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Omar Mukhtar--Teacher Turned Freedom Fighter (Part 1)

© Aida Hasan

When I was a child, a relative took my cousin, my sister, and I to see the film "Lion of the Desert," the 1991 movie about the Libyan resistance to Italian occupying forces in the year 1929 (directed by Moustapha Akkad). At the time, I did not understand the history of the Italian-Libyan war, the reasons behind the conflict, or the political climate of the time. I dont think I knew who Mussolini was until some years later. But somehow that movie really touched me. Beyond the adult level dialogue about politics, I connected with the main character and the storyline. I felt both a sense of familiarity and pride. I understood occupation. I understood what it means to have one's homeland invaded, and stolen, and I fully appreciated the struggle for freedom (The movie, I thought, could have been about Palestine).

But the movie was special to me for another reason. For the first time that I can remember, I saw myself, as an Arab and a Muslim, being portrayed as the hero, the good guy, the one who we (the audience) came to respect and love. This hero was Omar Mukhtar, an aging freedom fighter and former teacher, who was played so brilliantly by actor Anthony Quinn. Looking around at the movie audience as they cheered Omar's victories, I felt so empowered.

I didn't see Lion of the Desert until many years later. Seeing it the second time was just as moving for me, especially because of the lack of good, and accurate, films today about Arabs and Muslims. But this wasn't just a great film. It was a great film about a great person. Omar Mukhtar was a real life hero, not a Hollywood-created, exaggerated version of one.

Omar Mukhtar (1862-1931)

In October of 1911, Italian battleships reached the shores of Tripoli, Libya with an intent to stay. The Italian's fleet leader "Farafelli" made a demand to the Turks to surrender Tripoli to the Italians or the city would be destroyed at once. The Othman Turks fled and the Italians attacked Tripoli anyway, bombing the city for three days and thereafter proclaiming the Libyan population in Tripoli to be "committed and strongly bound to Italy." That would mark the beginning of a series of battles between the Italian occupiers and the Libyan Mujahedeen (the Arabic word for freedom fighters).

In 1912, in the city of Barga, Libya, Omar Mukhtar organized and strategized what would become the birth of the Libyan Resistance holy war against the invasion. A teacher by profession, Mukhtar was a master strategist in desert guerrilla tactics. He knew his country's geography well, and he knew how to use that to his advantage in his battles with the Italians who were not accustomed to desert warfare. Starting out with a only a few thousand men, he led his small mobile groups into skillful and successful battles with the Italians and then faded into the familiar terrain. Mukhtar's men attacked outposts, ambushed troops, and cut lines of supply and communication, leaving the Italians astonished and embarassed to be outsmarted and outmaneuvered by a "bedouin."

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