Browse Resources

As background to the locations described in Hisham Matar's novel In the Country of Men readers can view and download a map of Libya by the United Nations Cartographic Section in pdf format.

Hisham Matar, author of In the Country of Men, was interviewed in 2007 by Nouri Gana of the University of California, Los Angeles about his childhood, contemporary literature, and his first novel. The interview is posted on Words Without Borders, a…

Libya is an oil-rich country that shares borders with Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, Chad, and Niger. Its population of more than 5 million is of mixed Arab-Berber ancestry, and an overwhelming majority of Libyans are Sunni Muslims. Historically,…

1911-1912 Italy seizes Libya from the Ottoman Empire. Sanussi leader Omar al-Mukhtar begins insurgency against Italian rule. 1931 Italians mount military response, imprison rebels in concentration camps, and execute…