TRIPOLI CITY TOWER CLOCK

It was the custom of the Turkish Governors of Tripoli to build a mosque, a military fort or a school in the land, in order to leave something to be remembered with in history.

Turkish Governor, Ali Riza Pasha, who was Algerian born and ruled Tripoli in two terms during the sixties and seventies of the nineteenth century, built a tower with a clock at its top.

Ali Riza, nicknamed Aljaezeri على رضا باشا الملقب بالجزائري, was educated in France and was probably influenced by what he saw in Europe of signs of civilization, of public buildings and city organization. He probably wanted to leave something new to be remembered with, something that was useful and essential to everybody in everyday life, for great and simple folk alike. Was he impressed with the European sense towards time? Did he consider that time was a very important factor in the progress of nations? Did he want to influence his citizens to consider time as a very important factor in their lives? I have no answer, but the fact remains that he was the first ruler to provide a modern machine to measure time as a public service in Tripoli city, and the project was funded by the Awqaf Bureau دائرة الاوقاف .
Ali Riza ruled in two terms, the first from 1868 to 1870 and the second from 1874 to 1882, and most probably that the Tower Clock was built during his first term.

AT the corner of the south eastern entrance of Suk El Turk سوق الترك , the tower clock basis were erected by professional masons. The clock machine itself was imported from Istanbul. The tower rose, like a square minaret according to the Ottoman architecture, up to over than 18 meters and divided to two floors, while the third floor was kept for the clock itself. The first and the second floors each had four windows. The ground floor had a main door that opened on the square that became called, “The Tower Clock Square”. Columns of marble rose from the four sides of the tower and met at their top end by multiple crowns.
During the term of Governor Nameq Pasha (1882-1898), the tower clock was renewed and some decorations were added to the structure.
The Tower Clock became one of the signs of Tripoli city, and people became used to the clock’s continuous and monotonous ringing every quarter to the hour. The clock had an employee to maintain it, to adjust it and keep it running. The ringing of the clock became part of the city’s noise and everyday life, and the ringing continued for decades to come.

During WW2 the clock tower became a military target and had a direct hit. The Clock stopped, and it stopped forever.
It seemed possible that the remains of the historical damaged clock were considered as junk and sold during the British mandate in Tripoli, when everybody was collecting what remained of the war of huge scraps of metals scattered all around. And it seemed most probable then, that the remains were exported to some museum in Europe. We don’t know.

The clock is still there but SILENT! During my last visit to Tripoli, few days ago, I noticed that the renovation of the tower was finished, and it looked beautiful, majestic and proud.
Tripoli has changed dramatically since the clock was built, but I am very glad that the clock is still there. The Tower Clock, the Clock Square and even the little coffee shop on the square are part of the Tripoli that has a great history to be proud of.

References: City of Tripoli across the Ages مدينة طرابلس عبر التاريخ by author: Najem Eddin Ghaleb El Keep نجم الدين غالب الكيب published in 1978 By Dar Al Kitab Al Araby, and an article written by an unknown citizen in the Tripoli newspaper “Flame of Liberty شعلة الحرية” in 17/06/1951, the writer signed as a concerned citizen 'Hurt Citizen’ = متألم.

THE FALL OF THE LAST CITADEL:AL KUFRA الكفرة

Kufra الكفرة was a spiritual and intellectual centre, a carrefour of caravan routes and an important commercial centre in the Grande Sahara.
Kufra was never invaded and never colonized by any foreign power. Kufra was a place coated by spiritualism, awe and invincibility.

ByApril 1930, General Graziani forces accomplished the reconquest of Tripolitania,, Fezzan, mid Libya down to the 29th parallel and the major parts of Cyrenaica with the exception of Omar Mukhtar enclave.
The Libyan free fighters of those conquered areas either died in the Jihad, surrendered or immigrated to neighboring countries, as far as Turkey. Some of them however, regrouped in Kufra and continued resisting the Italians and attacking their bases in the north as far as Jdabia اجدابيا.

