Turks in Libya

Ethnic group in Libya

Ethnic group

Kouloughlis In LibyaRegions with significant populations

* Misrata
* Tripoli

Languages

* Arabic

Religion
Sunni Islam
Part of a series of articles on

Turkish people

People

* List of Turkish people

Population

Traditional Areas of Turkish Settlement

Turkish majorities:

* Turkey
* Northern Cyprus

* Turkish minorities in the Balkans:

* Bosnia
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Greece
* Kosovo
* Montenegro
* North Macedonia
* Romania
* Serbia

* Turkish minorities in the Caucasus:

* Azerbaijan
* Georgia (Abkhazia and Meskhetia)

* Turkish minorities in the Levant:

* Iraq
* Israel
* Jordan
* Lebanon
* Syria

* Turkish minorities in North Africa:

* Algeria
* Egypt
* Libya
* Tunisia

* Other Turkish minorities:

* Hungary
* Saudi Arabia
* Yemen

* Modern Turkish diasporas

* Turkish diasporas in Europe:

* Austria
* Belgium
* Denmark
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Ireland
* Italy
* Liechtenstein
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Poland
* Russia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom

* Turkish diasporas in the Americas:

* Canada
* Mexico
* United States

* Turkish diasporas in Central Asia:

* Kazakhstan
* Kyrgyzstan
* Turkmenistan
* Uzbekistan

* Turkish diasporas in Oceania:

* Australia
* New Zealand

* Other Turkish diasporas:

* Japan
* Kuwait
* Pakistan
* Qatar
* South Africa
* United Arab Emirates

History

* Prehistory of Anatolia
* Prehistory of Eastern Thrace
* Classical Anatolia
* Byzantine Anatolia
* The Seljuqs
* Anatolian beyliks
* Ottoman Empire
* Republic of Turkey

Culture

* Architecture
* Art
* Carpets
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* Cuisine
* Culture of the Ottoman Empire
* Dance
* Festivals
* Folklore
* Literature
* Miniature
* Music
* Nazar boncuğu
* Public holidays
* Shadow plays
* Sports
* Theatre

Languages

* Turkish
* Cypriot Turkish
* Ottoman Turkish
* Karamanli Turkish
* Old Anatolian Turkish
* Oghuz

* Turkic & Altaic

Religion

* Atatürk's Reforms
* Secularism
* Freedom of religion
* Presidency of Religious Affairs

* Islam (Mosques)
* Christianity
* Judaism
* Bahá'í Faith

* v
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The Turks in Libya, also commonly referred to as Kouloughlis (Arabic: 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.[1]

During Ottoman Allegiance/Alliance in Libya (1551–1912), Turkish Janissaries began to migrate to the region.[2] A minimal number of said Turks, and Janissaries intermarried with the native population, and their offspring were referred to as Kouloughlis (Turkish: kuloğlu) due to their mixed heritage.[3][4]

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

[edit]

### Ottoman Libya

[edit]

The Ottoman flag raised in the city of Benghazi Courtyard of the Karamanly House Museum. The historic house was built by Yusuf Karamanli.

See also: Karamanli dynasty and Ottoman Tripolitania

During Ottoman Allegiance/Alliance in Libya (1551–1912), Turkish Janissaries began to migrate to the region.[2] A minimal number of said Turks, and Janissaries intermarried with the native population, and their offspring were referred to as Kouloughlis (Turkish: kuloğlu) due to their mixed heritage.[3][4]

Today there are no Libyans who record their ethnicity as Turkish, or acknowledge their descent from the Ottomans.[2]

### Italian Libya

[edit]

## Culture

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

This section possibly contains original research. this list of so-called "notable Turks" contains people or may or may not have some distant Turkish origin Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

