Ancient Libya was the region west of the Nile Valley. The Nile (النيل, Ancient Egyptian iteru or Ḥ'pī, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing River It corresponds to what is now generally called Northwest Africa. Northwest Africa or Northwestern Africa is a variably defined Region of North Africa. Its people were the ancestors of the modern Berbers. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. ^[1]

In the Greek period the Berbers were known as "Libyans"^[2] and their lands called "Libya" extended from modern Morocco to the western borders of ancient Egypt. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Modern Egypt contains the Siwa Oasis, historically part of Libya, where the Berber Siwi language is still spoken. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Siwa Oasis (واحة سيوة Wāḥat Sīwah, from Berber Siwa "prey bird protector of the sun god Amon-Ra Siwi ( Amazigh: tasiwit) is a Berber Afro-Asiatic language of Egypt, spoken by about 20000 people in and around the Oasis

Contents 1 The etymologic origin 1.1 The Egyptians 1.2 Neo-punic 1.3 Greeks 1.4 Romans 1.5 Arabic derivation 1.6 Berber link questioned 2 Evidence 3 The territory 4 Later sources 5 See also 6 References and notes 7 External links

The etymologic origin

The name Libya is found in the Ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic and the modern European languages. ^[3]

The Egyptians

The Ancient Egyptians mentioned many Libyan tribes. The most known tribes on the basis of the Egyptian Archaeologic sources are respectively: the Tjehenu, the Tamahu, the Libu (or Ribu),and the Meshwesh. Tamahú is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. The Libu ( R'bw, Ribou or Labu) were a tribe of Ancient Libyans first attested in ancient Egyptian texts from the The Meshwesh (often abbreviated in ancient Egyptian as Ma) were an Ancient Libyan (i Those tribes were the most important Libyan tribes in the Egyptian sources. However, other less important tribes (or minor groups) were mentioned in the Egyptian sources, too.

The oldest reference to this name goes back to Ramses II and Merneptah the Egyptian ruler of the 19th dynasty. Merneptah (or Merenptah) was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. The Eighteenth Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title New Kingdom. He ruled in the second half of the 13th century BCE. The name was firstly mentioned as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele which is also known as the Israel's Stele:

[. The Merneptah Stele (also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah) is the reverse of a large granite stele originally erected by the . ]The vile chief of the Libu^[4] who fled under cover of night alone without a feather on his head, his feet unshod, his wives seized before his very eyes, the meal for his food taken away, and without water in the water-skin to keep him alive; the faces of his brothers are savage to kill him, his captains fighting one against the other, their camps burnt and made into ashes . . . ^[5]

Afterwards, the name appeared repeatedly in the pharaonic records. Pharaoh is the title given in modern parlance to the ancient Egyptian kings of all periods It is, therefore, supposed that the origin of the name "Libya" would be this Egyptian name for the ancient tribe Libu. The Libu ( R'bw, Ribou or Labu) were a tribe of Ancient Libyans first attested in ancient Egyptian texts from the According to this theory, this name would be taken over by the Greeks of Cyrenaica who may have co-existed with them. The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions ^[6] Later, the name appeared in the Hebrew language written in the Bible as Lehabim and Lubim indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin

Neo-punic

In the neo-Punic inscriptions it was written as Lby for the masculine noun and Lbt for the feminine noun of Libyan. The Punics, (from Latin pūnicus meaning Phoenician were a group of Western Semitic speaking peoples originating from Carthage The name was supposedly used as an ethnic name in those inscriptions.

Greeks

The first reference to "Libya" in the Greek language is found in Homer's Odyssey (IX. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. 95; XXIII. 311). The name was used by Homer in a geographic sense, while he called its inhabitants Lotophagi meaning the "Lotus-eaters". Lotus Eaters and Lotos Eaters redirects here For other uses see The Lotus Eaters. After Homer, the name was used by Aeschylus, Pindar and other Ancient Greek writers. Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright Pindar (ˈpɪndɚ (or Pindarus, Greek:) (probably born 522 BC in Cynoscephalae a village in Boeotia; died 443 BC in Argos) was an Ancient

Herodotus used Libuwa indicating Libya while he called the Libyans Libyes in the Greek language. Herodotus of Halicarnassus ( Greek: Hēródotos Halikarnāsseús) was a Greek Historian who lived in the 5th century BC ( 484 BC&ndash From his point of view, Libya was the name of the African continent, while "the Libyans" were the light-skinned North Africans, whereas the southern Africans were known as "the Ethiopians" to him. North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page ^[7]

Romans

In Latin, the name would be taken over from the Greek and the Punic languages. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Romans would have known them before their colonization of North Africa, because of the Libyan role in the Punic wars against the Romans. This is a list of topics related to ancient Rome that aims to include aspects of both the ancient Roman Republic and Roman Empire. North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage between 264 and 146 BC and were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient The Romans used the name Libyes, but it referred only to Barca and the Western desert of Egypt. The other Libyan territories became known as Africa.

Arabic derivation

In the Arabic literature, "Libya" was called Lubya indictating a speculative territory in west of Egypt. However, today, it is referred to as Libya.

