DESERT DINING CLUB
BOOK LIST – THE LIBYAN DESERT
Initiated by Barnaby Rogerson
INTRODUCTION BY: Barnaby Rogerson, Co-publisher, Eland Publishing Ltd, 61 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QL. Tel: 020 7833 0762 Fax: 020 7833 4434
European Travel Literature on Algeria and the Sahara, post 1800
The Travel Writing of Libya and its Sahara
Aside from a good bibliography of ancient classical sources (Herodotus is
particularly informative on the Libyan tribes) the corpus of travel writing
about Libya is surprisingly thin in the medieval and early modern periods.
Even the descriptions of the Haj route by Muslim pilgrims are terse and
fragmentary.
The first accounts that do trickle in from the 17th-century are primarily
concerned with shipwrecks, ransoms and Barbary pirates operating out of
Tripoli. Indeed thewalled city of Tripoli, and its rich surrounding of
palm-shaded gardens, tend to monopolise the accounts of Libya over the
18th-century, largely compiled by European Consuls. After the suppression
of Barbary piracy, at the end of the Napoleonic war, there is a sudden
explosion of interest in Libya. This is the golden age of the Libyan
travelogue when the commercial and imperial rivalry of France and Britain
goaded on the exploration of the central Sahara. To make some attempt at
chronology, a list should begin with Frederick Horneman, Della Cella, Pacho,
Smyth, Lyon, Beechey, Gordon Laing, the so-called Bornu expedition of
Denhma-Clapperton-Oudney, Richardson and culminates in the last
Clapperton-Lander expedition and especially with the journeys of Heinrich
Barth - the so-called Oseal of the explorers¹. Barth¹s book is indeed a
veritable encyclopedia of things Libyan and Saharan.
By the late 1850¹s, the Foreign Ministers of both France and Britain
reluctantly conclude that Libya and its Sahara is no Eldorado waiting to be
plundered. It is too vast, too poor and too well defended by man and
nature to be of interest to them. With nothing to fight over, interest in
Libya evaporates for over two generations. Aside from an interest in the
Sahara, steadily being occupied by the French from both Algiers and Dakar,
next to nothing (in any European language) exists on the period of Turkish
occupation of Libya.
It is only the Italian invasion of 1911 and the heroic Libyan defence that
revives an interest, reflected in the books of Dr Griffiths, Mabel Todd,
Knud Holmboe and Rosita Forbes. However it was only the accidental
involvement of Libya in the frontline of the Second World War, as Italian,
German, British and Commonwealth armies desperately fight over the control
of the coastal desert strip, that establishes a passionate European-wide
interest in things Libyan. After the war a succession of British and
Italian teachers, anthropologists and archaeologists (many of them seconded
to work in the war-battered landscape) write about Libya for their home
audience. It is a second golden period for Libyan travel writing, but this
time not of explorer narratives but of specific detailed scholarship.
Professor Fabrizio Mori¹s work amongst the rock art of the Jebel Akakus is a
fine case in point, as was Charles Daniels amongst the Garamantian
monuments in the Fezzan. The multiple attractions of Libya¹s great oil wealth
and a sneaking regard for the boldly anti-Western nature of the Libyan
revolution have continued this connection.
Reading List:
Barth, Heinrich. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (5
volumes), London 1857 or 3 volumes published in New York
Bates, O., The Eastern Libyans, London reprinted 1970
Beechey, Capt F.W. & H.W.Beechey, Proceedings of the Expedition to Explore
the Northern Coast of Africa, London 1828
Berenson, Mary, A vicarious trip to the Barbary Coast, London 1938 - curious
but appealing book of letters as the wife of the famous art historian delves
into the literary and historical sources.
Birley, Anthony, Septimius Severus, The African Emperor, Batsford 1988 -
readable standard biography of the Libyan born Emperor who beautified Leptis
Magna and capped the golden age of the Antonines.
Briggs, L.C., Living Races of the Sahara, CambridgeMass., 1958, Tribes of
the Sahara,CambridgeMass., 1958.
Brogan, Olwen and D.J.Smith, Ghirza, London 1984 - detailed survey of the
tombs, manor-houses and outbuildings of the greatest of the Libyan
steppe-land frontier towns.
Bovill, E.W. Missions to the Niger (4 volumes), Cambridge for the Hakluyt
Society 1964-1966 - the edited scholarly text of the
Clapperton-Denham-Oudney Bornu expedition of 1822-25. Supplemented by
posthumously published The Niger Explored, London 1968 taking the story from
MungoPark, through Gordon Laing, the Bornu mission to the last
Clapperton-Landers expedition. See also Bovill¹s Golden Trade of the Moors
in Morocco section.