In Cyrenaica, the Italians followed a strategy of siege and enclosure. Graziani, who was appointed deputy Governor of Cyrenaica in March, 1930, constructed 300 km of barbed wires on the eastern borders with Egypt cutting thus all routes of supply and reinforcement from the Egyptian side. On the local front, he established concentration camps for more than 126,00 people, in four main locations in isolated and arid areas of Cyrenaica, in order to cut off all food supplies and recruiting fighters for Omar Mukhtar and his companions in the Green Mountain. He actually enforced a major displacement of whole tribes –including old, young and children- from their original lands to big organized prisons surrounded with barbed wires and guards accompanied with fierce dogs. The fatality of the camps population was more that 50 percent.

On 4th July, 1930, the Italians performed air attacks on Tazerbo تازيربو , in the Kufra region, destroying its few mud houses and creating a state of panic between its inhabitants, most of them never have seen aircrafts before. On 26th December, 1930, more air attacks were directed towards the Kufra clustered oases in Al Jouf الجوف and Al Taj التاج.
On 30th December, 1930, the main attacking force of the Kufra campaign left Jdabia اجدابيا heading towards the South. More supporting forces left from Zella زلة and Wao Al Kebir واو الكبير making the whole force combining of:
- More than 4000 soldiers, Italians, Eritrean and local bands (i.e.Libyans).
- 5517 camels to carry provisions, water and ammunition.

- And unrecorded number of automobiles and armored cars.

The Italian army intelligence estimated the Libyan free fighters in Kufra region with a total number not exceeding 600 armed men.
The attacking force arrived in January, 1931, and General Graziani, who was appointed chief commander of the campaign followed by air on 12th January.
The first battle occurred on 19th January, 1931, in Al Hawari الهوارى , and moved to Al Hawareri الهويريرى later on the day. Then General Graziani gave his order to direct nine RO attacking aircrafts to eliminate any escape route of the Libyan fighters, who fought valiantly against any hope of victory or survival.
On 20th February, 1931 The Italians occupied Al Taj التاج , centre of Kufra, and Kufra region fell to the Italians for the first time almost twenty years after their landing in Tripoli, and for the first time in recorded history a foreign invader arrived there.

Orders were given to kill any armed persons on sight, sheiks of the Oases were gathered and hanged afterGraziani’s invented process of flying courts.
The great Kufra library containing tens of thousands of rare books and manuscripts that were collected during a century were scattered , stolen or destroyed. Only 5000 books were salvaged by the civil Italian authority and of those only 2000 books reached Benghazi Awkaf Office أوقاف بنغازى .

The Libyan resistance in the southern Sahara provinces ended and the remainder of Libyan fighters died or fled to neighboring countries.

Italian General-Governer of Libya, Badoglio, flew from Tripoli, and he personally raised the Italian flag bearing -the Cross- on the Senussi Headquarters in Al Taj Zawia.

Ten years Later…..

“Colonel Leclerc, on the orders of De Gaulle in London, was tasked with attacking Italian positions in Libya with the forces at his disposal in Chad which had declared for Free France.
………..
After the success of the Murzuk مرزق raid Leclerc, who had assumed overall command, marshaled his forces to take on Kufra itself.
…………
Despite having superior numbers, Italian resolve faltered. Negotiations to surrender began on 28th February and finally on 1st March,1941, the Free French captured El Tag التاج and with it, the oasis at Kufra.”

ENVER PASHA, his TESKELATI MAHSUSA, and his DIARY

Enver Pasha, or İsmail Enver Bey Ben Ahmed, was born in Istanbul 1882. His father was Turkish and his mother was Albanian. He was graduated from the Military Academy of Istanbul and became an officer in the army.
He was then made a Major in 1906 and served in the Third Army Corps in Salonika, where Enver Bey (later Pasha) with Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk) were both recruited to become members of the (Committee of Union and Progress or CUP) and active members of the Young Turks movement.
In 1908, he raised with General Hussein Helmi the revolt in the mountainous sector of Macedonia, requesting the implementation of 1876 constitution which was annulled by Sultan Abdulhamid. He entered then Istanbul in a victorious military parade. He became a political figure and The Hero of Liberty"(Hürriyet Kahramanı).

Later he served as military attaché to Berlin, where he remained in the years 1909-1911. In 1909, he went back to Istanbul and assisted with his friend Mahmut Shawkat in the fall of Sultan Abdulhamid. Then he continued his post in Berlin until the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911.

