LIBYA

officially Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Arabic Al-Jamahiriyah al-'Arabiyah al-Libiyah ash-Sha'biyah al-Ishtirakiyah, formerly Libyan Arab Republic, or People's Socialist Libyan Arab Republic country of North Africa. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the north, Egypt on the east, The Sudan on the southeast, Niger and Chad on the south, and Tunisia and Algeria on the west. Largely composed of the Sahara, it covers an area of 678,400 square miles (1,757,000 square kilometres). The population is concentrated along the coast, where the de facto capital, Tripoli (Tarabulus), and Banghazi (Benghazi), the de jure capital, are located. Before the discovery of oil in the 1950s, Libya was poor in natural resources and severely limited by the climatic conditions of the Sahara. The country was almost entirely dependent upon foreign aid and the import of commodities necessary for the maintenance of its economy. Petroleum dramatically changed this situation, and Libya became one of the richest countries of the Middle East and Africa. The government controls the economy and has attempted to develop agriculture and industry with the wealth derived from its huge oil revenues. It has also established a welfare state, which provides medical care and education. officially Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Arabic Al-Jamahiriyah al-'Arabiyah al-Libiyah ash-Sha'biyah al-Ishtirakiyah, formerly Libyan Arab Republic, or People's Socialist Libyan Arab Republic North African country on the Mediterranean coast, the fourth largest on the continent. The de facto capital is Tripoli and the de jure capital is Banghazi. Consisting largely of arid wastes of the Sahara (desert) region, Libya spans 820 miles (1,320 km) north to south and 900 miles (1,450 km) east to west. It is bordered by Tunisia and Algeria (west), Niger and Chad (south), The Sudan (southeast), Egypt (east), and the Mediterranean Sea (north). Area 678,400 square miles (1,757,000 square km). Pop. (1991 est.) 4,325,000. Additional reading Geography For a comprehensive general work, including a discussion of physical geography, see Harold D. Nelson (ed.), Libya: A Country Study, 3rd ed. (1979). Douglas L. Johnson, Jabal al-Akhdar, Cyrenaica: An Historical Geography of Settlement and Livelihood (1973), is also useful. John Davis, Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution: An Account of the Zuwaya and Their Government (1987), is an ethnographic study. Frank C. Waddams, The Libyan Oil Industry (1980), focuses on the impact of Libyan oil both on the world market and on Libya's economy. Comprehensive analyses of socioeconomic development and planning are J.A. Allan, K.S. McLachlan, and Edith T. Penrose (eds.), Libya: Agriculture and Economic Development (1973); E.G.H. Joff and K.S. McLachlan (eds.), Social & Economic Development of Libya (1982); M.M. Buru, S.M. Ghanem, and K.S. McLachlan (eds.), Planning and Development in Modern Libya (1985); and Bichara Khader and Bashir El-Wifati, The Economic Development of Libya (1987). Gary L. Fowler History E.E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (1949, reprinted 1973), offers a seminal historical and anthropological study of Libya. The period of Italian colonization is analyzed by Claudio G. Segr, Fourth Shore: The Italian Colonization of Libya (1974); and two articles in Annals of the Association of American Geographers: Gary L. Fowler, The Italian Colonization of Tripolitania, 62(4):627640 (1972), and Decolonization of Rural Libya, 63(4):490506 (1973). Modern political developments in Libya are analyzed in Majid Khadduri, Modern Libya (1963, reissued 1968); Ruth First, Libya: The Elusive Revolution (1974), a reliable survey; J.A. Allan (ed.), Libya Since Independence (1982); John K. Cooley, Libyan Sandstorm (1982), on the rise to power of Muammar al-Qaddafi; Marius K. Deeb and Mary Jane Deeb, Libya Since the Revolution (1982), a dispassionate description stressing internal social and political developments; John Wright, Libya: A Modern History (1982), and Libya, Chad, and the Central Sahara (1989); Lisa Anderson, The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 18301980 (1986); and Lillian Craig Harris, Libya: Qadhafi's Revolution and the Modern State (1986). L. Carl Brown Administration and social conditions Government In September 1969 the monarchy of Idris I was overthrown and the constitution suspended in a military coup d'tat. In 1977 the 12-member Revolutionary Command Council formed after the coup was replaced by the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress (GPC) with Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi as secretary-general. He resigned the post in 1979 but remained in effect ruler of the country and head of the revolution. A General People's Committee has replaced the original revolutionary cabinet, the Council of Ministers; each of the committee's members is the secretary of a department. In 1988 all but 2 of the 19 secretariats were moved from Tripoli, most of them to Surt. The General People's Congress serves as a parliament. The country is divided into 25 baladiyat (municipalities), which in turn are subdivided into zones. The citizens of each zone are members of the Basic Popular Congress (BPC), each headed by an appointed revolutionary or leadership committee. Citizens are also members of the Arab Socialist Union (ASU), the mass political organization and only legal political party. In the late 1980s, sweeping domestic reforms replaced the army and police forces with the Jamahiri Guards. Justice The judicial system consists of the Supreme Court, located in Tripoli, with five chambers of five justices each; it is the final court of appeal. The regional courts of appeal, located in Tripoli, Banghazi, and Sabha, each with three justices, hear appeals from the courts of first instance and the summary courts, the basic judicial unit, each with one justice per court. Separate religious courts were abolished in 1973, and all judicial courts base their rulings on Libyan law, founded on the basis of the Shari'ah (Islamic law). In 1989 the People's Courts, which try political detainees, and the People's Prosecution Bureau replaced the revolutionary courts. Cultural life Cultural differences between the provinces are important. The population of the west is far more cosmopolitan than that of the east and includes a higher proportion of people with Berber, Sudanese African, and Turkish origins. Cyrenaica was profoundly affected by the teachings of the 19th-century Sanusiyah, an Islamic brotherhood, which had little influence in the west and south. Since the 1969 coup, life-styles have been strongly influenced by the revolutionary government's restructuring of national and local government and its efforts to reduce the influence of traditional tribes. The government has also brought women out of traditional seclusion and into the mainstream of the revolutionary socialist society. Libyan culture centres on folk art and traditions, which are highly influenced by Islam. The traditional arts of weaving, embroidery, metal engraving, and leatherwork rarely depict people or animals because of the Islamic prohibition against such representation. The dominant geometric and arabesque designs are best presented in the stucco and tiles of the Karamanli and Gurgi mosques of Tripoli. Surviving traditions are represented by festivals, horse races, and folk dances. Nonreligious literature has developed largely since the 1960s; it is nationalistic in character but reveals Egyptian influences. The arts are supported by the government through the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Education and National Guidance, and the Al-Fikr Society, a group of intellectuals and professionals. Libraries include the Government Library and the Archives in Tripoli, the Public Library in Banghazi, and the university libraries. The Department of Antiquities is responsible for the Archaeological Museum, the Leptis Magna Museum of Antiquities, the Natural History Museum, and the Sabratha Museum of Antiquities, all in the western region, and the archaeological sites of Ptolemais and Appolonia in the eastern region. The Sabha Museum contains exhibits of ancient remains of the former Fezzan region. The government controls broadcasting and the press. Newspapers and periodicals are published by the Jamahiriya News Agency (JANA), government secretariats, the Press Service, and trade unions. JANA publishes a daily newspaper, Al-Fajr al-Jadid (New Dawn), in Tripoli. Radio broadcasts from Tripoli and Banghazi are in Arabic and English; the national television service broadcasts in Arabic, with limited hours in English, Italian, and French. Three publishers of general and academic books are located in Tripoli. Mukhtar Mustafa Buru Gary L. Fowler