Turks in Libya
{{Short description|Ethnic group in Libya}}
{{Infobox Ethnic group
| group = Kouloughlis In Libya
| image =
| caption =
| popplace = {{hlist|Misrata|Tripoli|}}
| langs = {{hlist|Arabic}}
| rels = Sunni Islam
|population=
}}
The Turks in Libya, also commonly referred to as Kouloughlis ({{langx|ar|كراغلة}}) are Libyans who claim partial descent from Ottoman Janissaries in Libya. Quantifiying their presence/population in Libya in the modern day is near impossible, due to them assimilating near entirely in the Libyan population over time. They mainly make up a small fraction of the populations of the cities, Misrata and Tripoli.{{Harvnb|Pan|1949|loc=103}}.
During Ottoman Alleigance/Alliance in Libya (1551–1912), Turkish Janissaries began to migrate to the region.{{sfn|Malcolm|Losleben|2004|loc=62}} A minimal number of said Turks, and Janissaries intermarried with the native population, and their offspring were referred to as Kouloughlis ({{langx|tr|kuloğlu}}) due to their mixed heritage.{{sfn|Stone|1997|p=29}}{{cite web|author=Milli Gazete|title=Levanten Türkler |url=http://www.milligazete.com.tr/makale/levanten-turkler-153681.htm|access-date=2012-03-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223132907/http://www.milligazete.com.tr/makale/levanten-turkler-153681.htm|archive-date=2010-02-23|url-status=dead}}
After the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, Turks continued to migrate to Libya from the newly established modern states. However, contrary to popular belief, the large majority of said migrants were Cretan Muslims, who were often referred to as Turks by some Christian Greeks due to their religion; not their ethnic background.[citation needed]
History
=Ottoman Libya=
File:Mawlid Celebrations in Ottoman Benghazi.jpg raised in the city of Benghazi]]
File:Tripoli - Karamanli-Haus, 1750.jpg. The historic house was built by Yusuf Karamanli.]]
{{see also|Karamanli dynasty|Ottoman Tripolitania}}
During Ottoman Alleigance/Alliance in Libya (1551–1912), Turkish Janissaries began to migrate to the region.{{sfn|Malcolm|Losleben|2004|loc=62}} A minimal number of said Turks, and Janissaries intermarried with the native population, and their offspring were referred to as Kouloughlis ({{langx|tr|kuloğlu}}) due to their mixed heritage.{{sfn|Stone|1997|p=29}}
Today there are no Libyans who record their ethnicity as Turkish, or acknowledge their descent from the Ottomans.{{sfn|Malcolm|Losleben|2004|loc=62}}
=Italian Libya=
After Libya fell to the Italians in 1911, most Kouloughlis still remained in the region, They played no role in the Resistance itself, and remained an idle, subservient, minority of the population. {{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
Culture
As a result of four centuries of Ottoman Presence/Alliance to and within Libya, the Libyans left some of their cultural imprints on the Turks, particularly their language, food, and costumes, which the Kouloughlis adopted from the locals.[citation needed]
=Religion=
The Ottoman brought with them the teaching of the Hanafi School of Islam during the Ottoman, However the large majority of the Sunni Muslim Libyan population follows the Maliki school of thought.
Notable people
{{Original research section|reason=this list of so-called "notable Turks" contains people or may or may not have some distant Turkish origin|date=August 2023}}
- Salah Badi, commander of the Al-Somood Front{{cite web|last=Tastekin|first=Fehim|year=2019|title=Are Libyan Turks Ankara's Trojan horse?|url=https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/08/turkey-libya-are-libyan-turks-ankaras-trojan-horse.html|publisher=Al-Monitor|access-date=15 September 2019}}
- {{Interlanguage link|Emrullah Barkan|tr|Emrullah Barkan}}, politician
- Husni Bey, business tycoon{{citation|year=2019|title=حسني بي: أنا من ضمن المليون تركماني في ليبيا|url=https://www.alsaaa24.com/2019/12/23/%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%86%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%B6%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%83%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%84/|publisher=Alsaaa24|access-date=2 January 2020}}
- Wissam Bin Hamid, commander in the Libya Dawn
- Mukhtar al-Jahawi, commander of the Anti-Terrorism Force
- Abdul Rauf Kara, leader of the Special Deterrence Force
- Ahmed Karamanli, founded the Karamanli dynasty (1711–1835){{citation|last=Habib|first=Henry|year=1981|title=Libya: Past and Present|publisher=Edam Publishing House|page=42}}
- successors:
- Ahmed I (29 July 1711 – 4 November 1745)
- Mehmed Pasha (4 November 1745 – 24 July 1754)
- Ali I Pasha (24 July 1754 – 30 July 1793)