When Italy declared war against Turkey and invaded Libya he quit his post in Berlin and went back to Istanbul and founded, with the aid of some friends, the Secret Private Organization of Teskilati Mahsusa تشكيلاتي مخصوصة which was a secret society beyond the knowledge of Ottoman Government, with the objective of guarding the Foreign Security of the Empire and Promotion of the idea of Pan-Islamism, i.e. against western colonialism and all provincial separatism. Its members were mainly military and with the only secret cooperation of the Ministry of War, at the time.
This secret organization under Enver Pasha decided to form two volunteer groups of Fedayeen Officers منظمة الضباط الفدائيين to be sent into Cyrenaica and Tripolitania to help the Libyans form an effective resistance against the Italian invasion. The first group was to be headed by Enver himself and to enter Libya secretly from the Egyptian borders. The second group was headed by Major Ali Fathi, who was the Turkish Military Attaché in Paris, was to enter Libya secretly from the Tunisian borders, Major Fathi was later to become commander of Gharyan garrison. The two groups are assisted financially through the Ministry of War, however, they have to find local means of support as well.

On the first of December, 1911, Major Enver Pasha, chief of T. M. and Turkish hero of the people, was established and accepted by all of Eastern Libya tribes as an Overall General, for wasn’t he the envoy of the Sultan and his brother in law (Enver was fiancé of Nejia, the Sultan’s niece). He made his headquarters in Ain Bu Mansour Camp near Derna معسكر عين بو منصور .
Reading his diary, gives us the picture of a young man very dedicated to the cause of the Ottoman Empire itself, and a young man very much impressed with the Libyans and their strong belief in their cause and freedom of their country. Enver organized all aspects of a local government, both military and civic and seemed to be a very good organizer. The tribes chiefs accepted him and paid him homage and the Chief of Senusse Movement – Sidi Ahmed Sherif – accepted his leadership, and Enver himself had great respect for ‘ this honorable and dignified Sheik’. As Safia mentioned in her post of Wednesday, March 29, 2006, Enver founded schools and even sent some elite students to be educated in Turkey, some of them came back and joined Ahmed Sherif and some remained in Turkey and fought for the Empire.
When Enver arrived in Cyrenaica he found a local militia of about 900 Mujahid, he succeeded in organizing a trained local army of over sixteen thousand soldiers.
After Turkey had signed the Lausanne Peace Treaty with Italy on 18th October, 1912, Enver, as a military officer, had to leave and go back to Istanbul. He appointed Commander Aziz Almasri عزيز المصرى as chief military commander in Cyrenaica under the overall leadership of Ahmed El Sherif, and Sulliman Al Barouni became the overall military and civic commander in Tripolitania.
The officers of Teskilati Mahsusa تشكيلاتي مخصوصة left their arms, what funds they had with the Libyan Mujahedeen and some of them remained as volunteers.

The following are some excerpts from his last entry of his diary dated on 25th November, 1912:

الخامس و العشرين من نوفمبر 1912

لقد آل ذلك البرعم إلى الذبول بعد أن دبت فيه الحياة ، و من ثم فاننى سأغادر مملكتي برقة بعد أن أصبحت لها مكانة خاصة عندي. فعندما تسلمت مهام عملي هنا مارست سلطات واسعة و هاأنذا الآن عائد إلى اسطنبول لأعمل و كأنني ملازم أول. و طبقا للبرقية الواردة إلينا من اسطنبول فان من سيبقى هنا سيبقى على مسؤوليته.
أما من جانبي على الأقل فقد مهدت السبيل لضمان استمرارية النضال. و قد يفسر خصومي هذا القرار بطريقتهم الخاصة فيجدون فيه فرصة سانحة للافتراء على و تشويه سمعتي و لكنى سوف لن أهتم بذلك فكل همي خدمة بلادي في أي مكان تبدو الحاجة فيه إلى أكثر مساسا .
و في عشية مغادرتي وصل من بنغازي التلاميذ الذين نويت إرسالهم إلى المدارس التركية في اسطنبول و قد أدوا أمامي النشيد الوطني . و عند سماعي لأنغامهم و هم ينشدون دار في خلدي مدى بشاعة أن نسلم هذه الأرض و أهلها العظام ، و لم أتمالك نفسي إزاء هذا الموقف فاغرورقت عيناي بالدموع . لقد كان كل شي هنا على وشك التفتق و الازدهار، و ما أنجزناه في غضون عام واحد من العمل الدءوب أضحى يبشر بالآمال الكبار.
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أما الإدارة المدنية فقد نظمت بأسلوب بسيط جدا، فالبلاد بأسرها كانت مقسمة من قبل إلى مناطق حسب وجود الزوايا فيها. لقد ألزم مشائخ الزوايا، و هم أكثر الناس فطنة و تأثيرا في مناطقهم ، ألزموا عند مغادرتي بإدارة شئون الحكومة في مجتمعاتهم.
أما فيما يخص الجيش النظامي ، فأنه يتألف من ثلاثة ألوية مشاة ، و كل لواء من ثلاث كتائب و كل كتيبة من ثلاث سرايا و كل سرية من مائة و خمسون جنديا ، و خمس عشرة امرأة كمساعدات في المعسكر. و بالإضافة إلى ذلك يوجد ثلاث سرايا للمدفعية مزودة باثني عشر مدفعا ، و ثلاث بطاريات مدفعية مزودة كل منها بأربعة مدافع.
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لقد أنشأت عشر مدارس ابتدائية بها حوالي ألف تلميذ و مدرستين للبنات يهما مائة و خمسين تلميذة. و طبقا للاتفاقية مع اسطنبول فقد بعثت بمائتي تلميذ إلى المدارس التركية معظمهم من أبناء الشيوخ و كان من بينهم ثلاثون تلميذا أرسلوا إلى المدرسة العسكرية و عشرون تلميذا للمشاة و ستة تلاميذ لسلاح المدفعية و أربعة تلاميذ لسلاح الفرسان و خمسة تلاميذ بعثوا إلى المدرسة الطبية و ستة إلى مدرسة البيطرة و أربعة تلاميذ لمدرسة الصيدلة و ستون تلميذا إلى مدرسة صف الضباط و خمسة عشر تلميذا لمعاهد المعلمين و البقية أرسلوا إلى مصانع الأسلحة و مؤسسات صناعية أخرى.
و قبيل رحيلي بأيام قلائل تم تحويل قلعة القيقب الضخمة إلى مدرسة. فهذه القلعة يمكن أن تستخدم كمدرسة عادية ، و هي ملحقة بمدرسة مهنية و تجارية ، يمكنها أن تعلم مهارات في شعب تجارية و زراعية و تتبعها مزرعة صغيرة و بها ضابط يقوم بمهام المدير. أما عن النظام المستعمل في المدرسة فانه ذو طبيعة عسكرية. فلكل تلميذ بندقية يتدرب عليها لمدة ساعتين يوميا. و يستمر الطلاب في هذه المدرسة لمدة سنتين يتخرجون بعدها كمدرسين في المدارس المتجولة بين القبائل.
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اننى في هذه اللحظات في غاية السعادة لان سيدي أحمد الشريف ، شيخ السنوسية الكبير ظل وفيا لإيمانه الراسخ حتى أخر لحظة. فقد رفض بكل فخر و اعتزاز هدايا ملك ايطاليا كما رفض الاقتراح الايطالي الداعي إلى إنشاء زاوية كبيرة له في بنغازي ، انه كان و لا يزال حقا ذلك الرجل صاحب القلب الكبير.

No doubt that what Anwar Pasha did in helping the Libyan resistance with his colleagues at our time of need was very great. However, Enver was a patriot and his aim was mainly to salvage and protect his beloved Ottoman Empire. But, alas, the disease was terminal and incurable. Centuries of ignorance, neglect and oppression have passed and the only treatment was probably surgical. The flame that founded the Ottoman Empire was distinguished decades ago and the Empire went into decline and corruption until it became the Sick Man of Europe. On the other side, the World has entered into a new phase and the Super Western Colonial Powers were as greedy and hungry as vultures around an almost dead lion.
What Enver Pasha tried to accomplish was great, but it should have been done ages ago. The relationship between the Turk and the Arab was a relationship of an absolute ruler and an obedient subject and at times I could say that it was between a Master and a Slave, and it took the Western invasion of the provinces of the Empire to realize that they were actually partners and they should have behaved as such.

Later on Enver Pasha staged a coup in Istanbul and ….. "After these political and military achievements, Enver introduced a military dictatorship that came to be called the Three Pashas (Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha, and Djemal Pasha). In 1914, he became Minister of War in the cabinet of Sait Halim Pasha, and married the daughter of Prince Süleyman, thus entering the royal family. His power grew steadily while Europe marched toward total war."