* Salah Badi, commander of the Al-Somood Front[5]
* Emrullah Barkan [tr], politician
* Husni Bey, business tycoon[6]
* Wissam Bin Hamid, commander in the Libya Dawn[5]
* Mukhtar al-Jahawi, commander of the Anti-Terrorism Force[5]
* Abdul Rauf Kara, leader of the Special Deterrence Force[5]
* Ahmed Karamanli, founded the Karamanli dynasty (1711–1835)[7]
* 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)
* Faruk Kenç [tr], film director and producer
* Sadullah Koloğlu, former prime minister of Benghazi and Darnah (from 1949 to 1952)[8]
* Cenap Muhittin Kozanoğlu [tr], writer
* Suat Kuyaş [tr], soldier
* Omar Abdullah Meheishy, former Member of the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council[9][10]
* Muhammad Sakizli, Libyan politician
* Galip Kemali Söylemezoğlu [tr], diplomat and ambassador to Greece
* Ramadan al-Suwayhili, a co-founder of the short-lived Tripolitanian Republic in 1918[5]
* Rasim Ferit Talay [tr], politician
* Sadettin Ferit Talay [tr], politician
* İlhami Bekir Tez [tr], writer
* Muzaffer Tuğsavul [tr], soldier
* Hamida al-Unayzi, champion of women's education in Libya[11]

## See also

[edit]

* Turkey portal
* Libya portal

* Libya–Turkey relations
* Turkish minorities in the former Ottoman Empire
* Turks in the Arab world
* Turks in Algeria
* Turks in Tunisia
* Foreign relations of Libya
* History of Libya

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Pan 1949, 103.
2. ^ a b c Malcolm & Losleben 2004, 62.
3. ^ a b Stone 1997, p. 29.
4. ^ a b Milli Gazete. "Levanten Türkler". Archived from the original on 2010-02-23. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
5. ^ a b c d e Tastekin, Fehim (2019). "Are Libyan Turks Ankara's Trojan horse?". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
6. ^ حسني بي: أنا من ضمن المليون تركماني في ليبيا, Alsaaa24, 2019, retrieved 2 January 2020
7. ^ Habib, Henry (1981), Libya: Past and Present, Edam Publishing House, p. 42
8. ^ Hurriyet Daily News. "Turkey's living link to Ottoman Libya: Son of former PM tells father's story". Retrieved 2016-05-15.
9. ^ First, R. (1974), Libya: The Elusive Revolution, Africana Publishing Company, p. 115, ISBN 0841902119
10. ^ Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2013), Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya, Routledge, pp. 79–80, ISBN 978-1136784439
11. ^ Yeaw, Katrina Elizabeth Anderson (2017), Women, Resistance and the Creation of New Gendered Frontiers in the Making of Modern Libya, 1890-1980, Georgetown University, p. 152

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2009), The Making of Modern Libya: State Formation, Colonization, and Resistance (Print), Albany, N.Y: SUNY Press, ISBN 978-1-4384-2891-8.
* Dupree, Louis (1958), "The Non-Arab Ethnic Groups of Libya", Middle East Journal, 12 (1): 33–44
* Ergener, Reşit (2002), About Turkey: Geography, Economy, Politics, Religion, and Culture, Pilgrims Process, ISBN 0-9710609-6-7.
* Fuller, Graham E. (2008), The New Turkish Republic: Turkey as a pivotal state in the Muslim world, US Institute of Peace Press, ISBN 978-1-60127-019-1.
* Harzig, Christiane; Juteau, Danielle; Schmitt, Irina (2006), The Social Construction of Diversity: Recasting the Master Narrative of Industrial Nations, Berghahn Books, ISBN 1-57181-376-4.
* Koloğlu, Orhan (2007), 500 Years in Turkish-Libyan Relations (PDF), SAM.
* Malcolm, Peter; Losleben, Elizabeth (2004), Libya, Marshall Cavendish, ISBN 0-7614-1702-8.
* Pan, Chia-Lin (1949), "The Population of Libya", Population Studies, 3 (1): 100–125, doi:10.1080/00324728.1949.10416359
* Papademetriou, Demetrios G.; Martin, Philip L. (1991), The Unsettled Relationship: Labor Migration and Economic Development, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-313-25463-X.
* Sirageldin, Ismail Abdel-Hamid (2003), Human Capital: Population Economics in the Middle East, American University in Cairo Press, ISBN 977-424-711-6.
* Stone, Martin (1997), The Agony of Algeria, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, ISBN 1-85065-177-9.