Berber link questioned

It has been questioned whether the name Libu was an Egyptian name for an ancient Berber tribe or if it was the name the Berber tribe would use to refer to themselves. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. After that time, the Ancient Egyptians may then have adopted it as a name for them. An example of the first probability is the name Berber which is used to refer to the indigenous people of Northwest Africa, whereas they call themselves "Imazighen". The term Berber is but a variation of the Latin original word Barbarian, earlier in history applied by Romans specifically to their northern hostile neighbors from

In fact, it is a difficult issue as the Berbers and the Ancient Libyans did not leave significant written sources. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. However, some prominent historians tried to trace the name to a Berber origin. See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it The supporters of the Berber origin believe that the name was related to an ancient Berber tribe. The name Libu would have known many evolution from "Lebu" to "Libya" to "Lebata" to "Levata" to "Lvata" to "Lwatae".

Lwatae, the tribe of Ibn Battuta,^[8] as it was called by the Arabs was a Berber tribe that was mainly situated in Cyrenaica. Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta (أبو عبد الله محمد ابن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة (born February The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding However, this tribe seemed to have stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to modern Libya and was referred by Corippius as Laguatan; he linked them with the Maures. Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab

Ibn Khaldun reports in the The History of Ibn Khaldun that Luwa was an ancestor of this previous tribe. Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun (full name أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون,, ( May 27, 1332 AD/732 AH &ndash March 19 He stated that the Berbers add an "A" and "T" to the name for the plural forms. Subsquently, it became Lwat.

Conversely, the Arabs adopted the name as a singular form adding a "H" for the plural form in Arabic. Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world Ibn Khaldun goes furthermore denying the claim of Ibn Hazam who maybe singifically claimed on the basis of the Berber sources that Lwatah in addition to Sadrata and Mzata were from the Qibts (Egyptians). Ibn Hazm ( 7 November 994 &ndash 15 August 1064 was an Andalusian - Arab philosopher, litterateur According to Ibn Khaldun his claim is incorrect because Ibn Hazam had not read the books of the Berber scholars. ^[9]

Oric Bates is a historians who considers that the name Libu or LBW would be derived from the name Luwatah^[10] whilst the name Liwata is a derivation of the name Libu. Other historians like the Libyan historian Mohammed Moustapha Bazam tend to confirm this theory.

Evidence

Compared with the History of Egypt, there is a little known on the History of Libya as there are few written texts. The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history as a unified state of any country in the world

The Libyco-Berber script (also known as Tifinagh) was used in Libya was mostly used as a funerary script. Tifinagh ( in Neo-Tifinagh Tifinaɣ in Berber Latin alphabet, tifinaɣ is an Alphabetic script used by some Africans to write their language A funeral is a Ceremony marking a person's Death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of Beliefs and practices used by a Culture to remember A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. ^[11] It is difficult to understand and there are a number of variations. ^[12]

Information on Ancient Libya comes from archaeologic evidence and historic sources written by Egyptians neighbours, the Ancient Greeks, Romans and Byzantines in the addition to the Arabs from the Medieval times. Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos

The territory

The boundaries of Ancient Libya have yet to be determined.

It was to the west of Ancient Egypt, and it was known as "IMNT" to the Ancient Egyptians Libya was an unknown territory to the Egyptians: it was the lands of the spirits. This article refers to the cardinal direction for other uses see West (disambiguation. The English word " spirit " comes from the Latin " spiritus " (breath ^[13]

To the Ancient Greeks, Libya was one of the three known continents besides, Asia and Europe. A continent is one of several large Landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by Convention rather than any strict criteria with seven regions In this sense, Libya was the whole African continent to the west of the Nile Valley. The Nile (النيل, Ancient Egyptian iteru or Ḥ'pī, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing River Herodotus distinguished the inhabitants of Libya into two people: The Libyans in North Africa and the Etheopians [sic] in the south. According to Herodotus, Libya begins where the Ancient Egypt ends, and ends in Cape Spartel in the south of Tangier on the Atlantic coast. Cape Spartel (رأس سبارتيل is a promontory in Morocco about 1000 feet above sea level at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, some km West Tangier or Tangiers ]] ( Tanja طنجة in Berber and Arabic, Tánger in Spanish

Later sources

After the Egyptians, the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned other various tribes. The late tribal names are different from the Egyptian ones. But it is supposed that some tribes were named in the Egyptian sources and the later ones, as well. The Meshwesh-tribe is an example for this assumption. The Meshwesh (often abbreviated in ancient Egyptian as Ma) were an Ancient Libyan (i The scholars believe it would be the same tribe called Mazyes by Hektaios and Maxyes by Herodotus, while it was called as "Mazaces" and "Mazax" in the Latin sources. All those names are somehow similar to the name used by the Berbers themselves Imazighen. ^[14]

The sources of the late period gave more detailed descriptions on Libya and its inhabitants. Herodotus is the most notable ancient historian who tried to cover Libya and the Libyans in his fourth book, which is known as "The Libyan Book". In addition to him, Pliny the Elder, Diodorus Siculus and Procopius are considered as the basic sources on Libya and the Libyans. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author Procopius of Caesarea ( Προκόπιος ο Καισαρεύς, c

