Since ancient times, goods have been transported from Africa's interior to the Mediterranean ports. For centuries, the economic life of the Mediterranean coast, from the Sahara to Sudan, was determined by a network of trade relations, which consisted of traditional trans-Saharan caravan trading. The flow of traffic crossed through all of former Libya. The traders had their collection points and loading terminals in the interior and on the coast; in this regard, the caravan cities of Ghadamis and Murzuq played a central role for a long time. Besides trade in goods and merchandise, thoughts and ideas were also exchanged within a cross-cultural network. Furthermore, merchants were the first to bring the light of Islam to inner Africa. Others have followed them such as scholars, diplomats, men of religion or plain travellers. Indeed, Islam was a creed that developed in an urban, mercantile setting. The diffusion of Islam throughout the population took many centuries. 1 Of the three large trans-Saharan routes, which rank among the oldest trunk roads in the world, two crossed present-day Libyan territory: originating from Tripoli, one eastern route ran via Murzuq and continued on the one hand into the Sokoto Caliphate and the Bornu Empire, both of which lie in present-day Northern Nigeria, and on the other hand to Kanem and to the Sultanate of Wadai in present-day Chad. This route marked the shortest path to Africa's interior, which has been used continuously since ancient times. It would become the main slave-trading route of the Sahara. The western route ran from Tripoli via Ghadamis to Ghat and from there on into Niger and to Mali. These routes are assumed to have been used regularly until the beginning of the twentieth century, even when political events, in Europe as well as in North Africa, significantly influenced caravan trading and subsequently also the intensity of the usage of the routes (Fig. 3.1).
According to Herodotus, the description Libye/a was understood in ancient times to mean all of North Africa from Egypt to the "Pillars of Heracles" (Herodotus, Book IV), the straits between Spain and Morocco, which are now called the "Straits of Gibraltar". 1 The coastal landscape of present-day Libya is divided into three regions: Tripolitania in the west and Cyrenaica in the east, between which the approximately 700-km-wide strips of the Syrtis desert stretch out. In ancient times, these geographical conditions had already led to different developments: Tripolitania was more oriented to the west, and Cyrenaica more to the east. In the flat coastal plains of Tripolitania, the ruins of Sabratha and Leptis Magna constitute particularly impressive evidence of the Roman culture that was tied in with the traditions of Punic emporia (commercial settlements). In contrast, the hilly coastal area of Cyrenaica has been populated by Aegean Greeks since the seventh century BC. Although this region was integrated into the Roman Empire, the connections of Cyrenaica to the Aegean region were still stronger than those to Tripolitania. 2 2.1.2 Phoenician Trading Posts in Present Day Western Libya At the beginning of the first millennium BC, trade in the Mediterranean was in the sole hands of the Phoenicians. The endeavours of the Phoenician merchants led to the establishment of trading posts along the Mediterranean coasts in western Maghreb, on the Iberian as well as on the Italic peninsula, on Sicily and Sardinia. Over the course of the colonisation wave of the first millennium BC, the Phoenicians established trading posts in eighth century BC on the northern coast of Africa, which were initially only used seasonally. The African coast between the Gulf of Gabès and the Gulf of Sidra is almost all flat, sandy and rather unwelcoming. The Phoenicians established trading posts, where their ships could anchor safely in the lee of a cape, where the trading routes from the African interior ended and where there was fertile land. Three of these outposts, which later carried the Roman names Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Oea, were developed into bustling urban centres. It was presumably the actual foundations of Carthage that dominated this coastal area for centuries. During this time, the Phoenicians came across nomadic inhabitants, who lived in tribes and belonged to one of the Hami Haitic ethnic groups. 3 2.1.3 Greek Colonisation in Present Day Eastern Libya The Greeks settled in eastern Libya and invaded the interior countryside in search of farmland. In 631 BC, the new settlers, who came from the island of Thera, won a larger settlement area around Cyrene. In this territory, which was later called Cyrenaica, they established several flourishing colonial cities, the capital of which was Cyrene. In response to this, the Phoenicians of North Africa gathered around Carthage and prevented further Greek settlement attempts. In
Tripoli is located in the northwestern part of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land that projects into the Mediterranean and forms a bay. The city is known as Tarabulus al-Gharb (West) to distinguish it from its Phoenician sister city Tripoli in Lebanon which is known in Arabic as Tarabulus al-Sham.
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