POPULATION 5,368,585
MUSLIM 98 percent
CHRISTIAN 1 percent
OTHER 1 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Known officially as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Libya extends from the Mediterranean Sea well into the Sahara. The country, which is located at a strategic crossroads of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, has experienced many invaders, with Arabs eventually having the greatest impact on the indigenous Berber people. Beginning in 642 C.E., Arab Muslims swept across North Africa and eventually occupied the area. The Fatimid dynasty, established in North Africa by 910 C.E., then extended its control eastward across Libya. A century later the Fatimids responded to growing Berber opposition by bringing in members of two bedouin tribes, the Beni Hilal and the Beni Sulaim, from Arabia to quell the revolt. Successive waves of Arab invaders stamped their character on the Libyan people, but it was the Beni Hilal and the Beni Sulaim that...