Mukhtar, Omar

Umar al-Mukhtar was born in the village of Janzur , east of the Libyan city of Tobruk . His ancestors belonged to the Bedouin tribe of Minif , who migrated in the VIII century from Arabia to Cyrenaica. Orphaned early, Umar was adopted by Sheikh Sheriff al-Garidjaniya, the political and religious leader of Cyrenaica. He received a religious education in the Dzhanzur mekteba, then - in the Senusite Zawiya (University) of Jagbub , near the border with Egypt. He became a sheikh of the tariqa of the Senusite order .

In 1900, Umar al-Mukhtar took part in the Muslim struggle against the French colonial forces, trying to prevent the conquest of Chad . In 1902, Umar al-Mukhtar returned to Al-Jebel al-Ahdar (Green Mountains), where he became a sheikh of one of the local zawiyas. Since 1911, from the very beginning of the Italo-Turkish War, he participated in the national liberation struggle of the Libyan Arabs against the Italian colonialists, was one of the defenders of Tripoli . He sharply opposed inter-clan wars. In 1913, with the support of al-Muhtar, the Senusite leader Idris al-Senusi managed to surround the contingents of the Turkish commander-in-chief Nuri-bey in the city of Ajdabiya in the east of the country and forced him to leave Libya. Under Idris al-Senusi, Umar was placed as a nazir (inspector) in the districts of El Abyar and Taknis. After the forced departure of Idris from Libya, Umar al-Mukhtar headed the "Central Organization of Cyrenaica", which included the leaders of the tribes of this region. On his initiative, armed groups were created at the same time, dispersed throughout the Green Mountains and intended for a guerrilla war against Italian colonists.

By 1923, Mukhtar concentrated in his hands the command of all partisan detachments of the Cyrenaica tribes (simultaneously leading his own detachment), developed and coordinated military operations, led the collection of taxes and the purchase of equipment and food in semi-independent Egypt . A number of authors claim that in 1928 Umar al-Muhtar became the official head of the Senusite fraternity. However, this is not so, for de jure Idris al-Senusi continuously led the order throughout 1918-1969. The wives of Umar al-Muhtar and a number of his close relatives emigrated to Egypt.

In 1920-1930, the commander of the Italian units in Tripolitania was General Rodolfo Graziani , who conducted brutal methods of combating Bedouin rebels. He created several concentration and labor camps in which tens of thousands of Libyan prisoners were killed - those who were executed or who died of starvation and disease.

In difficult conditions of unequal struggle, Umar al-Mukhtar decided to transfer the fighting to the wilds of the forests and the desert, where he was a real master of the situation and could skillfully organize raids on Italian contingents. Despite the plight of the rebels, he forced the Italian authorities to begin negotiations in 1929. The Italian High Command agreed to engage in dialogue only in order to gain time and send reinforcements — land forces, artillery, and tanks — to the African continent. After the transfer of a large group of Italian armed forces to the continent, the Italians put forward conditions that completely did not take into account the interests and preferences of the Senusite power opposing them. The prerequisites of Umar al-Muhtar were as follows:

• mandatory presence of representatives of Egypt and Tunisia in peace negotiations;
• Italy's non-interference in the religious affairs of Muslims;
• recognition of the Arabic language as official for all institutions in Libya;
• repeal of laws on inequality of local residents;
• return of confiscated property to the Libyans.

The Italian side rejected these conditions, and its proposed “draconian” innovations, in turn, were rejected by al-Mukhtar at a meeting in Sir Arkhum, near the city of Luga. Umar al-Mukhtar, dissatisfied with the results of an agreement signed soon by Hassan ar-Reed al-Senusi (complete surrender with the surrender of arms; Italian governors take control of the entire territory of Libya; citizens who are suspected of any act against the Italian invaders are transferred to the region their jurisdiction), resumed military operations since 1930.

In 1930-1934, Graziani was de jure vice-governor of Cyrenaica, but de facto held this province in his hands. As Graziani later wrote in his memoirs, for the 20 months that he was vice-governor, the Arabs carried out about 250 operations against Italians, which testified to the ongoing resistance. In the period 1930-1931. the stock of sheep and goats in Cyrenaica was reduced from 270,000 to 67,000 heads. The population continued to suffer from hunger and declined from 255,000. in 1928 to 142,000 in 1931. Graziani inflicted a series of crushing defeats on Umar al-Mukhtar. September 11, 1931 Umar al-Mukhtar was wounded and taken prisoner. On September 12, a military field court was organized in the city of Benghazi . The captive held on with great dignity.

On September 13, Umar al-Mukhtar was found guilty and sentenced to public execution on September 14, 1931. His last word was a quote from the Qur'an:

On September 16, 71-year-old al-Mukhtar was hanged in a military camp near the city of Solukh ^[3] .

However, the Libyan resistance against the colonialists was heroically waged until 1943, when Anglo-American troops liberated the territory of Cyrenaica from the Nazis and helped the Libyans gain independence.

• Desert Lion - 1981 movie .