- Ali Burghul Pasha Cezayrli (30 July 1793 – 20 January 1795)
- Ahmed II (20 January – 11 June 1795)
- Yusuf Karamanli (11 June 1795 – 20 August 1832)
- Mehmed Karamanli (1817, 1826, and 1832)
- Mehmed ibn Ali (1824 and 1835)
- Ali II Karamanli (20 August 1832 – 26 May 1835)
- {{Interlanguage link|Faruk Kenç|tr|Faruk Kenç}}, film director and producer
- Sadullah Koloğlu, former prime minister of Benghazi and Darnah (from 1949 to 1952){{cite web |author=Hurriyet Daily News|title=Turkey's living link to Ottoman Libya: Son of former PM tells father's story|url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/default.aspx?pageid=438&n=a-living-link-to-ottoman-libya-son-of-former-pm-tells-father8217s-story-2011-03-04|access-date=2016-05-15}}
- {{Interlanguage link|Cenap Muhittin Kozanoğlu|tr|Cenap Muhittin Kozanoğlu}}, writer
- {{Interlanguage link|Suat Kuyaş|tr|Suat Kuyaş}}, soldier
- Omar Abdullah Meheishy, former Member of the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council{{citation|last=First|first=R.|year=1974|title=Libya: The Elusive Revolution|publisher=Africana Publishing Company|isbn=0841902119|page=[https://archive.org/details/libyaelusiverevo0000firs/page/115 115]|url=https://archive.org/details/libyaelusiverevo0000firs/page/115}}{{citation|last=Ahmida|first=Ali Abdullatif|year=2013|title=Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1136784439|pages=79–80}}
- Muhammad Sakizli, Libyan politician
- {{Interlanguage link|Galip Kemali Söylemezoğlu|tr|Galip Kemali Söylemezoğlu}}, diplomat and ambassador to Greece
- Ramadan al-Suwayhili, a co-founder of the short-lived Tripolitanian Republic in 1918
- {{Interlanguage link|Rasim Ferit Talay|tr|Rasim Ferit Talay}}, politician
- {{Interlanguage link|Sadettin Ferit Talay|tr|Sadettin Ferit Talay}}, politician
- {{Interlanguage link|İlhami Bekir Tez|tr|İlhami Bekir Tez}}, writer
- {{Interlanguage link|Muzaffer Tuğsavul|tr|Muzaffer Tuğsavul}}, soldier
- Hamida al-Unayzi, champion of women's education in Libya{{citation|last=Yeaw|first=Katrina Elizabeth Anderson|year=2017|title=Women, Resistance and the Creation of New Gendered Frontiers in the Making of Modern Libya, 1890-1980|publisher=Georgetown University|page=152}}
==See also==
References
{{Reflist|2}}
Bibliography
{{refbegin|2}}
- {{citation |last=Ahmida|first=Ali Abdullatif|year=2009|title=The Making of Modern Libya: State Formation, Colonization, and Resistance |place =Albany, N.Y |publisher=SUNY Press |type=Print|isbn=978-1-4384-2891-8}}.
- {{citation |last=Dupree|first=Louis|year=1958|title=The Non-Arab Ethnic Groups of Libya|journal=Middle East Journal |volume=12|issue=1|pages=33–44}}
- {{citation |last=Ergener|first=Reşit|year=2002|title= About Turkey: Geography, Economy, Politics, Religion, and Culture|publisher=Pilgrims Process|isbn=0-9710609-6-7}}.
- {{citation |last=Fuller|first=Graham E.|year=2008|title= The New Turkish Republic: Turkey as a pivotal state in the Muslim world |publisher=US Institute of Peace Press|isbn=978-1-60127-019-1}}.
- {{citation |last1=Harzig|first1=Christiane|last2=Juteau|first2=Danielle|author2-link=Danielle Juteau|last3=Schmitt|first3=Irina |year=2006|title=The Social Construction of Diversity: Recasting the Master Narrative of Industrial Nations |publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=1-57181-376-4}}.
- {{citation |last=Koloğlu|first=Orhan|year=2007|title=500 Years in Turkish-Libyan Relations|url=http://edoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/HALCoRe_derivate_00003723/500%20Years%20in%20Turkish-Libyan%20Relations.pdf|publisher=SAM}}.
- {{citation |last1=Malcolm|first1=Peter|last2=Losleben|first2=Elizabeth|year=2004|title=Libya|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=0-7614-1702-8}}.
- {{citation |last=Pan|first=Chia-Lin|year=1949|title=The Population of Libya|journal=Population Studies|volume=3|issue=1|pages=100–125|doi=10.1080/00324728.1949.10416359}}
- {{citation|last1=Papademetriou|first1=Demetrios G.|last2=Martin|first2=Philip L.|year=1991|title=The Unsettled Relationship: Labor Migration and Economic Development|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0-313-25463-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/unsettledrelatio00papa}}.
- {{citation |last=Sirageldin|first=Ismail Abdel-Hamid|year=2003|title=Human Capital: Population Economics in the Middle East |publisher=American University in Cairo Press|isbn=977-424-711-6}}.
- {{citation |last=Stone|first=Martin|year=1997|title=The Agony of Algeria|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=1-85065-177-9}}.
{{refend}}
{{Turkish people by country}}
{{Ethnic groups in Libya}}