Omar Mukhtar

Omar Mukhtar (Arabic: عمر المختار Omar Al-Mukhtār) (20 August 1862 – 16 September 1931), of the Mnifa, was born in the small village of Zanzour, near Tobruk in eastern Barqa (Cyrenaica) in Libya. Beginning in 1912, he organized and, for nearly twenty years, led native resistance to Italian colonization of Libya. Italian armed forces captured and hanged him in 1931.

Early life

Omar Almukhtar was born in eastern Cyrenaica, Butnan District, in the village of Zawiyat Zanzur (Zanzour) east of Tobruk, in the Tripolitanian Province of the Ottoman Empire. He was orphaned early and was adopted by Sharif El Gariani, nephew of Hussein Ghariani, a political-religious leader in Cyrenaica. He received his early education at the local mosque and then studied for eight years at the Senussi university at Jaghbub, which was also the headquarters of the Senussi Ibadi Movement. In 1899 he was sent with other Senussi to assist the warlord and slave trader Rabih az-Zubayr in Chad.

Italian invasion