However, Turkey was defeated in WW1, Enver went down in disgrace and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rose to power.

OSMAN EFFENDI, AN ENGLISH FREE FIGHTER IN DERNA

Safia Speaks of (http://safiaaoude.blogspot.com/) wrote a comment on my post of Yousef Al Musulmani that she knew about many young Westerners joining the Libyans in their plight and inquiring if I knew “…anything about the British soldier Stuart Smallwood, who became a Muslim and joined the Ottoman Turks in their fight against the Italian invaders in Libya in 1912”
At the time, the answer was no, I didn’t. I remembered that there was a film made in the sixties, featuring a story of a British who joined the Libyans and fought with them, and married a Bedouin girl. I have seen the film, starring John Wayne and Sophia Loren, and I think it was called the Black Tent, and at the time I thought it was pure fiction.
However, I wanted to know if there was any trace of this story anywhere. I started with the easiest available on the net – Google search engine, and there again I find my second option is back to a post that Safia Speaks published on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, featuring a review of a diary of the Turkish-Italian war in Libya between October 1911 and November 1912 which was written by Enver Pasha. It seemed that this Enver Pasha told of the story of the British soldier that fought with the Libyans in his diary.
My first option of my search (and many other results after the second) was a Turkish site. I looked at this site, and I don’t speak Turkish, but I figured out that this site actually told the story of Enver Pasha. Frankly, I became more interested in the story of Enver himself.
I made a printout of the main text and asked my good Turkish friend Erkan to translate the text for me into English. Arkan looked up the site himself and became interested and promised me to make the translation in few days, which I’m still waiting for.
But who was this Enver Pasha? Then, I remembered of course, it’s the difference in pronunciation. THIS IS MAJOR ANWAR BEC المقدم أنور بك who was commander of the armed Turkish-Libyan forces in Derna with his deputy MUSTAFA KAMAL المقدم مصطفى كمال to become later on the Great MUSTAFA KAMAL ATTATURK. AND THEN, it hit me that YES, I KNEW about the English lieutenant John Smallwood, Alias Osman Effendi, who perished in the valleys of Derna on a mission of reconnaissance near the Italian fortifications in Derna.

But let’s read a witness’s account of this man and who he was..…

Georges Remond, French Journalist, arrived in Derna on 14th April, 1912 and stayed for about three weeks, wrote his observations about Ain Mansour Camp معسكر عين منصور , which included the story of JOHN SMALLWOOD…….

“On the 8th of May, the English lieutenant John Smallwood disappeared. (This gentleman) who already became a Moslem and had a new name for himself as ‘Osman Effendi’, was definitely assassinated by the Italians. He was on a mission of reconnaissance, and some Libyans were sent to trace him and came back saying that they found traces of blood fifty meters near the Italian fortifications.

This Moslem Englishman was quite a unique character. He was blond, very thin, his nose was fractured during a boxing match and his body was covered with tattoos. He was extremely brave and looked at life as a sport game. He insisted everyday to show his daring and bravery. He would go at times during perfect daylight to prepare his tea in front of the Italian lines, or sneak under darkness to the town of Derna and the Italian fortifications.
The last time he left the camp in the company of a Bedouin, he was intending to take some photographs near the Italian fortification in Derna under moon light, and he promised to give me these photos to publish in my journal, but he never came back. I can imagine that he dared to come very close to the Italian lines, he was gunned down with his Libyan companion, that they tried to crawl back to the camp and probably fell down in a ravine. The Italians would have found their bodies the following day and they were transported back to Derna. At least these are the interpretations made by the tracer people who were sent to find out their fate.

In the evening, people of the Ain Mansour Camp gathered around a poet from the tribe of Brassa قبيلة البراعصة who recited a poem of praise in the memory of this Moslem Englishman and his Libyan companion who died for the cause.”

Regarding Anwar Pasha and his deeds in Cyrenaica, that’s another story…...

