Fezzan province is one of the three traditional

Provinces of Libya The Provinces of Libya were prescribed in 1934, during the last period of colonial Italian Libya, and continued through post-independence Libya until 1963 when the Governorates system was instituted. The three main provinces of the country follo ...

. It was a formal province from 1934 until 1963, when it was subdivided into the

Governorates of Libya The governorates of Libya (''muhafazah'') were a tenfold top-level Subdivisions of Libya, administrative division of Libya from 1963 until 1983. They came into being on 27 April 1963. In 1970, after the 1 September 1969 History of Libya under Mua ...

. Its capital was the city of Sabha. In 1963, the province was split into: *

Awbari Governorate Awbari Governorate or Ubari Governorate ar, أوباري محافظة was one of the governorates (muhafazah) of Libya from 1963 to 1973. Its capital was the town of Ubari. It was created out of the southwestern part of Fezzan province Fezzan ...

* Gharian Governorate * Sabha Governorate

Administration

Fezzan was a province under the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, and a province (''

wilayah A wilayah ( ar, وَلاية, wālāya or ''wilāya'', plural ; Urdu and fa, ولایت, ''velâyat''; tr, vilayet) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", "province" or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes fr ...

'') or

governorate A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either State (administrative division), states or province, provinces, the term ''govern ...

(''

muhafazah A ' ( ; ) is a first-level administrative division of many Arab countries, and a second-level administrative division in Saudi Arabia. The term is usually translated to " governorate", and occasionally to "province". It comes from the Arabic ro ...

'') of independent

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

(alongside

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

and

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...

) until 1963. With the introduction of the new administrative division of Libya in 1963, Fezzan was abolished as an independent administrative unit and was divided into the ''muhafazat'' of

Awbari Ubari or Awbari (Berber language: Ubari or Awbari; ar, أوباري, ‘Awbārī) is a Tuareg languages, Tuareg Berber–speaking oasis town and the capital of the Wadi al Hayaa District, in the Fezzan region of southwestern Libya. It is in the ...

and Sabha. In 1983, these administrative divisions were abolished in favour of smaller

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

or ''

baladiyah Baladiyah () is a type of Arabic administrative division that can be translated as "district", "sub-district" or "municipality". The plural is baladiyat (). Grammatically, it is the feminine of "rural, country-, folk-". The Arabic term amanah ( ...

''. The Baladiyat-system was reorganized in 1987 and was replaced in 1995 by the '' sha'biyat''-system. The former Fezzan province contains the

(''sha'biyat'') of Wadi al Shatii, Wadi al Hayaa, Jufra,

Ghadames Ghadames or Ghadamis ( Berber: ''ʕadémis''; ar, غدامس, Libyan vernacular: ''ɣdāməs'', Latin: ''Cidamus, Cydamus'', it, Gadames) is an oasis Berber town in the Nalut District of the Tripolitania region in northwestern Libya. The i ...

Murzuq Murzuk, Murzuq, Murzug or Merzug ( ar, مرزق) is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya.Robinson, Harry (1960) "Murzuq" ''The Mediterranean Lands'' University Tutorial Press, London, p. 414 ...

, Sabha and

Ghat Ghat, a term used in the Indian subcontinent, depending on the context could refer either to a range of stepped hills with valleys (ghati in Hindi), such as the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats; or the series of steps leading down to a body of ...

(some maps allocate

to the neighbouring region of

). The historic capital, largest city, political and administrative centre is Sabha.

Population

The region's inhabitants include the Berber, the

Dawada The Dawada (Duwwud, Dawwada) is an Afro-Arab ethnic group from the Fezzan region of southern Libya. They live around the Gabraoun oasis, at the town of Murzuk, where they harvest brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also kn ...

, the nomadic

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern A ...

in the southwest, and the

Toubou The Toubou or Tubu (from Old Tebu, meaning "rock people") are an ethnic group native to the Tibesti Mountains that inhabit the central Sahara in northern Chad, southern Libya and northeastern Niger. They live either as herders and nomads or as ...

in the southeast. These pastoralist populations often cross the borders of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

and

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesArab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

and settled

and

mix. While making up some 30% of the land area of Libya, the Fezzan supports only a small percentage of its population. Large towns like Sabha survive on near-surface water in the wadis of the north and west. The northeast area is dominated by

Haruj Haruj ( ar, هروج, also known as Haroudj) is a large volcanic field spread across in central Libya. It is one of several volcanic fields in Libya along with Tibesti, and its origin has been attributed to the effects of geologic lineaments in ...

, a large and unpopulated

volcanic field A volcanic field is an area of Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters of up to 100 volcanoes ...

. Fezzan's population has grown rapidly since the mid-20th century along with the overall growth in Libya's population, and the province's share of the national population has increased by half. ''Source: Gathered from bulletins of censuses 1964, 1973, 1995, 2006.''

Notes

Citations

Provinces of Libya {{libya-geo-stub