Nafusa Mountains: Difference between revisions

The '''Nafusa Mountains''' ([[Berber language|Berber]]: ''Adrar n Infusen'' (Nafusa Mountain), {{lang-ar|الجبل الغربي}} ''Al Ǧabal al Gharbi'' (Western mountain)) are a [[mountain range]] in the western [[Tripolitania]] region of northwestern [[Libya]]. It also includes their regions around the [[escarpment]] formed where the northern end of the Tripolitanian [[Plateau]] meets the [[Mediterranean]] [[coastal plain]] or the '' Jefara''.

In 879, the [[Tulunid]]s of Egypt invaded Aghlabid Ifriqya, and captured Tripoli. But the Nafusa challenged and destroyed the Egyptian army in 880. Again the Nafusa victory was short-lived. In 896-97, the Aghlabid emir [[Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya]] recovered Tripolitana and defeated the Nafusa in a great battle at Manu (south of [[Gabès]]). In the aftermath, citing them as heretics, Ibrahim II executed all the Nafusa prisoners and put an end to their independent imamate (Tahert fell shortly after, in 911). Despite the destruction of their states, Ibaditism remained a strong (if clandestine) faith among the Berbers of the the Nafusa mountains for centuries after, down to the modern day.<ref>Julien (1931: p.39)</ref> The lingering heterodoxy of the Nafusa people has placed them frequently at odds, or under suspicion, by the largely orthodox [[Sunni]] population of the rest of Libya.

The Nafusa Mountains form the boundary between the Libyan coastal plain, known as the Jafara, to the north, and the Tripolitanian Plateau to the south. The [[Formation (stratigraphy)|beds (strata)]] of the Tripolitanian Plateau slope downwards to the south and tilt upwards towards the north creating the highest portion of the plateau as the Nafusa mountains which rise to over 750 meters.<ref>Asketell, J. M. and Ghellali, S. M. (1991) "A palaeogeologic map of the pre-Tertiary surface in the region of the Jifarah Plain: its implication to the structural history of Northern Libya" ''in'' Salime, M. J. ''et al.'' (ed.) (1991) ''The geology of Libya. Volume IV-VII : Third Symposium on the Geology of Libya, held at Tripoli, September 27-3027–30, 1987'' Elsivier, Amsterdam, volume VI, pp. 2381-2406, ISBN 0-444-88844-6</ref><ref>El-Zouki, Ashour V. (1980) "Stratigraphy and lithofacies of the continental clastic (Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous) of Jabal Nafusah, NW Libya" ''in'' Salem, M. J. and Busrewil, M. T. (ed.) (1980) ''The Geology of Libya: Symposium on the Geology of Libya (2nd : 1978 : Tripoli, Libya)'' Academic Press, New York, volume II, pp. 394-418, ISBN 0-12-615501-1</ref><ref name="Megerisi">Megerisi, Mohamed and Mamgain, V. D. (1980) "The Upper Cretaceous-Tertiary formations of northern Libya" ''in'' Salem, M. J. and Busrewil, M. T. (ed.) (1980) ''The Geology of Libya: Symposium on the Geology of Libya (2nd : 1978 : Tripoli, Libya)'' Academic Press, New York, volume I, pp. 67-72, ISBN 0-12-615501-1</ref> The plateau ends abruptly on the north with an escarpment which has up to 350 meters of topographic prominence. A series of deep valleys which drain north toward the Jefara cut into this escarpment.<ref name="Megerisi"/> It extends some 250 kilometers within Libya, from just east of the city of Gharyan (about 60 kilometers south of Tripoli) in the east to the city of Wazzin at the Tunisian border in the west. Spurs and isolated upthrusts continue into Tunisia, but this region is almost unpopulated, in marked contrast to the situation in Libya.

The mountain area is rarely more than 25 kilometers in depth, from its southern boundary, the flat arid plateau some 650 meters above sea level, to its northern limit on the plain, where the land falls to below 150 meters. Much of the 500 meter drop in level is accomplished abruptly, at the escarpment, where local [[Topographictopographic prominence|topographic prominences]]s may be up to 350 meters. It is from below, on the plain, viewing the steep slopes and sharply-etched skyline that the area appears mountainous; from the plateau the land appears merely hilly, and in fact it is rather flat apart from the effects of differential erosion.

[[ Image:Libya ethnic.svg | thumb | right | 300px| Ethic composition of the Libyan population in 1974. The orange arc in the Northwest shows the Berber population in the Nafusa Mountains.]]