MODERN BENGHAZI

Holy Man Sidi Ghazi, who died about 1450 and was buried in Sidi Khrebeesh cemetery, gave his name to the city we now know as Benghazi. The City was originally called as Bani Ghazi –meaning Ghazi’s sons or descendants.
The early immigrants coming from western Libya, who integrated with the local population and with their help, together founded Benghazi on the ruins of the Greek-Roman Berenice برنيقى . Benghazi depended in her early days on the Salt Trade تجارة الملح which was the pillar of her economy, and Benghazi had seven salt lakes.
Writer Dr.Wahbi Ahmed Al Bouri وهبى أحمد البورى , in his book “Benghazi During the Italian Occupation” stated that Benghazi was distinguished from other Libyan cities by the fact that her inhabitants were immigrants from several villages, cities, districts and tribes of Libya that formed a harmonious society adopted to the norms and traditions of both Bedouin and city people البدو و الحضر , and finally transformed into a society with its own character and style that deferred from any other community in Libya.
Benghazi, writer Dr. W. Al Bouri وهبى البورى added, was known for her generosity and sheltering of strangers and the needy persons and opened her arms to take all that wanted to belong to her. This makes the loyalty of Benghazi inhabitants directed towards Benghazi city and not to their original tribes and origins.
In the late nineteenth century Benghazi welcomed several immigrants from Jerba, Sfax, Egypt in addition to Jews, Turks, Armenians and immigrants from Crete that already were there.
One hundred years ago, French explorer M. de Mathuisieux, estimated Benghazi population at thirty thousands including Arabs, Africans, Jews and other communities. In the last census of the year 2004, Benghazi population reached over half a million.

Unfortunately, the world changes and with it everything changes. I am sure that this Benghazi of old has changed, however few of her original inhabitants still keep the old beautiful spirit alive.
One of those is the Poet Badria Al Ash hab الشاعرة بدرية الاشهب , Benghazi girl of the fifties, educator and distinguished poet of Spoken Arabic العربية المحكية as we see below in her poem of BENGHAZI:

بنغازي عزوز موشمه ايديها
من كفها تطلع الشمس
في كفها الثاني إطيح
مابينهن تغزل الشمس
أيـامنـا وأحلامنـا
مابينهن تسكن الريح

بنغازي عزور لابسة " رقعة "
بيها إحتمى ليل الشتا وصقعـة
خيوط رقعتها أزقتنا وحوارينا
خيوط رقعتها
شراييـن الحيـاة فينـا
صوت خطوتها ونـس
من غير ما نحكي تحس
من غير مانحتاج للتلميح

بنغازي عزوز لابسة " جربي "
صوف جردها مغزول من قلبي
في جردها يخفي الزمان حكايته
ومن جردها يولد التاريخ
من جردها يفوح البخور
غير عشقها محظـور
لوصفقت لحظة طرب
تنزع ثياب الليل وتفجر النور
لو صفقت لحظـة غضـب
شمس الضحا ما ادور
لو يوم قالت آه
من كثر التعب
كل القلـوب تصيـح
من كفها تطلع الشمس
في كفها الثاني اطيح
مابينهن .. تغزل الشمس أيامنا وأحلامنا
ومابينهن تسجد الريح

BENGHAZI HONORS HER PIONEER DAUGHTER

Hameda Mohamed Tara khan حميدة محمد طرخان was born in Benghazi in 1892. Her father sent her at an early age to be educated in Turkey. She obtained a diploma from L’Ecole Superiure des filles of Istanbul. She was the first Benghazi girl who completed her education in Turkey, and she mastered both Turkish and French languages . When she returned to Benghazi in 1915, during the Italian occupation, she opened a class in her father’s house to teach Benghazi girls Arabic language and religion. This was her private battle front to bring out her fellow sisters from ages of darkness, superstition and rotten traditions to the enlightened twentieth century. In 1920 she married Abduljalil Al Anesi عبد الجليل العنيزى, and became known as Hameda Al Anezi حميدة العنيزى . Her husband was an ex Libyan officer in the Turkish army, educated in Turkey and served in Syria. He was educated and enlightened, he knew he married a special woman with a mission and a will of steel and gave her his full support.
In 1924, she was appointed a teacher of Arabic language in the first official Italian girls' school, and negotiated strongly and patiently with the girls parents to let their daughters come to school.
During the British Mandate in 1943, she became the first headmistress of the first elementary girls' school in Benghazi, later in the fifties she became the Director of Girls Education in Cyrenaica.
In 1950, she opened the first girls' secondary education class in Benghazi and in 1956 she assisted in founding the first Girls' Teachers College in Benghazi.
In 1954, she founded the Women’s Renaissance Society of Benghazi to become the first women’s movement in Libya. Later in 1957 another Women’s Society would be formed in Tripoli and both would form the Women’s Movement Union of Libya in the sixties.
She assisted in founding the Society of the Blind in Benghazi and was a great partisan of their cause, and a member of the Board of Directors.
She had no children of her own so she gave her love and care to all girls in need, and practically adopted the orphan girls because of WW2.
She continued her role as a pioneer woman with her sisters in Libya and in the Arab world until she died in 1982.
She is simply the first to teach Benghazi girls reading and writing and the first to found a Women’s Society. The first who opened new avenues to Benghazi girls to become teachers, nurses, radio broadcasters, girl scouts, and join the university and become doctors, layers, engineers and even to go abroad for higher education.
She was honored by the Revolution on the Day of Gratitude يوم الوفاء in 1989 and her name was added to the Honor Roll List, and there was a post stamp issued in her honor.

