The area was a major population and cultural center of the Libu, who repeatedly expanded west. The Nafusa Mountains shelters most of Libya's Berber-speaking population, who speak Nafusi Berber.
In the aftermath of the great Berber Revolt of the 8th century, Ibadi missionaries that had fled from the Umayyad Caliphate took refuge in the Nafusa Mountains. Preachers converted and organized the native Nafusa people into a fighting force. Under the leadership of Imam Abu al-Khattab al-Ma'afari, the Nafusa descended from the mountains and proceeded to conquer all of the crumbling Fihrid emirate of Ifriqiya - capturing Tripoli in 757 and Kairouan in 758. But the Abbasid Arab governor of Egypt invaded Ifriqya, defeated the Nafusa in a battle at Tawergha in 761 and put an end to their putative new state. However, the Nafusa mountains themselves remained unconquered. Throughout the 9th century, while the Aghlabids ruled in Ifriqiya, the Ibadi maintained an independent puritan republic in the Nafusa mountains. The Imamate of Nafusa was in close alliance with the other Ibadi remnant, the Rustamid dynasty in Tiaret, both constant thorns on either side of the Aghlabids, in communication with each other across the back highlands of North Africa. In 879, the Tulunids of Egypt invaded Aghlabid Ifriqya and captured Tripoli. But the Nafusa challenged and destroyed the Egyptian army in 880. Again the Nafusa victory was short-lived. In 896-97, the Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya recovered Tripolitana and defeated the Nafusa in a great battle at Manu. In the aftermath, citing them as heretics, Ibrahim II executed all the Nafusa prisoners and put an end to their independent imamate. Despite the destruction of their states, Ibadi Islam remained a strong faith among the Berbers of the Nafusa mountains for centuries after, down to the modern day. The lingering heterodoxy of the Nafusa people has placed them frequently at odds, or under suspicion, by the largely orthodox Sunni population of the rest of Libya.
This distinct culture, suppressed and oppressed by the Libyan regime, has risen to new prominence in the course of the Libyan Civil War, when their initiatives led to the Nafusa Mountains becoming a major front in that war. The terrain and topography of the region are critical strategic factors, constraining mechanised advances from the flat plain and plateau, and favouring guerrilla tactics based on close local knowledge and the advantage of high ground. By the end of June 2011 the Nafusi people had almost succeeded in liberating themselves completely from the control of the regime, and this progress seems likely to continue.
Geography
The Nafusa Mountains form the boundary between the Libyan coastal plain, known as the Jafara, to the north, and the Tripolitanian Plateau to the south. The beds of the Tripolitanian Plateau slope downwards to the south and tilt upwards towards the north creating the highest portion of the plateau as the Nafusa mountains which rise to over. The plateau ends abruptly on the north with an escarpment which has up to of topographic prominence. A series of deep valleys which drain north toward the Jefara cut into this escarpment. It extends about within Libya, from just east of the city of Gharyan in the east to the city of Wazzin at the Tunisian border in the west. Spurs and isolated upthrusts continue into Tunisia, but this region is almost unpopulated, in marked contrast to the situation in Libya. The mountain area is rarely more than in depth, from its southern boundary, the flat arid plateau some above sea level, to its northern limit on the plain, where the land falls to below. Much of the drop in level is accomplished abruptly, at the escarpment, where local topographic prominences may be up to. It is from below, on the plain, viewing the steep slopes and sharply-etched skyline that the area appears mountainous; from the plateau the land appears merely hilly, and in fact it is rather flat apart from the effects of differential erosion. Towns in the mountains include Gharyan, Yafran, Zintan, Albatross, Jadu, Kabaw, Al-Qawalish and Nalut, which have all been the sites of military action during the 2011 civil war. Since 2007, the mountains stretch across two districts: Jabal al Gharbi District and Nalut District.
Economy
The mountain villages raise primarily goats, olives and grain, but also have fig and apricot orchards.
The Nafusa Mountains became first a hotbed for anti-Gaddafi protests and then a rebel stronghold, an island of rebel control in the mainly Gaddafi-controlled western part of the country. During the early stages, forces allied to the national transitional government succeeded in evacuating most non-combatants into Tunisia; the Wazzin border crossing was captured and held to ensure supply lines from Tunisia; all the mountain towns were retaken; and the front extended to the plains, cutting regime communications lines and allowing electricity to be restored. They were the first rebel combatants to be supplied with arms by air-drop. In the course of the civil war, many towns in the area were subjected to shelling by artillery and rockets from both sides, with much damage to infrastructure. Regime forces cut off electricity and water supplies. Médecins Sans Frontières sent a team in Zintan to help the large number of wounded. Al Galaa was without electricity and water for seven weeks, and more than 45,000 refugees fled for safety to the adjoining Tunisian region of Tatouine, where many had relatives.
Cultural renaissance
As towns and villages in the Nafusa Mountains and surrounding areas were liberated from control by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in early summer 2011, and while fierce fighting continued, Berber exhibitions and workshops sprang up to share and spread the Tamazight culture and language, after four decades during which there were severe punishments for speaking and writing Tamazight openly.
