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Libya
Fatimids
By the seventh century, a conflict had developed between supporters
of rival claimants to the caliphate that would split Islam into
two branches--the orthodox Sunni and the Shia--which continued
thereafter as the basic division among Muslims. The Shia (from
Shiat Ali, or Party of Ali) supported the claims of the
direct descendants of Ali, the fourth caliph and son-in-law of
the Prophet Muhammad, whereas the Sunni favored that of Ali's
rival, the leader of a collateral branch of Muhammad's tribe,
and the principle of election of the fittest from the ranks of
the shurfa (see Glossary). The Shia had their greatest
appeal among non-Arab Muslims, who, like the Berbers, were scorned
by the aristocratic desert Arabs.
In the last decade of the ninth century, missionaries of the
Ismaili sect of Shia Islam converted the Kutama Berbers of the
Kabylie region to the militant brand of Shia Islam and led them
on a crusade against the Sunni Aghlabids. Kairouan fell in 909,
and the next year the Kutama installed the Ismaili grandmaster
from Syria, Ubaidalla Said, as imam (see Glossary) of their movement
and ruler over the territory they had conquered, which included
Tripolitania. Recognized by his Berber followers as the Mahdi
("the divinely guided one"--see Glossary), the imam founded the
Shia dynasty of the Fatimids, named for Fatima, daughter of Muhammad
and wife of Ali, from whom the imam claimed descent.
Merchants of the coastal towns were the backbone of the Fatimid
state that was founded by religious enthusiasts and imposed by
Berber tribesmen. The slow but steady economic revival of Europe
created a demand for goods from the East for which Fatimid ports
in North Africa and Sicily were ideal distribution centers. Tripoli
thrived on the trade in slaves and gold brought from the Sudan
and on the sale of wool, leather, and salt shipped from its docks
to Italy in exchange for wood and iron goods.
For many years the Fatimids threatened Morocco with invasion,
but they eventually turned their armies eastward, where in the
name of religion the Berbers took their revenge on the Arabs.
By 969 the Fatimids had completed the conquest of Egypt and moved
their capital to the new city that they founded at Cairo, where
they established a Shia caliphate to rival that of the Sunni caliph
at Baghdad. They left the Maghrib to their Berber vassals, the
Zirids, but the Shia regime had already begun to crumble in Tripolitania
as factions struggled indecisively for regional supremacy. The
Zirids neglected the economy, except to pillage it for their personal
gain. Agricultural production declined, and farmers and herdsmen
became brigands. Shifting patterns of trade gradually depressed
the once-thriving commerce of the towns. In an effort to hold
the support of the urban Arabs, in 1049 the Zirid amir defiantly
rejected the Shia creed, broke with the Fatimids, and initiated
a Berber return to Sunni orthodoxy.
Data as of 1987
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