* v
* t
* e

Turkish people by country

Traditional areas of
Turkish settlement|

| Turkish majorities:|

Turkey (Muhacirs), Northern Cyprus (Turkish Cypriot diaspora, Mainland Turks)

|

Turkish minorities
in the Balkans:|

* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Greece
* Crete
* Dodecanese
* Western Thrace
* Kosovo
* North Macedonia
* Montenegro
* Romania
* Serbia

Turkish minorities
in the Caucasus:|

* Azerbaijan
* Georgia
* Abkhazia
* Meskhetia

Turkish minorities
in the Levant:|

* Iraq
* Turkmeneli
* Israel
* Jews
* Jordan
* Lebanon
* Palestine
* Syria
* Turkmen Mountain

Turkish minorities
in North Africa:|

* Algeria
* Kouloughlis
* Egypt
* Libya
* Tunisia

Other regions|

* Saudi Arabia
* Yemen

Diaspora in Africa|

South Africa

Diaspora in Europe|

* Austria
* Belgium
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Berlin
* Hungary
* Ireland
* Italy
* Liechtenstein
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Poland
* Portugal
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* United Kingdom
* London

Diaspora in North America|

* Canada
* Mexico
* United States
* South Carolina

Diaspora in the Persian Gulf|

* Kuwait
* Qatar
* United Arab Emirates

Diaspora in Oceania|

* Australia
* New Zealand

Diaspora in South America|

* Argentina
* Brazil
* Venezuela

Diaspora in South Asia|

* Afghanistan
* India
* Pakistan

Diaspora in East Asia|

* China
* Japan

Diaspora in Post-Soviet States|

* Azerbaijan
* Kazakhstan
* Kyrgyzstan
* Russia
* Turkmenistan
* Ukraine
* Uzbekistan

Turkophobia|

* Persecution of Muslims during Ottoman contraction
* Exodus of Muslims from Serbia (1862)
* Kirkuk Massacre of 1924
* 1944 Deportation of the Meskhetian Turks
* Gavurbağı massacre
* Exodus of Turks from Bulgaria (1950-1951)
* 1956–1989 Assimilation of Bulgarian Turks
* 1959 Kirkuk massacre
* Bloody Christmas (1963)
* Akritas plan
* Afrikaanderwijk riots
* Revival Process
* Tochni massacre
* Maratha, Santalaris and Aloda massacre
* Turkish diplomats assassinated by Armenian militant organisations
* Assassination of Taha Carım
* Assassination of Orhan Gündüz
* Assassination of Erkut Akbay
* Assassination of Galip Balkar
* 1983 Orly Airport attack
* 1989 Fergana massacre
* 1990 Komotini events
* 1991 Altun Kupri massacre
* 1993 Solingen arson attack
* National Socialist Underground murders
* Murder of Enver Şimşek
* 2004 Cologne bombing
* Banya Bashi Mosque clashes
* Iraqi Turkmen genocide

See also|

* Turkish communities and minorities in the former Ottoman Empire
* Turkish population
* Turks in Europe
* Turks in the Arab world
* Kouloughlis
* Turks in the Balkans
* Turks in the former Soviet Union
* Turkish diaspora

* v
* t
* e

Demographics of Libya

Religions|

* Islam
* Sunni
* Shia
* Christianity
* Coptic Orthodox
* Catholic
* Protestant
* Jews

Ethnic groups|

* Arabs
* Arab-Berber
* Bedouin
* Dawada
* Berbers
* Circassians
* Filipinos
* Italian
* Tuareg
* Toubou
* Copts
* Gouran
* Doms
* Turks

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