A Brief(and skimpy) History of Libya

The first picture here is the modern city of Bayda(pop.250,000) one of Libya's bigger burgs. The most populous is Tripoli, with over a million people, and then Benghazi, with maybe 750,000 residents.  Libya is a pretty good-sized country as far as landmass(17th largest in the world, even though it's mostly desert). It's in northeast Africa, bounded by Egypt to the east, Algeria and Tunisia to the west, and Chad, Sudan and Niger to the south. 
 And the second photo is of the Temple of Zeus in the ancient city of Cyrene ,

which is in the eastern half of the country, a region called Cyrenecaia. Libya was colonized by the Greeks back in 600 A.D. The other regions of the country are Tripolitania(which is the northwest area around the city of Tripoli)and Fezzan, which is right below it.  Most of its citizens are Sunni Muslims, and a small percentage are Ibadi or Sufi.  
   Sunni Muslims are considered the more orthodox as far as their adherence to the tenets of Islam; but they differ from Ibadi Muslims in that(among other things)they differ on the idea of Hell. Ibadis believe it to be an eternal state, while Sunnis consider it a finite period, one of purgatory where the individual is delivered from there once he has repented his sins. 
  
  I might just change the title of this blog to A Brief and Skimpy History of Libya, since that's what it's gonna end up being. Okay. Libya was colonized by the Greeks around 600 A.D., later taken over by Britain(I told you it was skimpy!). It was guarded over by the Attendant Knights of St John, who were defeated by the Ottomans in 1551. This conflict was known as Siege of Tripoli.
  
  Fast forward a couple centuries to the Turkish-Italian War of 1911-1912. The Ottomans lost Libya to Italy, who held it until World War II. They basically abdicated it to France and Great Britain in 1945, who jointly ruled it until Libya declared its independence in 1951. 
  
  For the next 18 years, Libya was ruled by King Idris. In 1969 he was overthrown by Maommar Gaddafi, in what was called a "bloodless revolution". Gaddafi was a controversial figure. Hated by many, loved by some.  Reagan referred to him as the "mad dog of the Middle East". He nationalized the oil industry in his country and used some of the profits to benefit their educational system. Maybe he wasn't all bad..
  
   2011 brought civil war(which was supposed to have originated in the eastern half of the country: the Cyrenecaia region). Gaddafi had returned to his hometown and was captured there and killed. On 10/27/11, liberation was announced. 

    And then last year, on September 11th(gee, nice touch!)the Benghazi incident with all its backlash. Since then, they seem to be still trying to figure it out. 
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 Well skimpy as it may be, with no doubt a few misspellings and more than a few inaccuracies. But this stuff is accurate to the best of my knowledge. There are no deliberate inaccuracies--hell, I don't know enough about the subject to pull any such fast ones. But it's stuff I learned just today. Writing it down helps me remember it. 
  
  It also helps you get an idea of the plight of some of these countries. Part of the problem is that they've been under someone else's thumb for so long that they don't quite know what to do when they get out from under it. Hope you've enjoyed this brief and admittedly skimpy history of Libya.