Caillié, Rene. Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctu (2 volumes),
London 1830
Clapperton, Hugh, Difficult & Dangerous Roads, Hugh Clapperton¹s Travels in
Sahara & Fezzan, edited by Jamie Bruce-Lockhart and John Wright, Sickle Moon
Books, London 2000 - the notebooks suppressed by the jealousy of Major
Denham, finally published almost two centuries later in a scholarly edition
complete with maps and appendices.
Daniels, Charles, The Garamantes of Southern Libya, London, 1970 - still the
standard work though Mattingly is expected to publish for the next
generation.
Davis, John, Libyan Politics, Tribe and Revolution: An account of the Zuwaya
and their government, London 1987 - brilliant example of modern
anthropology, focusing on modern kinship groups in the working of
revolutionnary democracy.
Della Cella, P., Viaggio de Tripoli di Barbaria allla frontiere dell¹
Egitto, Rome 1819 -one of the first European travellers to record his
crossing of the Libyan shore, too often overlooked by Anglo-Saxon
narratives.
Major Denham, Captain Clapperton and the late Dr Oudney, Narrative of
Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the Years 1822,
1823 and 1824, John Murray, London 1826.
Deardon, Seton, A Nest of Corsairs: The Fighting Karamanlis of Tripoli,
London 1976 - a page-turning narrative history of the 18th century
Karamanlis dynasty of Libya.
Denti di Pirajno, Alberto (Dr and Duke), A Cure for Serpents, London 1955 -
exceptional collection of Saharan and Libyan tales from an Italian doctor;
ironic, witty and amusing but with more cultural insights than many a
weighty tome. His sequel, A Grave for a Dolphin, somehow looses the magic.
De Vita, Antonio et al, 1999, Libya : The Lost cities of the Roman Empire -a
lavish photograph book of the classical monuments with useful maps and text.
Duveyrier, H. Exploration du Sahara: les Touareg du Nord (2 vols), Paris
1864
Epton, Nina., Oasis Kingdom, London 1952 - better than average postwar
travelogue which vividly catches Libya on the cusp of Independence
Evans-Pritchard, E.E., The Senussi of Cyrenaica, Oxford 1949, tribal
anthrolopogy from the eastern half of Libya, a classic work of the postwar
period.
Forbes, Rosita., The Secret of the The Sahara: Kufara, London 1937 - vividly
recounted journey by camel to the Senussi controlled oases of the Sahara in
eastern Libya. The formidable Rosita Forbes travelled with Hassanein Bey
whose later explorations, detailed in Lost Oasis, opened up the Egyptian
sahara.
Gladstone, P. Travels of Alexine: Alexine Tinne (1835-1869), London 1970 -
delightful life and tragic death of a diletante European explorer of the
Sahara.
Goodchild, Richard, Benghazi 1959, Cyrene and Apollonia: a historical guide
- no more than a pocket guidebook but one filled with a lifetime of digging
and research
Griffin, Ernest. H., Adventures in Tripoli: A Doctor in the Desert, London
1924, useful account of Italian invasion by British doctor on the ground.
Haynes, D.E.L., The Antiquities of Tripolitania, Tripoli 1965 - a perfect
gem of a guidebook, lucid, authorative and much re-printed.
Holmboe, Knud, Desert Encounter: An Adventurous Journey through Italian
Africa, Copnehagen 1931 - the slightly nieve Saharan journey of a young
danish convert to Islam but an important eyewitness to the brutalities of
the Italian conquest.
Horneman, Frederick, The Journal of Frederick Horneman¹s travels from Cairo
to Mourzouk in the years 1797-8, London 1802 - one of the first fruits of
London¹s African Society (the forerunner of the Royal geographical Society)
who despatched the young German into Libya as they sent Mungo Park up the
Gambia.
Lander, R. Records of Captain Clapperton¹s Last Expedition to Africa (2
vols), London 1830 - Clapperton¹s logbook and journals were preserved and
edited by his assitant who completed the last of the great saharan explorers
journeys.
Le Quellec, Jean-Loic, Paris 1998, Art Rupestre et prehistoire du Sahara -
best modern coverage of the carved rock art of the Messak region (just east
of Jebel Akakus).
