Export Production in Western Libya, 1750-1793

Western Libya is in many respects typical of the Middle East. Its topography is defined by a low range of mountains, just inland and roughly parallel to the Mediterranean coast, which separates a narrow coastal plain from a vast interior sprinkled with oases. Its climate, fundamentally hot and dry, is tempered by rainfall from off the Mediterranean, which causes the coastal plain and parallel mountain range to be relatively more fertile and prosperous than the interior. The mountain range, known as the Jabals Nafusa, Gharian, Tarhuna, and Msellata, is the domain of a cultural minority group, the Berbers, who historically have been able to maintain some degree of independence and distinctiveness in their upland fastnesses. The coastal plain, on the other hand, as well as some of the oases and the vast inland plain, the Sirte, which lies in the rainshadow of the mountains and receives their surface runoff, is the homeland of the dominant Arabs, who brought Islam to the country in the early centuries A.H. The Arabs were traditionally divided between settled, town-dwelling agriculturalists in the coastal plain and oases, and segmented, dispersed nomads on the Sirte. At the farthest reaches of the inland plain, the nomadic Arabs have come into contact with indigenous peoples who are strongly influenced by, but not completely assimilated into, Arabo-Islamic culture: the black African agriculturalists of the Fezzan oasis region, and the Tebu and Tuareg nomads of the far southwest and southeast. While specifics naturally vary, geographical, climatic, cultural, and historical characteristics very similar to those of western Libya can be found in many other regions of the Middle East and North Africa

Business · Economics · Economy · International trade · Macroeconomics · Production (economics · African history and culture analysis · Archaeological and Historical Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories

• Mediterranean Jewries and Global Commerce in the Modern Period

  Sarah Abrevaya Stein•Jewish Social Studies•2007

  Add to list

• Work on the Early Ottoman Period and Qaramanlis

  Open Access•C R Pennell•Libyan Studies•1989

  Add to list