Ibn Khaldun, who dedicated the main part of his book Kitab el'ibar, which is known as "The history of the Berbers", did not use the names: "Libya" and "Libyans" in his works. He used instead Arabic names: "The Old Maghreb" (El-Maghrib el-Qadim) and "The Berbers" (El-Barbar or El-Barabera(h)). The Maghreb (المغرب العربي al-Maġrib al-ʿArabī) also rendered Maghrib (or rarely Moghreb) meaning "place of Sunset

Unlike Ibn Khaldun who divided the Berbers into the Batr and the Baranis,^[15] Herodotus divided them into Eastern Libyans and Western Libyans. The Eastern Libyans where the nomadic Libyans to the east of the Lake Tritonis. Nomadic people, (from the νομάδες nomádes, "those who let pasture herds" also known as nomads, are communities of people that Lake Tritonis is a Classical-era lake possibly found in southern Tunisia. They lived as nomadic shepherds, while the Western Libyans who lived to the west of the Lake Tritonis were farmers who led sedentary life. A shepherd is a person who tends to feeds or guards Sheep, especially in flocks A farmer is a person who raises living organisms for food or raw materials Sedentary lifestyle is a medical Neologism used to denote a type of Lifestyle most commonly found in modern (particularly Western) cultures ^[16]

Neither Ibn Khaldun nor Herodotus distinguished the Libyans on the basis of their ethnic background, but according to their lifestyles. The term lifestyle was originally coined by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929 The distinction of Herodotus was also followed by the modern historians, like Oric Bates in his book "The Eastern Libyans". Some other historians used the modern name of the Berbers in their works like the French historian Gabriel Camps. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. ^[17]

The Libyan tribes mentioned in these sources were: "Adyrmachidae", "Giligamae", "Asbystae", "Marmaridae", "Auschisae", "Nasamones", "Macae", "Lotus-eaters (or Lotophagi)", "Garamantes", "Gaetulians", "Maures(Berbers)", "Luwatae" and still many other tribes. Macaé de Cima is a different locality in Rio de Janeiro state, situated in the municipality of Nova Friburgo, between the cities of Cachoeiras Lotus Eaters and Lotos Eaters redirects here For other uses see The Lotus Eaters. The Garamantes were a Saharan Berber -speaking people who used an elaborate underground Irrigation system and founded a kingdom in the Fezzan Gaetulia is the name of a Roman region in present-day southern Algeria.

See also

• Ancient Africa
• Northwest Africa

References and notes

1. ^ Gabriel Camps, L'origin des berbères
2. ^ Brian M. See also History of North Africa Carthage and the Berbers See also Carthage Phoenician traders arrived on the North African coast Northwest Africa or Northwestern Africa is a variably defined Region of North Africa. Fagan, Roland Oliver, Africa in the Iron Age: C. 500 B. C. to A. D. 1400 p. 47
3. ^ Moustapha Bazam, Libya: This name in its historic roots (Arabic) (This source will be referred to as "Moustapha Bazma")
4. ^ There were no vowels in the Egyptian script. The name Libu is written as LBW or RBW in the Egyptian hiergolyph.
5. ^ After Gardiner 1964, 273, from the Stele of Merenptah.
6. ^ Clark Desmond J. , Oliver Roland, Sanderson G. N. , Roberts A. D. , Donnelly Fage John, Gray Richard, Flint John, Crowder Michael The Cambridge History of North Africa 1975 p. 141.
7. ^ The Campridge History of North Africa, p. 141.
8. ^ The full name of Ibn Battuata was Abu 'abd Allah Muhammad ibn 'abd Allah al-Lawati at-Tanji ibn Battuta
9. ^ The History of Ibn Khaldun, the thirth chapter p. 184-258(Arabic)
10. ^ Bates Oric, The Eastern Libyans pg 57
11. ^ The libyco-Berber script, by Salem Chaker: Professor of the Berber languages at INALCO, Paris (French)
12. ^ The libyco-Berber script, by Salem Chaker (the pervious source. )
13. ^ Bates, Oric
14. ^ Mohammed Chafik, Highlights of thirty-three centuries of Imazighen p. 9 .
15. ^ Ibn Khaldun, The History of Ibn Khaldun: The thirth chapter p. 181-152.
16. ^ Herodotus, On Libya, from The Histories, c. 430 BCE
17. ^ "Gabriel Camps is considered as the father of the North African prehistory, by founding d'Etude Berbère at the University of Aix-en-Provence and the Ensyclopédie berbère. " (From the introduction of the English book "The Berbers" by Elizabeth Fentres and Michael Brett p. 7).

External links

• Herodotus (c.490-c.425 BCE): On Libya
• 5 000 years ago, Imazighen
• What Happened to the Ancient Libyans?, Chasing Sources across the Sahara from Herodotus to Ibn Khaldun by Richard L. Smith.

• Bunson, Margaret. "Libya." Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1991
• Who Lived in Africa before the Roman Conquest?

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