Levtzion, N. and J.F.Hopkins, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West
African History, Cambridge 1981 - dry but vital sourcebook.
Lhote, H. The Search for the Tassili Frescoes, London 1959 - actually across
the Libyan border in Algeria but as the Libyan Jebel Akakus is the eastern
edge of the Tassili there is much that is useful here.
Lyon, G.F., A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa in the Years 1818,
1819 and 1820, London 1821 - swashbuckling, life-enjoying exploration of the
Sahara and Fezzan by a young naval officer who would later explore the Artic
and its women.
Mattingly, David. J, Tripolitania, Batsford, London 1995 - The history of
the Roman province of western Libya (and southern Tunisia) by its leading
archaeologist. It is able to reverse the innate bias towards the great
cities due to the rich results of the LibyanValley surveys of the arid
steppe lands.
Nachtigal, G., Sahara and Sudan (as translated and edited by A G B and H J
Fisher into 4 vols), London 1971-88
Norris, H.T., The Tuaregs: Their Islamic legacy and its Diffusion in the
Sahel, Warminster 1975, Saharan Myth and Saga, 1972, The Berbers in Arabic
Literature, London 1982 - three books from one of the great British experts
on the indigenous literature and poetry of the Saharan peoples.
Pacho, M.J.R., Voyage dans la Maramarique et..., Paris 1827 - early French
traveller along the Libyan coast.
Pennell, C.R., London 1989, Piracy and Diplomacy in Seventeenth Century
North Africa - The modern Barbary pirate expert turns his scholarly eye to
the harbour of Tripoli.
Richardson, J., Travels in the GreatDesert of the Sahara in 1845 and 1846
(2 vols), London 1848, Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa (2 vols),
London 1853 - important source, though the puritanical zeal of this
anti-slavery missionary on the make sticks in the throat. After his death,
on the second expedition, Heinrich Barth, takes over.
Rodd, Rennell (Lord), People of the Veil, London 1927 - classic early
account of Tuareg history and society, and later, General William Eaton,
London 1932 - the very model of the first Oquiet American¹ mounting coups
and invasions of Libya with breathless vigour and personal herosim to the
ultimate destruction of all his confederates.
Rogerson, Barnaby, Traveller¹s History of North Africa, 1998 - regional
history on a broad sweep, from the Nile to the Atlantic from the stone age
to the 21st century but with a suprisingly detailed narrative and useful
ruler¹s list.
Rohlfs, G., Quer durch Afrika: Reise vom Mittelmeer nach dem Tschadsee und
zum Golf von Guinea (2vols), Liepzig 1874-5 - the great and heroic German
explorer of the Sahara, first to Kufara, Sigilmassa, the Draa you name it.
A fitting successor, a generation later to Barth.
Smyth, W.H., The Mediterranean: A Memoir Physical, Historical and Nautical,
London 1854 - a personal memoir from the Naval officer who mapped part of
the Libyan coast, shipped out a gift of columns from Leptis Magna to the
Hanoverian court and Odiscovered¹ Ghirza.
Todd, Mabel, Tripoli the Mysterious, Boston, Mass., 1912 - much quoted
source of pre-colonial Tripoli.
Tully, Richard, Narrative of Ten Years Residence at Tripoli, London 1819 -
vivid first habd account by British consul, much quoted and deservedly
reprinted in a numbe of luxurious subsequent editions.
Ward, Phillip, Touring Libya: The Southern Provinces, London 1967, Touring
Libya: The Eastern provinces, London 1969, Touring Libya: The Western
Provinces, London 1967, Sabratha, Cambridge 1969Tripoli , Cambridge 1969 -
small, literate guide books produced by a poet librarian. Now a useful
source for the now vannished pre-oil boom, pre-Gadhafi Libya.
Wellard, James, The Lost Worlds of Africa, Hutchinson, London 1967 - well
written, popular travelogue of Saharan mysteries part of a trilogy of desert
books.
Williams, Gwyn, GreenMountain, an informal guide to Cyrenaica and its Jebel
Akhdar, Faber, London 1968 - literate travelogue by determinedly Welsh poet
and literary academic. Charming and washed with the British neo-colonial
Oprotectorate² of the 50¹s, especially strong in war savaged Cyrenaica.
Wright, John, Libya, London 1969 and even more so the later Libya: A modern
History, London 1982 - is the standard modern history further supplemented
by an in-depth study of Libya¹s Saharan ambitions in Libya, Chad and the
Central Sahara, London 1989.