On the occasion of 8th March this year, and under the banner of OLD BENGHAZI CITY SOCIETY, some active ladies of the grateful generations that Hameda Al Anezi taught and guided organized a A DAY OF REMEMBERANCE in her honor.
The meeting was held in the building of Jamiat Al Dawa جمعية الدعوة الإسلامية and attended by members of the Local Community both official and civic, representative of Tripoli women’s union, members of her family, scholars, poets and members of the public. The lecturers made an excellent presentation of the great history of her life as A PIONEER, AN EDUCATOR, A REFORMER and A FOUNDER OF CIVIC BOTH SOCIAL AND CHARITY SOCIETIES.
Poet Dr. Hania Al Kadeki الشاعرة الدكتور هنية الكاديكى - suffering from an accident – insisted to recite her poem standing because she can’t talk about Abla Hameda while sitting down, and she moved us all.
Poet Badria Al Ash hab الشاعرة بدرية الأشهب recited a fantastic poem of praise telling of the Libyan women that left their traces in our history as fighters and supporters to their fellow men, and I can’t honestly give her enough praise. She was simply TOO GOOD, beyond my feeble words.

ABLA HAMEDA WAS DESCRIBED AS THE MOTHER OF ALL LIBYAN WOMEN أم الليبيات , I WOULD ADD THAT SHE WAS ACTUALLY THE MOTHER OF ALL LIBYANS FOR A BETTER LIBYA.

DOESN’T HAMEDA AL ANEZI DESERVE TO BE REMEMBERED BY US?

(The meeting ended by a recommendation requesting that either a girls' school, a college or a university hall should be named after her name.)

ROSITA FORBES ON THE ROUTE TO OUADDAI

In her book “Tripoli the Mysterious’, Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd wrote that, ‘For many years Tripoli had almost a monopoly of the caravan trade. The city is the Mediterranean Mecca for long lines of camels streaming in from depths of desert spaces, bringing ivory and gold dust, ostrich feathers and gums, wax and tanned leather, sometimes mats and henna, and using three or four months or longer for their deliberate progress. Returning probably before the year is out, .....and, carrying in exchange Manchester prints, tea and sugar, …. etc”

For centuries Tripoli was the principal accessible route to the Kingdoms of Africa in Kanem,, Bornu and Bagirmi –Southeast and east of lake Chad, and north of Nigeria. The route that carried hundreds of caravans went through Ghadaames, Mizda, and the clustered oases of Fezzan.

Caravans going to Ouaddai from Benghazi took the rout of Jdabia, Oujila, Jialo, and Kufra oasis and then the long march to Ouaddai, then to the Sudan and the land of Fur (Darfur). While explorers traveled the Tripoli route easily, Benghazi-Ouaddai route was more perilous under the exclusive control of the Libyan tribes that guarded it very jealously. Kufra Oasis is probably the most isolated oasis of the entire Sahara, and the Kufra region is probably the most inaccessible region on the planet. Up to the end of the nineteenth century only two explorers arrived to Kufra, the first is the German Explorer Gerard Rohlfs in 1878-79, the second is the Arab Tunisian explorer Mohamed Ben Otman Al Hashaishi الشيخ محمد بن عثمان الحشائشى in 1896. The second European who arrived to Kufra -against his own will- was The French staff sergeant Laurent Lapierre commander of Logis in Chad who was imprisoned by Sanusi fighters in March 1916 and kept prisoner in Kufra until he was freed in April 1916.

