία], romanized: Kurēnaïkḗ [eparkhíā], after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, also known as Pentapolis ("Five Cities") in antiquity, was part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, later divided into Libya Pentapolis and Libya Sicca. During the Islamic period, the area came to be known as Barqa, after the city of Barca.
For other uses, see Cyrenaica (disambiguation).
Cyrenaica
برقة
- Kingdom (632-440 BC; 276-249 BC; 163-96 BC; 34-30 BC)
- Republic (440-322 BC; 249-246 BC)
- Nome (322-276 BC; 246-96 BC)
- Roman province (74 BC-643 AD)
- Vilayet (1879-1888 AD)
- Mutasarrıf (1888-1911 AD)
- Italian colony (1911-1934 AD)
- Military administration (1943-1949 AD)
- Emirate (643-? AD; 1949-1951 AD)
- Province (1951-1963 AD)
Cyrenaica became an Italian colony in 1911. After the 1934 formation of Italian Libya, the Cyrenaica province was designated as one of the three primary provinces of the country. During World War II, it fell under British military and civil administration from 1943 until 1951, and finally in the Kingdom of Libya from 1951 until 1963. The region that used to be Cyrenaica officially until 1963 has formed several shabiyat, the administrative divisions of Libya, since 1995. The 2011 Libyan Civil War started in Cyrenaica, which came largely under the control of the National Transitional Council (headquartered in Benghazi) for most of the war.[1] In 2012, a body known as the Cyrenaica Transitional Council unilaterally declared Cyrenaica to be an autonomous region of Libya.[2][3]
History[edit]
Ancient Egyptian Era[edit]
Egyptian records mention that during the New Kingdom of Egypt (thirteenth century BC), the Libu and Meshwesh tribes of Cyrenaica made frequent incursions into Egypt.
Greek colonization[edit]
Cyrenaica was colonized by the Greeks beginning in the seventh century BC, when it was known as Kyrenaïka. The first and most important colony was that of Cyrene, established in about 631 BC by colonists from the Greek island of Thera, which they had abandoned because of a severe famine.[11] Their commander, Aristoteles, took the Libyan name Battos.[12] His descendants, known as the Battiadae, persisted despite severe conflict with Greeks in neighboring cities.
The eastern portion of the province, with no major population centers, was called Marmarica; the more important western portion was known as the Pentapolis, as it comprised five cities: Cyrene (near the modern village of Shahat) with its port of Apollonia (Marsa Susa), Arsinoe or Taucheira (Tocra), Euesperides or Berenice (near modern Benghazi), Balagrae (Bayda) and Barce (Marj) – of which the chief was the eponymous Cyrene.[11] The term "Pentapolis" continued to be used as a synonym for Cyrenaica. In the south, the Pentapolis faded into the Saharan tribal areas, including the pharaonic oracle of Ammonium.
The region produced barley, wheat, olive oil, wine, figs, apples, wool, sheep, cattle and silphium, a herb that grew only in Cyrenaica and was regarded as a medicinal cure and aphrodisiac.[13]
Cyrene became one of the greatest intellectual and artistic centers of the Greek world, famous for its medical school, learned academies and architecture, which included some of the finest examples of the Hellenistic style. The Cyrenaics, a school of thinkers who expounded a doctrine of moral cheerfulness that defined happiness as the sum of human pleasures, were founded by Aristippus of Cyrene.[14] Other notable natives of Cyrene were the poet Callimachus and the mathematicians Theodorus and Eratosthenes.[13]