Daggers of Libya????

[Aurangzeb]

Hello All!

What type of daggers are found in Libya? I have searched this Forum, the internet, and every book I own but I cannot find any pictures or references to any Libyan daggers. Now I know guns have not been around for ever so I am sure that at some point Libya must have had daggers. So if anybody has any Libyan daggers or reference to them I whould like to know please.

Mark...

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Mark,
I am very glad you asked this question as it relates directly to the very nature of the study of ethnographic weapons. Libya itself presents a vague denominator historically as it is in the midst of regions that have been in geo-political flux since ancient times. The Greeks used the name Libya for Africa in general, excluding Egypt which was then actually considered part of Asia!
The name Africa was finally brought to use by the Romans, but I believe it was Diocletian who reintroduced the Libyan name to the Tripolitanian and Cyrenaican littoral.

Libya was of course nominally part of the Ottoman Empire and was integral to trans-Saharan trade routes in many of its important posts, from c.1711 such trade controlled by the ruling Ottoman family Karamanli. Trade maintained through Fezzan (s. of Tripoli), Ghadames, and with Bornu and Hausa states, as some of the elements of the trade network which is of course considerably more complex. While considering the diffusion of weapons that would have taken place with these trade caravans movements, the element of the nomadic interaction of both Berber and bedouin tribal factions must be profoundly considered. By the early 19th century, another important factor became important in the flux of these regions, and that was that of the advent of groups intent on the reform of the practice of the Islamic Faith.
Of these Brotherhoods (termed Tariqas) key to Libya, especially in Cyrenaica, was that of the Sanusiyya. The Sanusi became one of the key cohesive elements in opposition to Ottoman and later Italian rule in Libya by the end of the 19th century.

While it is far beyond the scope of my attempt here on an overview to discuss these complexities further, perhaps this paragraph explains best;

"...considered as a merchant diaspora distributed between oasis settlements through lands held by stateless societies, the axis of Sanusi free commercial activities extended from the Sirtica to Lake Chad down a corridor of Libyan influence already pioneered over the preceding century by the southward dispersal of the Awlad Suleyman".
from "An Islamic Alliance: Ali Dinar and the Sanusiyya 1906-1916"
Jay Spaulding & Ludwig Kapteijns, Illinois, 1994, pp.6-7

This reference descibes the political climate c.1895-1902 with emphasis on Ali Dinar of course, who was the Sultan of Darfur. It is important to note that as Sanusi, the kingdom of Darfur would have likely been a key source of weaponry entering the caravan system toward Libya. With weapons from many other directions traversing Libya, it would be difficult to establish without exact and documented provenance any weapon as being distinctly Libyan with these considerations. To the best of my knowledge, there are no distinctly defined indiginous weapons considered specifically Libyan, and I would presume the weapons used would have been those consistant with the groups using them and where thier most prevalent source of weapons was established.

With this it would be considered for example that the Majabra, merchant inhabitants of the Cyrenaican oasis of Jalo may have a wide range of favored weapons acquired from incoming caravans, The inhabitants of key Sanusi locations might have weapons consistant with those from Darfur and other key Sanusi locations. The inhabitants of major cities in coastal regions controlled by Ottomans most probably would have had weapons of more defined Turkish acquisition. The weapons of the Berber and bedouin tribesmen can of course only be guessed at by which regions from which their factions predominate or the prevalent composition of thier prey in raiding and other combative interaction.

Such is the nature of ethnographic weapons study but that's the real joy and passion of it!!! Lots of historical study, but never any easy answers.
Anyway, I hope this is some help.
With all best regards,
Jim

P.S. If anyone has any edged weapons specifically attributed to Libya, I would sure like to see them as well.

[Aurangzeb]

I guess no one has any Libyan daggers? Thanks Jim very interesting information!

Mark...

[Aurangzeb]

I wonder if there are jambiyas in Libya?