But to think that there was a British lady, who attempted to discover Kufra in December 1920, accompanied by an Egyptian, nine gens d’armes, a female servant, three Bedouins and some camel men may sound really strange. However, Rosita Forbes really traveled this route wearing a dress of a Libyan lady and under the name of Khadija, as we see below from excerpts from “The journey is its own reward - By Cassandra Vivian”……

"Ahmed Hassanein was still a young clerk in the Ministry of the Interior when he met Rosita; his destiny as one of the most powerful men in Egypt was yet to come. It was Hassanein's dream to visit Kufra, a remote oasis in the Libyan desert and it wasn't long before his dream became Rosita's dream too.
It was left to Rosita to make arrangements for their desert journey. While flying between Italy and Egypt and gathering provisions, she learned Arabic, mastered the sextant and theodolite (to aid in desert navigation) and learned how to move, talk and act like a veiled woman. She called in all the chips her privileged position commanded and acquired a letter from the Emir Faisel addressed to Sayed Idris, head of the Sanusi tribe who controlled the oasis. She was not foolish enough to imagine her feminine wiles won her such a trophy. She sums up her victory:
"They liked Hassanein Bey, but they admired and believed in Britain. They wanted us to secure them from Italy. If a British alliance was impossible, they hoped for an Egyptian one."

That hope was Rosita's ticket to Kufra, but she was sure to cover all her bases. Ever the diplomat, she also secured a letter from Lord Rennell to the Italian governor of Cyrenaica, in Libya.
And so, Rosita Forbes and Ahmed Hassanein headed for Libya in the winter of 1920. As far as they knew, Kufra was a cluster of oases deep in the Libyan desert whose people were highly antagonistic toward strangers. There was no guarantee that the protection of the Sanusi would do them any good. The only European who had been to Kufra before them was the German explorer Gerhard Rohlfs in 1878-79 and he had a hard time of it. Reading Rohlfs might have made the journey easier for Rosita and her companion, for he had given the African Society the exact location of Kufra. However -- as was frequently the case between nations -- the British Royal Geographical Society (RGS) disputed the German explorer's claim. Rosita put her trust in the RGS. It almost cost her her life.
Kufra lay halfway between the Mediterranean and Waidai, on the last great caravan route from sub-Saharan Africa. From the Atlantic to the Nile, this trail was the last mystery of the old desert caravan routes. For over a century it was the Sanusi trade route. They had conquered Kufra, having wrested it from the "unbelievers" (the Kufara) and had moved their religious centre from Jaghbub Oasis to Kufra because of its strategic suitability. The oasis was carefully guarded, especially from Europeans, who had either taken control of, or destroyed, other famous desert routes.
By 1920, the Italians controlled Libya, but Rosita and Hassanein nevertheless had to go to the Sanusi leader Sayed Idris for permission to penetrate his desert trail. He granted it, but other Sanusi leaders were not so eager and it became increasingly clear that the journey might not happen at all. So Rosita and Ahmed stole away in the dead of night.
The journey was hell on earth. The two endured smothering sandstorms, passed by villages that turned them away, and were forced to walk for 16 and 17-hour stretches because their camels were sick. If the terrain was not inhospitable enough, they were fearful of their own caravan leaders. They were certain that one, Abdallah, was planning to murder them -- so sure, in fact, that they even considered doing away with him first.
At one point they were without water for ten days and their girbas (goatskins) were completely dry. "When we could hardly see or speak and were dragging our feet automatically across the sand, leaving blood or pus behind us, we came to a depression full of bones," Rosita wrote. "It was a ghastly place." Abdallah finally recognised the site as Al-Atash, which means "the thirst" -- whole caravans had lost themselves and died here, he said. "I lay down. My throat was parched and so stiff that I could not swallow ... Next morning, there was a damp mist. It saved our lives, for it relaxed our swollen throats and kept us from the last madness of thirst."
The worst was not over. They were robbed, imprisoned at Hawari and found an entire caravan dead in the dunes. In January, after nearly a month of travel, they arrived at Kufra, where they stayed for ten days in the small oasis and barely recuperated from their trek before heading back for Egypt.

Rosita wrote about the journey in her book The Secret of the Sahara: Kufara, which she dedicated to her travelling companion Ahmed Hassanein, and she was recognised with a fellowship from the Royal Geographical Society.”

Link: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/486/tr2.htm