Libyan Comrade Omar Al-Mukhtar: Lion of the desert

Early life and Education of Al-mukhtar's 

Omar Al-Mukhtar, an Islamic scholar turned liberation fighter, led a guerilla war with Italian colonisers for 20 years until his capture and execution 90 years ago. He was a Libyan true hero and a symbol of resistance.

Mukhtar was born into the Minifa clan in Zawiyat Janzur near Tobruk between 1856 and 1862. The Minifa were Arabized Amazighis from Libya and Egypt's Marmarica. During in the 1911 Italo-Turkish War, Italy took Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania from the Ottoman Empire.

Sharif Al-Ghariani, a prominent scholar and family friend, adopted him after his father's death. Mukhtar attended the local madrassah and memorised the Qur'an. He studied religion at the Sufi Senussi Order's University of Jaghbub and served as the movement's spiritual leader at a rural oasis in eastern Libya.

Mukhtar studied there for eight years, then joined the Senussi brotherhood under Shaikh Muhammad Al-Madhi Al-Senussi (1844-1902). Shaikh Muhammad Ibn Ali Al-son Senussi's and King Idris of Libya's father (1890-1983). Mukhtar returned to Tobruk to help the community, but Al-Mahdi asked him to become the shaikh of Zawiyat Al-Qusour in 1897 before sending him to Sudan as his deputy. He gained the nickname "Lion of the Desert" during this caravan path.

In 1899, at age 37, he was dispatched to Chad to fight French colonialists. After Al-death Mahdi's in 1902, Ahmed Al-Sharif reappointed him head of Zawiyat Al-Qusour.

Legacy of Omar Al-Mukhtar

The organization switched its fighting efforts from Chad after the Italians attacked Libya in 1911. Mukhtar, in his 50s, leaned on his expertise fighting colonial forces and desert combat to become the mujahideen's unofficial leader. Benito Mussolini's Fascists took control in Italy in 1922 and "reconquered" old Roman possessions in North Africa.  We'll win or die! Omar led a brave guerilla campaign against Italian forces in the unknown desert terrain. He also had local fighters, food, and supplies.

The Italians couldn't beat Mukhtar's men tactically, so they attacked his base and supply routes. They deployed heavy-handed measures, including barbed wire along the Egyptian border, poisoning wells, and setting up concentration camps. Mass executions were used to demoralise resistance forces.  It boosted the mujahideen and Mukhtar's cause. The Italians finally injured and arrested him in an assault on 11 September 1931 after years of heartbreaking losses.

Three days later, he was tried and hanged. Aged 73, Mukhtar is claimed to have reacted to the punishment by reciting the Qur'anic passage, "From God we came and to God we must return".  Omar Al-Mukhtar was executed on 16 September 1931 in the Suluq detention camp south of Benghazi. His killing "united" Italian Libya symbolically by ending Senussi opposition.

Since that day, Omar Al-Mukhtar's legacy has lasted. Muammar Al-Gaddafi and the NATO-backed rebels who assassinated him in 2011 claimed the "Lion of the Desert" His image is on the Libyan 10 dinar bill.  Anthony Quinn played Mukhtar in Moustapha Akkad's 1980 biography Lion of the Desert. Due to its impact on the Italian mentality, the film was prohibited for decades and only aired on TV in 2009.

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